How is my meditation practice?

How is my meditation practice?  Where would I be without it?

    OR In where I ask myself questions about the value of my meditation practice.  

My friend and I were talking on the phone(1) when she simply asked me "how is your meditation going"?

I paused for a moment.  Took stock.

I realized that even that pause, itself was an interruption of the "monkey mind".  That I was checking in at all was good.

Where was I as a practitioner and coach?  How was I responding and using my concentration, sensory clarity and Equanimity to work with this present moment?

"Good" I say.  "Important.  Essential during these days."

"I'm really thankful I've had a daily formal practice for years now as a householder."

"I can actually see the way my thinking has changed over years of practice.  It's been a rich journey."

"It reinforces my desire to share it"

I then told her this story - 

Just outside my window were two people walking.  I'd never seen them before, and then with concentration, clarity and equanimity I said this - "May you be safe.  May you be healthy.  May you be happy.  May you be at ease.".  I said it again to the other person "May you be safe.  May you be healthy.  May you be happy.  May you be at ease."

That is a meditation called a "micro-hit" a meditation period of less than 10 minutes where you do a specific technique.  This particular one falls into the nurture positive quadrant and is specifically the "feel good" technique. 

I'm practicing regularly throughout the day with these little "micro-hits".  Checking in with my See/Hear/Feel regularly.  It's a good practice in general to space out little moments to "check in" with yourself.  Even if that's sitting at a red light, waiting for your computer to start, or when you go to the bathroom.  Every brief moment helps-  Duration, Intensity, frequency are the 3 levers or accelerators in learning meditation skills.

I also recently learned that my son is using his meditation skills in the Marines, and is able to help other Marines to skillfully work with their breathing (and racing mind) as well.  Having a mind that is trained is as important as a body that is trained.

So now after my brief delay in writing this blog I return to preparing for my AFN Mindfulness 101 session.

Note- 

1 - still feels totally natural to my 80's-90s sense of feel in this video heavy world)