Sitting meditation practice is perfect… if you need to practice sitting.

I've always marveled at the phrase "meditation practice."  Like, what is it that you're practicing for?

Mots people think of meditation practice as something they do to improve aspects of their life having nothing to do with meditation.

Can you think of the any other endeavor where to get better at this specific thing you want to improve, you practice doing something completely different?

Do you ever see violinists practicing golf? Of course not.  The practice violin. And golfers golf and physicists work on physics problems.

But the idea with meditation is if that you can leave your daily life and go sit in a corner somewhere and do this unusual thing with your mind — like try to focus your attention on your breathing or still your thoughts — that you'll be able to somehow carry that back into your regular life.

I know this might sound like it makes sense, especially if you've read books by meditation teachers.  Unfortunately, even if it does work, it's not the most efficient method.

And I have to be honest I'm not quite sure how well it works.

I say this because I've had lots of conversations with long-time meditators and meditation teachers who say things like, "I've been meditating for 40 years, but I still get angry when someone cuts me off in traffic, or when my husband says something unkind, or when my kids break something in the kitchen.  And I'm not really making much money, and I still have issues with my parents…"

And then they like to say, "But you should should see what I would be like if I didn't meditate."

Ummm… no thanks.

Some people try doing meditation while they're doing other activities in their life, thinking this is "practicing for living."  For example, they try to move slowly, or do one thing at a time, or pay very close attention to washing the dishes.

I'm going to suggest that this is also not a great way to practice for actual living, because in your actual life, it's a rare instance when you get to move slowly or do one thing at a time.

What I like to say is, maybe there's another way of meditating.  Maybe it's possible to find a form of meditation that doesn't require you to leave your life but is, in fact, a practice for your life. Maybe there is a form of practice that's about your actual life.

Actually, I like to say that I've found one. And that's why I recommend the Instant Advanced Meditation Course.

The practices in the Instant Advanced Meditation Course (the I AM Course) don't require you to leave your life to sit in a corner. Once you become familiar with them, you can do them anywhere, any time, under any situation.

Next Post: Meditation New York style

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