Mis-operating

I started to brew coffee while I got dressed for work. I woke my son up. I started to write something on my to-do list. I started to pack what I needed for the day. My coffee! I took the percolator off the stove and poured. I still needed to finish getting dressed. What about my to-do list? My mind was all over the place.

Much like a computer, we fragment ourselves in use, in daily life. When we do, we don't operate to full capacity. We drag, we freeze, we don't recall information as quickly or easily, we grind, we sputter and make other weird noises. When our computers become slow and start to make extra sounds, it's time to defragment them. When we become this way, we need to defragment ourselves as well. We do this in meditation.

When we meditate, we physically affect our neural pathways, clear up space for new thoughts and reduce the production of stress hormones. All of this helps us get it together, defragment. Meditating helps us call to mind the information we need quicker, think in more intuitive and creative ways, stay calmer, learn easier and concentrate better. Moreover, we grunt less.

To defrag we follow specific steps in our computer systems. To meditate all we need is to sit still and be quiet for a few moments each day. There are other forms of meditation which work really well. Walking meditations are great for improving our problem-solving skills and to find solutions to situations we are puzzled by. Mantra meditations are great for centering ourselves. Other forms of meditation include Transcendental Meditation, Kundalini, Guided Visualization, Mindfulness and Zazen. Only you will know which form of meditation works best for you. What matters is our practice, our consistency, our commitment. After a while, meditation helps us operate better and achieve a feeling of wholeness, ease and calm.