English
After a tough week at work with some difficult news, I was looking forward to starting my four days of TM training with Guenael. Our original plan was to start before Christmas, but because of my crazy work schedule, it didn’t really work out. Now it felt as if this is how it was supposed to be all along, to start the new year with some new beginnings, looking for some balance.
We’d scheduled the first two lessons for Saturday and Sunday afternoons. That gave me time to explore the Vevey Saturday market in the morning. Even there new beginnings were popping up, Spring was on the way. As a Finn, I don’t really understand new green growth already in February but I definitively wasn’t complaining. 🙂
My first lesson was a nice experience. Mediation is completely new for me, I’ve never done anything like it, but Guenael did a great job of explaining it all. He seems to answer my questions before I even ask them, but I guess that is what decades of experience looks like. 🙂
Guenael showed me the basics of TM and for a short time we meditated together. As long as Guenael was with me I seemed to be on track, but when he left me to meditate on my own, by brain was again all over the place. It seemed to only work well under supervision. 🙂
After my solo trial we discussed the experience, and me being me, I was of course analysing every little thing, but Guenael had an answer to all my questions. Even my wandering brain was nothing new to him, just part of the process.
Sunday morning I meditated the first time at home and I didn’t let my brain bother me, knowing it was just doing what it’s supposed to do.
A Sunday tradition I have is taking a walk in Lavaux. Walking has always been a way to relax and empty my brain and it seems to work well together with meditation. I immediately got into the flow of walking, I was a bit calmer already from the beginning, no big brain twisters to solve. Also, in Lavaux, I found some more new beginnings.
My second lesson started with going through my morning meditation and the whole process, to make sure I was doing everything right. After just two proper meditations I can’t really see any definite improvements, but I’ll keep at it. We ended our second lesson with a short group meditation, Guenael’s lovely wife Helen (who makes fabulous chocolate 🙂 ) joined us.
Weekday morning’s meditation seemed to be a bit tricky for me. I was getting ready for work and before I left, I meditated for twenty min. Unfortunately, my brain was already at work, I kept thinking about work things instead of meditating. But this too was nothing that Guenael hadn’t seen before. 🙂
The third lesson gave me more insight into the mechanisms of mediation and how stress is relieved. During our short group meditation I ended up having a good idea for work so I had some difficulty going back to meditation, I just wanted to start working on my idea. 🙂
The fourth and final lesson taught me more about deeper meditation and really showed me that I’m only in the beginning.
With the four lessons and four days of meditating twice daily behind me, I’m still happy that I accepted the possibility to start meditating. I haven’t yet seen any specific changes or results but I wasn’t expecting any major revelations after just four days. Meditating is a nice experience and just relaxing and calming down twice a day is already a good thing. I’ll keep practicing and see where the road takes me.
Satu Kankaansyrjä
Learn more about the benefits of the Transcendental Meditation technique at an introductory talk with a certified TM teacher.
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