For a long time, I’ve always wanted to learn to mediate and start improving my inner sense of calm. Multiple times in the past few months I’ve tried to follow some very straight forward guides from various Buddhist books I’ve been reading. They all mention to just sit down for 5-10 minutes, close your eyes, focus on your breathing and let your thoughts flow.
I couldn’t do it. Every time, after less then a minute I’d get up and just get on with what I was doing. Recently I mentioned this to a friend of mine and they recommended me an amazing application called Headspace, that teaches you meditation.
So, for the past 10 days, I’ve been mediating 10 minutes a day. Instead of having to find my own way, Andy Puddicombe, the founder, walks you through the exercises. It changed everything. It reminded me again, the art is not what to start, it’s how to get started.
All of the early lessons Andy uncovered in these 10 sessions were truly fascinating. They explain things in such easy and clear ways I was blown away.
The sky is always blue
One of Andy’s key messages, that absolutely stuck with me after the past 10 days is this simple line: The sky is always blue.
In the first few session Andy says it over and over again. “The sky is always blue, if you think about it, it really is.” And the sentence I’d attribute so little meaning at first, became incredibly alive all of a sudden.
No matter which time of day or year, the sky above us, is in fact always blue. Whether there are clouds, it’s raining, snowing or what have you. The, sky, after all things is still there behind it all, blue as ever.
Looking at this line now, it is probably one of the most comforting ones any one of us can read. Our minds, no matter how sad, cluttered, full of thought, excitement or loneliness they are – are in fact always happy and calm. It’s just that sometimes things get pushed in the way of the clear blue sky.
Andy continues and says this amazing line:
“Happiness is not something we have to create or achieve. It’s something that’s always there.”
Happiness, it’s there, ready for us to grasp when we are ready.
Kids smile 400 times a day
It’s one of the most inspiring TED talks I’ve seen by Ron Gutman, featuring these stunning results. Kids at age of just a few years old, smile on average 400 times a day. Adults on average only smile around 20 times.
It’s an amazing testimonial to the fact that no one needs to teach us how to smile. We always know and knew how to do it. We always know how to be happy and how that feels like.
It’s a though that really makes feel great, it means there is nothing to wait for until you achieve happiness, no long path to go down. It’s something you can very easily start doing today, or better yet start re-doing today.
Working on my daily happiness is one of the things I focus on as much as I can. Throughout the past few months, there were definitely some very interesting (re)discoveries to make.
How are you approaching a state of happiness? I’d love your thoughts on this.
photocredit: incurable_hippie