Meditation in Everyday Life

Yesterday concluded my five week course "Meditation in Everyday Life" at the Vancouver Shambhala Center. I realized, as I was trudging there in the rain, that I hadn't blogged about it, or really talked about it with anybody in my "real" life. This gap between my sitting practice and spiritual life, and my everyday life seemed absurd (though when walking in freezing rain, life in general seems absurd), and I vowed to remedy that. This was reinforced when I finally arrived at the course and the question set to the discussion groups was "How (if at all) does meditation impact your everyday life?"

This is no easy question to answer, but it led to a very interesting discussion, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts about it. First off, yes, meditation does affect my everyday life, the effects of it are not restricted to the cushion. Over the last five weeks, I've tried to sit at least 10 minutes a day, everyday. It wasn't easy. But already, I have noticed many things have changed. Here are some of the changes and thoughts that I'd like to share:

Awareness: when I feel an emotion, there is more space: I don't simply react without thinking, sometimes there's a pause, and I notice: "I'm feeling sad" or "This makes me jealous" or "I am really just simply happy".

Mindfulness: I am where I am and doing what I am doing because of decisions that I made, not because I was dropped here by luck by some unseen force. This is so simple, and so obvious, but for some reason it was enough for me to accept that I'm doing my master's and not off traveling or saving the world. And now that I've accepted this, I'm content.

Space: Like with awareness, there is a new space around me. I don't need to react to others as strongly anymore. I realize now that if somebody is angry or upset, I don't need to internalize their emotions in order to be a good friend and human being. It usually doesn't help. I can observe the emotion, be empathic, and be a good listener (which also requires space) without getting carried away by the emotion as well. Working on this, it's really not that easy!

And voila! This is what I have been thinking about, learning, and striving for during the past month and a bit whenever I go to the Shambhala Center on Thursday evenings!