Many people think of meditation as a process by which one can reach the ultimate Zen calm; a state of being in which stress and anxiety simply do not play a role.
However, the goal of meditation is not to obtain an empty mind, or to not feel the stresses and challenges of day-to-day life. According to yoga and meditation instructor Jill Davey, the role of meditation is to recognize and acknowledge these feelings and see how they come and go, gently redirecting our attention to the body and the present moment.
“People often come and they say, ‘I want to clear my mind, my mind is just so busy, so fast, and there’s no peace. I can’t get a break,’” says Davey. “So they want some way to turn it off, to have a break, but it’s not really what we want—we want the mind to be able to figure things out, to remember things, to plan things, especially in university. It’s what we’re here for, to enjoy the things that the mind can do and create.”
Meditation practice can help individuals to become more attuned to their feelings to prevent the accumulation of small stresses and negative emotions, and can provide an outlet for stress management techniques such as focus on the breath.
Davey explains, “The main form that is the anchor, the centrepiece, is mindfulness of breathing, feeling the body breathing. It’s always available and shows us the present moment.”
This semester, Davey collaborated with Gryphlife to offer an eight-week beginner’s meditation class on campus at the University of Guelph. The course will be running again in the winter semester, beginning on Jan. 27, 2016, and the course fee covers printing posters to distribute on campus as well as Davey’s mileage. Her instruction is given voluntarily and students donate to support the teacher, which she explains is part of a larger tradition in meditation. Matt McQueen, a University of Guelph student, signed up for the class to help manage general stress.
“I wouldn’t say that every day I’m more focused or anything like that, but it’s helping to just be happy with where I’m at and not beat myself up too much,” he reflects. For McQueen, meditation is different than what he expected. “I’ve probably meditated three or four times a week, for the last seven to eight weeks, so I would have imagined being further along in progression,” he says. “What I thought I might be accomplishing in my meditations, it’s a lot different—I would say that the way my mind is working and dealing with daily interactions has not changed, but my awareness has gotten more attuned.” Davey first got into meditation as an add-on to yoga. “We would do things to help to calm and concentrate our attention on a candle flame, a mantra, or an image, but [it was] quite different than the practice of Vipassana or insight meditation.” She recalls that meditation didn’t click for her until a pivotal ten-day retreat. “Ever since then I’ve been really studying ardently, and found teachers who mentored me to teach. It was a super strenuous retreat but I learned a lot about myself because of what it brought up. I learned a lot that basically has kept me on this path.”
The turning point of the retreat for Davey came with a realization about a stressful situation in her life. “You know when something happens and you get really caught in the story of it and you just keep going over it and over it, and it just gets bigger and bigger in your mind? Normally I would try to get rid of that feeling or eat some junk, or watch something distracting, or talk to a friend, go for a run, whatever—all the different ways we use to cope, but because of the form of having to stay there and just deal with it I realized that it was just me, causing myself a lot of extra stress and pain.”
Davey credits this experience as opening her up to more insight, and says that helps her stick with her meditation practice. “There is more awareness of what I’m doing, how I’m adding to situations and how I can learn not to do that.”
One of the practices Davey has taught over the eight-week course has been Metta. She explains Metta as loving kindness or friendliness, and believes that it is an important companion to other meditation practices such as Vipassana.
For McQueen, the Metta practice has been useful. “I think it helps a lot. I would love to practice it more,” he says, acknowledging that freeing himself from self-criticism has been a difficult part of the learning process.
“Most people come to want to learn meditation because there’s some stress in their life,” Davey explains. “I think that’s what brings people, they’re looking for some ease and peace and freedom from that constant buzz of stress. Or people not sleeping, I hear that over and over again, no matter what age of student.”
She continues, “These teachings are based on the teachings of the Buddha, and that’s what the Buddha said he taught: it’s called dukkha, which means stress, discontent, loss, all these different variations. So he said, I teach about dukkha and the ending of dukkha, you could say stress and the ending of stress.”
“For me, it’s about more than just finding some moments of calm,” says Davey. She says that once you are more mindful and more aware as a result of meditating, that spills over into other areas of your life and allows you to be more present overall.
There are numerous research studies about the benefits of meditation to memory, attention control, knowledge retention, and overall wellbeing.
“Anybody can do it, there’s a lot of different ways.” McQueen says, “Even if you don’t see a benefit, it’s hard to find any downside to setting aside a few minutes and taking in reality without a lens, without judgment.”