X is for X-tra

X is for X-tra.

Today,  I am going to share some X-tra  insight.  I was going to use the post for P and somehow I didn't.    I struggle with meditation. These days sitting  and quieting my mind-is difficult.   My thyroid is hyper right now-when this happens-I am accused of having ADD.   I am fine, when my thyroid levels are my normal.  Stress usually throws me off track and last month, when my son was seriously ill-I knew it would likely alter my levels.  It did.

   My doctor is from India, so I asked him a lot of questions-about meditation.  It all started the day I wore my prayer beads.  He asked me, "Do you meditate?"   Of course I mentioned-I tried.     My daughter gave me the beads-as a gift.  She tries to meditate and we discussed how these beads are like rosary beads and prayers.  My doctor explained to me-that meditation is a process-which takes time.  You are unfolding the layers of the mind and releasing  thoughts. When he said this-I thought of the petals of a flower opening.  

 Thoughts are like a bouquet of balloons.  

Open your mind and watch your thoughts like balloons.  Notice the orbs of colors floating towards the sky, upward  into the wind until they are out of sight.  You don't grab the balloons-thoughts, you just note they are there.    Release these ideas-which loop into your stream of consciousness.  

You will get better the more you try and it will change your world.

  

(Now, I am seeing Pop-up Videos-do you remember that show on VH1?!)

Yes, observe your thoughts, like rainbow colored balloons-try not to grab the balloons' strings.  

 *Illustrator, Nicoletta Ceccoli

Yes, this is what I feel like, when I try to meditate. 

I know  what you are thinking:  feathers n' poo.

*Nicoletta Ceccoli, Illustrator

"Happiness needs no accessories, for it is in itself omnipotent.  It takes hold in the heart, builds its nest, and brings forth its own birds to sing for you." -Mary Brooks Picken

My daughter shared a  meditation-she read about.  You simply count pebbles or beads.  She had read about monks doing this while concentrating on acts of kindness.   

She told me to breathe in and out as I counted the pebbles or beads to help tune out my outer world.   She reminded me when my thoughts start to wander like clouds-to concentrate on my breath. 

My Prayer beads.

You could do this with buttons, shells, even dried beans. 
I would love to hear if you try this and see what happens.  The first

time I did-I used a tin full of vintage buttons.

Family memories big and small tucked between Irish pennants. It was peaceful and distracted me.