Do you remember feeling different as a kid? Not just the aches in your joints or the way it took half as long to get over a hangover. I mean when you were really young, do you remember being absolutely absorbed in the pure sensation of a thing? Do you remember hours playing in the kitchen sink, just watching water flow? What about covering your hand in Elmer’s glue and peeling–slowly, to make sure you get it in one piece!–off your handprint?
Why did we do that stuff? Just because it felt good. We had the sense that we were really alive. Just to feel the world is enough to captivate us. I know you miss that feeling sometimes. I often do. Fortunately, I know of a way to revive it.
No, I’m not selling you cream or rejuvenation technology–not even an herb do I offer you! The sense of being alive does not need any external stimulus to manifest itself. All anyone needs to do to bring back this feeling is to meditate.
The most boring thing is to know what a thing is useful for. I could describe to you a glittering object, smooth and seamless. You might be interested until I tell you it’s a socket wrench.
“A socket wrench? Who cares!”
Once we know what a thing “is for,” we cease to take interest in it outside of its use.
Wonder comes from seeing a thing as it is. This is especially true with people. Once we look through the roles we have for people–waiter, teacher, soldier– we are able to see the wonder that is each smile they ever smiled marked in the wrinkles around their eyes. This, for itself, is enough!
Once we are able to cultivate this state of mind, nothing can take our happiness away from us. Thankfully, meditation washes concepts, roles and expectations out of our mind. It’s like water washing over a lens.
One of my favorite meditation techniques is to count my breaths. Breathe in: one. Breathe out: two. Odds in and evens out until ten, then again. At some point you will really witness just one breath as it is. That means you’ll see all of the small changes in your body as you breathe. You’ll see the way that everything is connected. Then you’ll realize that your mind has detached from thoughts of what was and what could be and focused on the present. Then..! Oh then you’ll know what it’s like to be a kid again.
Try it. You’ll be glad you did.
More meditation techniques and info coming soon!
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Photo by Tim Goedhart on Unsplash