Meditation

I went to my first meditation class on Thursday this week. The hotel where we're having our wedding reception gave us a free, three-month gym membership and they offer a few classes, including a meditation class. Given how awful I've been feeling, I decided it couldn't hurt to go along and try it.

There were only about eight or nine of us there - the other people were really lovely, and since the teacher was a bit late the others welcomed me and gave me the lowdown whilst we were waiting. I was a bit worried that the class would be very new-agey, but my fear was completely unfounded. It was very relaxing and calming. We did some slow, gentle movements, then it was time for deep meditation. We could opt to sit on a chair or lie down - I opted for the chair as that's what most people  did and I had no idea what to expect! We were asked to close our eyes, completely relax our bodies then concentrate on our breathing. As is wont to happen, thoughts kept drifting into my mind, but every so often the teacher would calmly instruct us to push away any thoughts and concentrate on our breathing again. She had a very gentle voice, that wasn't at all disturbing. I think I nearly fell asleep about ten times during the half hour that we were in deep meditation!

It was definitely a little bit weird, but I think I'll go back next week. Aside from anything, I think it will be really good to continue learning to empty my mind and not think about things. I'm hoping that with practice, I'll be able to do it as and when I have a particularly stressful moment just to relieve the worst of it. It's hard to say how effective it is after just one session, but I did sleep well that night and I didn't have terrible stomach aches the day after. The lack of stomach aches could also be attributed to the fact that it was the end of the week though, and perhaps mentally I was winding down to the weekend. In any case, it seems to be an avenue worth pursuing and fingers crossed, it will have some results.