Paying To Be Bored

I just finished Day 15 of something quite new in my life and I thought I had better get some thoughts down about it and launch it into cyber space.

A few years back, Shoe and I heard a guy address Prayer & Meditation in a way that, quite candidly, left me feeling a little ashamed. He spoke of meditation as an absolute necessity. Mandatory! He kind of indicated that prayer is a waste of time, if one is unwilling to meditate. What a scandalous assertion!

Now, it's not like meditation had not been suggested to me before. The Denton Yogi had opined years ago that I might have the NEED for Yoga more than anyone she had ever encountered! I have NO idea how she arrived at that conclusion!

Anyway, within a few days of that guilt trip being piled on Shoe and me, I reached out to the Denton Yogi and she passed along a link to a website and said that she had no experience with this site; but maybe I should check it out.

So, I clicked on the link and signed up for a 10 Day Free Trial and jumped into the world of daily meditation. The results were astounding! It's all I wanted to talk about during those 10 days. I got immediate relief. I enjoyed it. Then, at the end of 10 days, the website asked for a credit card number, and my daily meditation practice came to an abrupt halt! I was simply not going to pay some former Tibetan Monk to guide me through a daily meditation. Don't be silly!

Two weeks ago today, I went to the website and entered my credit card number. The site forced me to do the same 10 Day introduction that I did a few years back. However, there was much more information available to me since I had joined the community and I am BLOWN away by the results (relief) I am getting!

I may or may not share the link or name the website in here some day. I am hesitant to be a "non-paid" spokesperson for this site. I mean, really. Since I've deactivated my FB account, there may be as many as 4 people read this post. But for me, a few things are already becoming crystal clear:

1) I can learn to do this. All my former attempts at meditation were pointless. My mind would RACE! "Meditate, meditate, meditate...Sex. Meditate, meditate, meditate...Bills. Meditate, meditate, meditate...Work.  Meditate, meditate, meditate...Squirrel!"

2) This Cat guiding me knows this and gives me permission to fail. However, he doesn't see it as failure. He sees it as normal. Just as my mind wanders, the next thing out of his mouth is, "At this point, your mind is probably wandering off. Just gently bring it back to the breath." WHO TOLD HIM?

3) Possibly for the second time in my life (the first being a few years back), for 10 minutes a day, I am completely PRESENT. I spoke of the "wreckage of the future" very early on in this Blog. I live there. I am NEVER right here, right now. This exercise is giving (teaching) me that skill.

Now that I've imbibed of the kool-aid on this Instructor, I've researched him in addition to his website. I watched a 90 Minute workshop online that he did for Google. During the Q&A, one of those Google intellectuals asked, "How do I keep from getting bored?"

In a kind, gentle way, without embarrassing the dude, the Instructor answered, "If you will just keep with the practice, you will eventually learn that boredom is the goal."

As you might have guessed, we are not done with this topic.