Mild Mindfulness

I went to a free lesson of Sahaja Yoga Meditation last night with my friend Ash. It was my first official meditation class, even though I have tried both yoga and meditation before. The forty five minutes we were there were interesting to say the least!

I left the apartment twenty minutes to six. The meditation was not going to start until half past seven, but Ash was leaving work at six and thought we could meet up earlier. I got on the train that would take me to her station, Tai Seng. It was a half an hour long ride for me and by the time I jumped off at her station I had a little motion sickness. The train moved very fast. Ash was, quite the opposite to me, very energised and laughed a lot. We talked about coffee and it became clear she had had one recently.

We went with the train one more station to MacPherson to arrive at the building we were going to meditate in. More than an hour was left to kill so we decided to find a place to have a something to drink. The building was called AZ building and we went around it twice to find a place that sold drinks or food. We found none and entered the building only to find a dictionary with mostly offices. I found one that said Villains. No idea what that was all about, but we asked for any directions to a place to eat and one man pointed us to the third floor. In the garage that smelled like a garage would do was a small breakfast place. We sat down, shared a S$3 sandwich and had a drink each while Ash learned some Swedish from Duolingo.


At seven thirty we were outside the room where we were supposed to be. Three men stood talking and invited us to sit down at the chairs aligned by the wall. We took of our shoes and sat down. It started with a few minutes of small talk where Ash and I mostly listened how people heard about the place and why they were interested. When everyone was there it was a small class of perhaps seven or eight people, including us. The man started speaking about the seven chakras, seen in the image, and went on and on about how it will effect you. How, for example, thinking too much of the past will disrupt your left side and may cause liver problems. He had a solution though - put an ice-pack on it. It did not seem to make any sense and I had great difficulties in believing him, but I have not tried so I can not say for sure.

There was also talk about the spiritual ways of meditation, none of it made any kind of sense. When we sat in meditation, eyes closed, body relaxed, palms up, we were instructed to put on hand on the lower abdomen. Then we would ask for ourselves, not out loud, for Mother Earth to grant us creativity. It sounded like bullshit, but if it is true then I am already screwed! I have IBS and I am an aspiring author. Asking my belly to... wait no. Asking Mother Earth to grant me creativity through my belly will result in poorly written books about poop. There was not a lot of that odd spiritual stuff, but enough to give me discomfort.

You may have laughed after reading that and so did I after we left the lesson, but I would like to say something positive as well. Relaxing was a great effort in the beginning but I did get there and it felt nice. My mind was busy focusing on my breathing and listening to his soothing voice so I felt quite at peace a few moments while meditating. He told us the goal was to get a few seconds of absolute thoughtlessness. I believe I had several of those seconds, not finding it too hard to achieve. Even though this lesson was not for me, I will try to meditate in my own way at home. I think it will be good for me. I think meditation and stretching will be a great combination!

In conclusion - do try meditation before you judge it. Try it more than once.

This is not meditation.