Thursday, April 24, 2008

Fun Dipping into my Quiet Place

I have this book on writing, and it says that one great way to fire up your creative juices is to meditate for at least ten minutes each night. It sounds pretty easy, just ten minutes.

Relax and close your eyes. Imagine a pleasant place - a lakeside or a mountain glen. Imagine the feel of the wind, the look of the white clouds against the vivid blue of the sky, the scent of the water and grass and sand, the sigh of the wind in nearby trees, the feel of your body relaxing, letting go. If some more logical thought comes along from your left hemisphere, just watch it drift across your mind and go out again. Relax, enjoy, see, taste, feel, hear and smell things in your quiet place of escape, and drift.

Note to self: you must relax and do this. You are blocked creatively. Picture the beach in the Bahamas you went to after that year of homeschooling. God, that really sucked, the homeschooling. Stop, left brain! Out you go, logical thought. Okay, focus on the sand, the warm soft grainy sand. Yeah. It feels so nice under my feet. Kind of like the powder in those Fun Dip packs. Oooh, Fun Dip. I used to con my cousin out of her share of Fun Dip all the time. I feel bad about that. I need to call my cousin. Ohmyhell her daughter's birthday is coming up. STOP. Okay, relax and let it gooo. I hear the wind, the sighing wind. And I smell the chicken roasting behind the grove of palm trees. That jerk chicken. I am so hungry. Why can't I just cut out the five pounds from my belly that I need to lose and be done with it? Shhhh. I feel the warm waves gently lapping against me as I float on the current, the gentle rhythm of my breath as I inhale and exhale through the snorkel tube. I am at one with the sea. There is that big fish again, the one I wanted to photograph so the girls could see the giant colored fish - this whole place is like Finding Nemo. I am swimming after the fish, still relaxing. It's getting away, so I swim faster. I will get a picture of the fish. Oh, good! The fish has stopped! And turned and faced me. Excellent! Getting ready to take picture of the fish...ohmygod is it? It is. The fish is coming after me! It is chasing me! I am going to die from multiple bites from the giant colored fish. They will find my body tomorrow in the lagoon. Come to think of it, why wasn't I more careful when considering this whole snorkeling thing in the first place? There could be sharks here. Everywhere. I am swimming as fast as I can. I will live! I will see another day and never snorkel again! And I am breathing....letting the thoughts drift through...maybe I should just blog. The writing will come later.

11 comments:

Bogart said...

Exactly why meditation does not work for me.

Memarie Lane said...

I've been dying for some Fun Dip lately and haven't been able to find it anywhere.

My brother suggested to me a similar exercise, and as an example he explained his fantasy of helicopter flying. So I tried it, but all I could think about was helicopters and helicopters just don't do anything for me.

crazymumma said...

I have tried meditating.

Its pretty funny to watch actually.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

This would be why I cannot sleep.

Audubon Ron said...

I dozed off after the first paragraph. For some reason I’ve got this urge to quack like a duck. Hey, did you put subliminals in that message?

Anonymous said...

They tried guided meditation on us at childbirthing class, "Imagine yourself on a dock, walking out to a sailboat, going on a quiet, romantic cruise," my husband's boat was in shark-infested waters, in a storm I think, my pier was covered in bird poop and had rusty nails sticking out. Still, it got my mind off of the baby thing for a few minutes.

Jan said...

No, no, no. Meditation in motion is much more effective. Try Tai Chi or QiGung.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like me trying to fall back to sleep after I wake up in the stinkin' middle of the night every night. What is with that?!?

Joanie said...

When I first started meditating, all I could think about was sex and/or food. A good meditation cd (with music) helps me a lot.
Also - I hereby completely absolve you of any guilt with respect to the Fun Dip candy.

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't meditate. My brain will NOT SHUT UP!!

Anonymous said...

What you resist, persists. Meditation(as we know it)does not work because it requires resistence, for God knows how long (time), for God knows how much (effort), and only God knows if you will even achieve your desired results (risk). I call it WAITING, WILLPOWER, and WAVERING Syndrome.