I have a confession to make. I have gotten more than a little bored of taking photographs of my meditation cushion and sharing these on Instagram. Always with good intentions (to encourage you to meditate) but not very inspired or enlightening!
Some mornings I would finish my practice and think .. I’d love to share something to connect with YOU and make this post encouraging .. only to resort to a photo of my cushion – again. Looking very much like … a cushion.
And then an occasional photo of me meditating with my eyes closed (delightful), looking I suspect suitably serene, possibly suggesting that something very profound was happened somewhere beneath the surface.
Which, sometimes of course, something profound may have been happening.
But, after more than 30 years of meditation, I realised that I actually need a refresh, a re-jig, on how I could share more about my practice .. more than “Hey, here I am, morning meditation again, on my cushion”
Then a couple of days ago, a bubble of an idea came to me after meditation .. and I decided to call – Voicenotes from the Cushion.
And this is one of the reasons that I love my morning meditation .. because of the wonderful surge of creativity. The ideas don’t always come while I am meditating, way more often it’s when I am out in the real world, taking a walk, or at the supermarket. In the early years I remember this was something unexpected, I certainly hadn’t started meditating because I thought it would make me more creative; I was simply interested in finding some calm and peace from my teenager years.
But, gradually I began to notice that there seemed to be more room in my mind. A little less noise, a little less mental clutter, and somehow more space for things to arise. And strange ideas would appear that I hadn’t been consciously thinking about. Connections would suddenly make sense. I’d find myself thinking about something in a completely different way, or reaching for my notebook because an idea had arrived that I didn’t want to lose.
It felt a little as though meditation had opened up a funnel to a fresher, more spacious part of my mind.
I think this is one of the beautiful, and perhaps less talked-about, benefits of meditation. We aren’t necessarily trying to empty the mind or become perfectly calm and serene. We’re cultivating a little more space around whatever is already there.
And in that space, unexpected things can bubble up – a thought, an insight, a question, a creative idea. Sometimes even a solution to something that has been quietly rattling around in the background. And this is one of the things I love about meditation: you never quite know what might emerge when you stop trying so hard to make something happen.
So, rather than another static photograph of my cushion, or another picture of me with my eyes closed, I thought I’d start sharing some of these little observations from the practice itself.
Voicenotes from the Cushion
Little notes from a life of practice – things I notice, learn, question or discover along the way that feel worth sharing.
Some will be about meditation. Some about breath, or Qigong, or the curious relationship between mind and body. Some may be things I’m still figuring out myself. There is no timetable, I’ll simply share when something catches my attention and feels worth passing on.
After all these years, I’m still discovering things when I sit down on that cushion.
So perhaps it’s time you heard a little more about what actually happens there.
And yes, the cushion itself will probably still make the occasional appearance.
We’ve been together a long time.
xx Sarah
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