What is Meditation?

Meditation is a method for synchronizing body and mind in the present moment. When our body and mind are in sync, we are naturally relaxed, alert, open, and aware.

What does it mean to “synchronize body and mind”? For a moment or two, right now, pay close attention to the feeling of the rising and falling of your belly with each in-breath and out-breath. You will notice that when you pay attention in this way, even after just a few moments, your mind and body start tracking together, and everything in you starts to calm down, relax, and open.

Most of the time, our minds and bodies are not in sync. Our minds are like broken record players, going over the same habitual thoughts again and again. Our bodies are often ignored; sensations of pain and pleasure alike are “run over” by the speed and busyness of our lives. The experience for most of us in any given moment is that we are stuck in our heads, ignoring our bodies, and living one step removed from our immediate situation.

When we slow down and take time to synchronize body and mind, we experience ourselves and the world in a direct, unmediated way, without conceptual filters. It is this direct experience of the fullness, vitality, and splendour of life that is the gift of meditation.