Soul Vibrations-My Intro to Meditation

Tonight our lecture was focused on meditation and hosted by a beautiful being, Yoga Dave. Meditation is a fairly new practice for me, that I didn't think I knew much about or how to get to that 'point'. However, meditation can be found in anything you do-breathing, washing dishes, dancing, listening to music, dreaming, walking, swimming, kissing, prayer, surfing, hiking, staring at the ocean, into the fire, up at the clouds...or sitting on your sit bones with your legs crossed and your palms facing up or down. You can even lie down and do it. Pretty much you can meditate many different ways, but make sure that posture is in check and you are comfortable where you are because you want to be free of pain so that your body can focus on just being. Before this class I thought you had to take special classes to know how to meditate, that you needed specific tools to reach this certain feeling of 'enlightenment'. I come to find out all you need is your breath, an open mind, and an effort to silence those scurrying thoughts. However if your mind wanders than that's alright! Just come back into stillness when allowed. Meditation is different for everyone but I feel the main focus is to escape the busy, stimulating, advertising driven, stress-filled, traffic jam of an outside world and find the inner world that resides well, inside of you. A world of peace, silence, love, compassion. A connection between the mind (that crazy spinning, super intelligent, complex mind of ours) and our heart. Be ZEN. Which means the act of nothingness, the most direct experience to reality, to not label anything and have no pre-conceived notions of what things already are. For each breath in and out create a new experience. Things are moving so fast in this world. So fast. How do we escape the craziness? What do we do so that we are not engulfed by this 'society' and we don't go insane? Ideally camping trips, hiking adventures, nature getaways is where I need to go for a few days here and there, but since my life is so busy at the moment then I need a more constant practice so that I may stay grounded and light. Through meditation I hope to achieve a constant flow of beautiful and positive energy that allows me to navigate freely into the world. Fear of uncertainties arise but nothing in this life is guaranteed. We are our own destiny. As I prepared for my meditation tonight, legs crossed, sit bones grounded into my block, hands cupped in my lap forming a little window with my thumbs, eyes closed, Ujjayi breath in...out, forming that oceanic sound-I heard people chattering outside, the room was hot, sweat dripping down my face, neck, chest, I focused on counting to ten first breath in 1, first breath out 1 and did so until I reached 10. If I lost my count I went back to 1 As I let the thoughts run away from my mind swirls of caramels and blacks rippled in their place. I was thinking nothing, just focused on my breath...then a huge whirling sucking sound appeared...ahhh what is THIS?? It was a vaccuum, they were cleaning outside. 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4...I dove right back into my focus. I like this, this sanctuary of nothingness. Dave said a beautiful thing about becoming a yoga teacher in that we have the opportunity to change many peoples lives by sharing the knowledge of what we learn and passing it on and within each of us we hold the power to do so...share the positive vibrations each and every day. Namaste.