The Shawl
A “tool” of a meditation practice is wearing a shawl. What are meditation tools, and why are they helpful?
I have a shawl a dear friend and teacher gifted me. I wear it when I practice at home and it’s light enough to put in my backpack or suitcase too.
Using my shawl, I build a relationship of positive association in my brain with it. Thus, whether I wrap it around me to practice at the beach or in a hotel room, I immediately feel a connection to the stillness and nourishment which comes from the energy of my consistent practice. This supports me in creating my space of peace whether traffic is roaring past or the wind is blowing loudly!
Another tool is lighting a candle, again, as the candle sparks to life, a familiar feeling of peace and curiosity arrives and I get excited about what gifts today’s meditation will bring.
These tools prime my mind for a positive experience. They strengthen the neural pathways in my brain, so that I habitually want to return to my practice each day as my brain predicts this positive experience.
Even the days where I have twitched, wiggled and fidgeted my way through meditation, I still feel a sense of contentment. I understand at a level deeper than my mind that this habit is good for me and enriches my life. The relationship of trust in myself grows, as my accountability to myself grows. This happens by consistently doing what I say I will do. This cannot be undervalued. It creates a strong and durable foundation for positive health and well-being as I respect and value this commitment to myself.
There are actually many tools we can employ and skills we can learn, to optimise our meditation practice. Movement to release tension from the body. Relaxation to settle the energy within the body and mind. Sitting correctly to align the spine. This may mean sitting in a chair. All sitting positions are modifiable to the individual. Breathing techniques. Practices to focus and steady the mind.
If you feel as though your mind is “too busy” or “you can’t sit still” you are not alone! Meditation is a skill that when supported by practical techniques under the guidance of a trained teacher, can become a very enjoyable, rewarding experience. One that your future self will thank you for!
Meditation regularly practiced can actually, studies show, reset our happiness set point. Because our brain is not fixed or “hard wired” we can transform and overcome stubborn negative thinking and behaviours. We can learn to opt for a different response because of the plasticity of our brains. Dru et al, 2024.
We can actually build contentment within ourselves for our life as it is. This means that no matter what happens to us in life we can choose to feel contentment. This is NOT false positivity where we deny our reality, our difficult experiences, emotions and behaviours and those of others.
What it is, is the ability to choose to acknowledge these very human experiences and choose to let go of them with patience and compassion. This is not “easy” it is a practice and like any practice we tend to, we develop skill. We can learn to create opportunities out of challenge.
Regular meditation is cumulative and builds an inner resilience to sit with ourselves as we travel through our life, the ups, downs, sorrows and joys, the pain and the blessings. As humans we build and array of coping mechanisms in response to our life, often simply trying to protect ourselves from pain or prolong happiness.We often want to flee from pain and hang tightly on to comfort.
Because many of us are not taught to understand or even have awareness of the multitude of emotions and thoughts we experience on a daily basis, we can end up feeling lost, confused, isolated, overly self-critical, anxious, agitated and unsure about who we are.
With meditation we come to understand the nature of the mind, and in turn the nature of our individual patterns. We understand that as a human we share many characteristics with other humans in the nature of mind. Then, that our particular mind has quirks and unique composition.
Why is this helpful?
We have something called a negativity bias built into our minds function. Essentially it’s an ancient survival mechanism developed many thousands of years ago to keep us alive! There were predators surrounding us daily and if we did not act fast and aggressively, we would more than likely perish.
Fast forward to our present day. Our brains have advanced, particularly in the frontal cortex area. Our “thinking” brain, our ability to reason, to empathise, to be “self-aware” has come a long way.
Back in our amygdala, the most ancient part of our brain, we can still get hijacked by fear. For fear is useful to keep us alive! It’s not a malfunction, it’s a mechanism that serves us well. However, it does not need to control our lives. When we meditate, the potential is, we can dissolve these reactive behaviour patterns (more on that in future blogs) built up over years. We can update our inner software and this is what neuroplasticity is.
Therefore if we sit long enough (by that I mean, if we practice again and again to build a habit of witnessing our thoughts and emotions) we will start to come to understand what our common thought patterns are. This is useful because it can alert us to specific situations which tend to cause us anxiety/stress. It offers us data on how how in turn, we react to these stressors. This means we can reduce inner turmoil, confusion and overwhelm. We can learn how to self soothe by regulating our nervous system before we become overstimulated, stressed and react unconsciously. This is a relationship game-changer!
We actually learn to override the amygdala impulses with resilience, patience and compassion. We can choose differently and act differently. This is empowering as we become less reactive and more creative. Yes, we are THAT powerful!
I offer one to one bespoke sessions to teach easy to learn meditation skills, tools and techniques. Look out for beginner courses. I also offer drop in classes for anyone, no experience necesssary.
Author - Rebecca Foster, Nurture Soul
