Think of one word.
Focus.
Focus…
My mind races.
Other thoughts enter,
I cannot
do-
Forgive yourself.
Try again.
Try again…
Will I ever be
Able to do this?
I cannot
reach-
Transcendence requires patience.
Don’t rush.
Don’t rush…
There’s no way
To empty my mind.
I must give
up.
For today, perhaps.
Come back.
Come back…
This post was inspired by Jade Wong’s World of Words prompt this week, shanta, which is a Bengali word meaning calm and peaceful. This reminded me of when I tried to learn to meditate and how reaching any sort of calm was so hard. Patience, young grasshopper, patience!
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Oh, I love how you did the text! The way it looks reminds me of breathing in then releasing a long, slow breath. And again.
Oh yay! That’s what I was going for! Thank you!
Imagine your mind as an empty space, and every time you realise you are thinking… shoo it away and start again.
Easier is to focus on something, something that doesn’t spark questions. The flame on a candle is good. Or the smoke rising from a josh stick. Which is okay until you realise who beautiful the forms and you’ve just got to capture it and there begins a year of chasing perfection in pastels and acrylics, and charcoal…
When I studied meditative prayer at Sunday School last year, we went through several methods to do it. The one I liked best was from “The Cloud of Unknowing,” wherein you focus on a single word. But yeah, a flame on a candle was one way, images another, and for some reason the word was easiest for me.
We’re all different… although technically speaking we’re not. Safer to say we fall into several categories (in this instance) and different techniques suit different categories
True!
🙂
It sounds so familiar when I tried to focus to pray, HRR.
But I did experience a couple times of meditation that lift my ‘spirit’ to ‘heaven.’ I didn’t want to come back, but I was interrupted!
I’ve tried some meditative prayers, and I’ve at least gotten to a point where I can feel peaceful. I believe it does work, but I’ve got to put forth a lot more effort before I can get to that next level!
I probably have to go to a cave to do that again!! I’m too aware of the environment right now.
I really like the format of the poem here, the way it looks and reads like a conversation, like one side is calming down the panicking other side and I think it’s a great way to demonstrate how we find our inner peace. Thank you for participating again! I’ve shared on IG again 🙂
Thanks! Glad it was pleasant.
I never have much success in the mind clearing department either. I guess some of us are just built for thought.
It gets easier as you continue to try, though – but I think some people are naturally better at it.
There are so many different breathing techniques. I get distracted too. One thing I read somewhere was instead of trying to count to 100 (sheep for sleep) just count to 8 repeatedly – if you go past 8 and catch yourself – stop and start again.
Take full breaths and focus on breathing. One routine is to breath in the count of four, hold for 4, then release for 4.
I’ve been trying to ‘breath up’ – filling my lungs, depressing my abdomen while taking in air. Trying to hold my breath for longer … just to do. I can go about 2 minutes. The show I was watching the record was I think 12 or 16 minutes. But that’s without moving or exerting any other action – like swimming underwater.
12 or 16 minutes is ridiculously long. That’s got to be a lot of practice.