What is Zen?
For me, My Zen is a peaceful state of mind and body, feeling of bliss, love and warmth. My Zen is where I have nothing in my head.
When I meditate I still have visions and feelings however when I experience Zen is when I have absolutely nothing on my mind. It’s that yummy state you are in, just AFTER the meditation, this is when I feel full emptiness. Unfortunately my Zen experience lasts only few minutes, but sometimes its enough to power me on for a whole day, to make me smile again.
The thing is I don’t have many hours to spare to properly practice meditation and to find my Zen but you can only imagine how powerful zen is, if only few minutes of peace can dramatically change my day/mood/energy. I am totally amazed how just few minutes of mind rest can provide you with strength. I am totally fascinated by how our mind and body has it all. We just need to find it. We have lost the connection with our bodies and we need to relearn everything we know.
How does it work?
Zen / Zazen is a kind of meditation where you only observe and let go of your thoughts, you watch them pass. I usually imagine my self-sitting on the river bank fishing. When any thought pops in to my mind, I catch it on my ‘’thought rod’’, I reel it to me, unhook it and throw it back into the water… my Zen is emptiness. Its so hard to let go of your thoughts/worry and it takes a lot of practice but when you get it, you get it and the reword is totally worth it.
Another step to achieve myself Zen is relaxation. Not just any relaxation but the one that you feel it in every muscle, when you feel like your body is floating or is so heavy that you are literally melting into the floor. Again its not often that I get to that state and stay in it for long. I am still a beginner. I try to meditate and practice Zen every day and I have only been doing it for just over a year, on my own. I am sure if I joined proper classes I would have achieved much more but again there is no time for me with two kiddies who needs attention. Plus with Covid19 in full swing I don’t think I will be meeting any people soon.
Where to start?
I started with youtube. Its free and if you are not sure about it, its a perfect place to start. I use mindfulness with Sara Reymond. I like her voice. But there is a lot of guided meditation for beginners, so you need to find what works for you. I started with sleep meditation – only because bed time was the only time I was free and it was the time I had intense panic attacks, so I needed to tackle my ”going to bed” problem. I would go to bed an hour earlier than usual and tried to learn how to meditate. I have learned the basics (follow your breath), and with time I tried other meditations for: clear the clutter, release fear and worry, self healing. All depended on my day and what my mind needed. It worked a treat for my sleep. Within a week I actually enjoyed going to bed, no I was exited! I started to listen to it at work, if I felt anxious. Just ten or fifteen minutes of meditation for anxiety and I was fine. Amazing, no?
Does it really works? For me, yes and from how popular videos are on youtube and from reading comments I see that it works for many. So why don’t we meditate? Why do we still chose drugs like sleeping pills or antidepressants pills over meditation? Is it really that much easier to just pop a pill? We all know pills don’t fix you, well they do for a bit, but they don’t fix the problem. They block the problem for a while and we know what ‘bottling up your feelings’ do to your mind… so why don’t we meditate?
I guess everyone IS different. Maybe I dont even realise how lucky I am to find my zen early enough, before the anxiety got out of control. Some people live in fear, in secret for so long that by the time they admit that they need help, they need to start with drugs because they are mentally exhausted have no more energy to fight? I had days like that, horrid! Or maybe its because this is what doctors suggest to us first, prescribe drugs first and see what happens? They dont have the time to work out what really is going on with our heads? Plus lets be honest, they dont care, they have their own problems and we cannot blame them for it.
I used to was scared of meditation. I thought that this stillness of my mind will bring on panic attack. To be honest it did sometimes but thanks to meditation, I was able with control to remove that horrible feeling from my body and mind. I remember my first healing meditation… my friend, I cried out loud. I couldn’t stop but my goodness how good I felt after. I obviously had some worries I needed to let go of… to this day I have no idea what was that all about. Maybe it was nothing to do with meditation… I don’t know but thanks to taking that time to meditate I was able to release a bit of pressure/stress. I often hear about people who go to their first yoga class that they end up crying… I say let it all out, out load just let it go!
I used to have no time for myself Zen, I was always busy, busy, busy… and then I broke. It’s a shame that I had to experience anxiety and depression to finally wake up. More I meditate more I find bliss, myselfzen. I highly recommend to everyone. You have absolutely nothing to lose. Just try and stick to it for a bit and you will see the changes within days. You will learn how amazing your body and mind is, and that you are so much more than you think you are. I only regret to find this path so late in my life, lets hope by the time I am sixty I will be able to fully understand and love myself, myself zen even more.
There still is hope for healthy mind life, for all of us. Nowadays kids are taught at school about yoga and breathing techniques. This is my eldest steps to relaxations she wrote when she was seven. I was so amazed with her work, thinking… she is only seven and already worked out what is good for her… I am 42 and only now learning about it. So hopefully now with practice she might actually never ever experience the horror of anxiety, panic and depression. If you are busy like me, get the kids involved too, let them see what you are doing and why. You can all have fun and even giggle. Remember it’s good for you, and it’s for for your body!
stress relief by seven year old 
stress relief by seven year old