Take a trip inside.

I'm a pursuer of experiences; any and all experiences, good, bad or otherwise are welcome because at the end of the experience there's always something gained. That being said, I decided that I would check out a meditation Meet Up group in my city. Meet ups is a pretty cool idea. It's basically a website where you can search for pretty much anything that interests you and find like minded individuals and share experiences focusing on those interests. I decided to venture into a meditation Meet up group. I can't say that I have officially meditated but I have zoned out and intentionally focused on myself ~ maybe that's meditating, I don't know, but I decided that I needed to delve deeper into myself ~ for self exploration and general grounding purposes.

I drove into the city to attend my first meditation group and as I entered the side door of the Minneapolis Center of Light, I'd have to say that my first thought was, " This could totally be some crack pot holding a fake "meet up" group in attempts at doing Lord knows what to the visitors." I quickly brushed that morbid thought out of my head and with the Viva la Vida mentality, I forged through the doors. Welcomed by the meditation guide, I sat in the appointed room. People of all walks of life entered into the room. No one really spoke to one another because no one knew one another but our intentions were all on same "need to meditate" playing field and that seemed to naturally unite all of us strangers.

I took a look around the room to catch the vibes of the participants and noticed a tom-boyish woman, an older gentleman, a seemingly suburban woman, an Asian businessman, myself, a young college girl drinking water out of a fermented cabbage jar, a woman with black hair ~ that's all that stood out to me~, and what seemed to be a potential drug addict. Again, perceptions are as they come but stereotypes and perceived notions of who these people were faded as I focused on the common goal of getting our meditation on.

As all of the strangers sat in a half moon circle, we were encouraged to get comfy, close our eyes and start the practice. The instructor guided us through "mindful" mediation. It consisted of us making aware ourselves within our bodies, paying attention to the curiosities of our breath, the sounds around us, the feel of our bodies in the chairs etc. We were guided into our minds where we were encouraged to see our thoughts from an outsiders perspective, letting them float past us while we watched our thoughts. That was no easy task for me. I had no idea what thoughts were supposed to look like from an outsiders point of view ~ it was a very abstract notion~ but I tried. As I took a look at my "thoughts" from an outside view, I saw visions of elderly men, birds, blobs of grey, trees and a variety of other indescribable images. Not sure what I was to make of those thoughts, I let them pass by and pretty much said, " Holy cow, Carmen, what is going on in your head?" and then quickly waited for the next one to pass by.

As we were all guided to a "normal" state of consciousness, I took a deep breath, wiggled my toes and opened my eyes only to feel as though I had been jolted from a deep sleep. We shared our experiences after the meditation. Some said that they had felt such a deep sense of relief and peace that their minds and bodies had yearned for whereas others felt as though they had only felt moments of "bliss". One gentleman equated his experience with not knowing what an orgasm is but knowing that it is something blissful and that he tasted only a portion of the bliss. I thought that was pretty far out there to throw out to a room of strangers but then again, it is what it is.  We all sat in our moments of thought, self-reflection and relaxation for a while then parted ways until the next Meet up meditation group.

As I walked out of the group, I had a crazy grin on my face. One that was unsure of where it came from or why it was happening but my heart felt fluttery like butterfly wings and my mind was comforted with the knowledge that I was able to take a trip into myself. I hopped into my car and laughed right out loud . . .by myself . . . then quickly followed the laugh with an out loud statement to myself, "What the heck?"As I laughed a little more, I congratulated myself on stepping outside of my comfort zone and putting myself into a new situation. In the spirit of Viva la Vida Travel, sometimes it's a worthwhile journey to venture into ourselves and see just how magnificent OUR world is in order to fully appreciate that which is around us.

Journey's are not always taken on an airplane or via train, sometimes the journey is via our own conscious effort.

Viva la Vida