Pema Chodron - Daily Meditation + Art - A Little Science Behind the Meditation

For two weeks, I devoted 2 hours of my day to meditation and artwork. Now, I am not a professional artist in terms of drawing or painting. I am, however, trained in ballet and other styles of dance. I do like to draw. I started out practicing Zentangle a few years ago, and I like to do that as a hobby. I have been fortunate enough to have sold a few of my pieces, but that was when I was actively drawing at length every day. I pick it up when I need as another tool for anxiety. I was searching around for some guided meditation and I came across the work of Pema Chodron. I hadn't heard of her before this, and I literally just clicked on an audio book of hers and started to craft a self-guided daily meditation regiment following her series, "How To Meditate". Throughout this meditation journey I learned about Pema Chodron, her life, and her teachers. Pema is an American-born Buddhist nun and the fact that I stumbled upon her work and randomly selected it among my search results for beginners meditation to began my own practice speaks to the kismet of life. 

At this time in my life, I was experiencing an overwhelming amount of anxiety and knew I had to do something to bring myself back to center. After the first meditation, I felt like myself again. I was astonished. I was definitely not expecting immediate results. I was able to keep my brain in delta + theta waves long enough to calibrate and center myself. At least, that's the science behind it. I kept this up daily for two weeks to see if I had sustained results. I devoted 1-2 hours each day to mediation and drawing. This kept my brain in the right wave lengths to literally halt my anxiety. And the best part is, it stopped my intense anxiety on a long-term basis. Now, other stressors have popped up since then, and I will have to take a little time to bring myself back to center. What I do now are a lot of forest bathing / nature walks. I wrote a blog post about this here. This mindfulness practice helps to focus my brainwaves in the right pattern. This is not as intense as the sit-down, focused hours of meditation, so I like to call this a maintenance technique. During these walks, my mind wanders and I actively think about and sort through things that are on my to-do list. This is in stark contrast to the focus of sit-down meditation, where you are actively keeping your mind still and present. 

If you find yourself in a period of extreme anxiety, I invite you to search out some meditation from Pema Chodron and give it a try for a couple hours a day. I mean, you could easily spend two hours watching a TV show or a movie, so why not give it a shot? 

What has your experience with meditation been like? Did you notice results right away? If you decide to give this a try, did it help at all? Please let me know how your experience with this process has been!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my words. Your support means a great deal to me. 

Mindfully, 

~Amanda

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Amanda Vander Kelen, MA is a geographer/GIS Specialist and now blogger. She creates a work/life balance by using her creativity in both making maps and writing blogs. Taking a mindful approach to life, she hopes you can utilize her writing to help create a peaceful space of your own.
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