Journey to Meditation

Acupuncture Chick – Your Expert on Chinese Medicine and All Things Health

Jessica Tatieze, LAc

Awwww, meditation. Those who do it love it; those who don’t do it think it’s some weird woowoo stuff. But as a gal who used to fear it due to a lack of understanding it, I can tell you first hand that you can learn to love it and it can be a vital part of your daily life. When I began as a student at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM), I noticed I had to take a class called Qigong. I thought this will be fun, I’m awesome at learning new things so I’m sure I’ll be great at it. J Then I looked up what it was and I realized it’s a form of meditation which means I would be expected to ‘still my mind.’ Now this was scary stuff because being the type of person who was constantly thinking, the idea of actually trying to stop thinking sounded ridiculous. Fortunately, what I learned in that first Qigong class from Roger Lore was that there are many different forms of meditation, including practices with movement, visualization, and auditory guidance.

The most ironic part of my fear of meditation was that I found out that I had actually used meditation quite a bit in the past. When I started middle school sports, my mom taught me something she had used as a gymnast – visualization. Every night as I fell asleep and before every game I would relax, focus, and visualize every skill and play I needed to know and do. I once told a group of younger athletes that I would have felt completely unfocused and scared to step onto the court for any sport without doing my visualization, and I believe that my athletic efforts would have turned out differently without that routine. While this wasn't exactly a practice of 'stilling my mind,' it was a good start.

Realizing that I actually had experience in meditation may have given me confidence, but it didn’t change the fact that I had a mind that liked to go go go with so many ideas! I found that I did better with guided meditation, so that was a great bridge as I headed toward other forms. My second year at OCOM my Qigong class was led by world renowned Qigong master, Master Liu He. While she completely amazed me and I enjoyed my time in class, I still wasn’t in love with meditation and it was hard to turn my brain off knowing that the next class I went to that day expected me to have a zillion things memorized for a test! But I kept going to class, kept learning One Thousand Hands Buddha, and gradually my mind became more and more still.

I also found it amazing that the relaxation my body could feel through meditation was unlike anything else, as if what I thought was relaxed before actually wasn’t! This relaxation and mind stillness that I started to love, this was mediation! I was doing it, and it was really AWESOME! It turns out, I get much better and clearer ideas in this stillness than when my brain is spinning so fast with thoughts…who would’ve thought?! Now days I often recommend meditation to patients, and I try not to giggle when a majority of them say, “Oh I tried it and I can’t do it, my mind races too fast.” I tell them to keep at it because over time even the most zooming of minds can learn to be still—I know from experience!

Please, if you haven’t tried some form of meditation, do! I promise you will learn to love it too, and it can do amazing things for your health and your life! Need help getting started, just e-mail me and I can point you in the right direction! http://www.jessicatatieze.com/Contact-Us.html

 

 

“Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme joy in the end.” Swami Sivananda