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Meditation: What's the point? with Erica Tait & Jordan Grinstein
Is there a point to meditation? Are there many points? Am I doing it right? Why would I want to sit and daydream for 15 minutes? I'm bored. I wonder what I'll eat for lunch. I wonder if I'll see that guy again. I miss my mom. My back hurts. What time is it? I'm thirsty. What is thirst? My mouth lets me know that it's dry and wants water. I'm in a body. This body will die some day. Everyone I love will die some day. What if I were to die right now? Maybe I am dead right now. Who am I? Why am I here?
If there's one thing I've learned after over a decade of meditating, it's that my mind can wander - sometimes to very interesting + profound places, other times to seemingly trivial and mundane places.
Until recently, I would have said that the point of meditation is to choose one thing to focus on, and every time the mind wanders, bring it back. If I'm meditating on my breath, then I notice when I'm not thinking about the breath, and I return my focus to my breath. But, after talking with Jordan Grinstein, Mindfulness Director at Shrewsbury Public Schools in Massachusetts, I started to question that notion. Jordan advocates for a much different orientation - one that trusts the mind's intelligence and allows thinking to be a part of the meditation.
A few weeks before we recorded this conversation, I attended a 10 day silent meditation course with my good friend, Erica Tait, licensed psychotherapist and co-owner of Quantum Psychotherapy Group in New Jersey (and she's completed 9 silent meditation courses, which, for any one who's attended one of these courses, it's no joke). For 10 days, we sat in silence, and practiced two forms of meditation that are very explicit about the central importance of bringing the mind back when it wanders.
So, when I met Jordan, I thought - oh there's a good conversation to be had. In this episode, I've brought Jordan and Erica together, to unpack their differing perspectives on meditation. I believe that disagreement has the great potential to lead to expansion, and I definitely left this conversation with new insights about my own meditation practice. So, whether you are brand new to meditation or a seasoned meditator, I trust that this episode will serve you well.
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By Haribo
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Is there a point to meditation? Are there many points? Am I doing it right? Why would I want to sit and daydream for 15 minutes? I'm bored. I wonder what I'll eat for lunch. I wonder if I'll see that guy again. I miss my mom. My back hurts. What time is it? I'm thirsty. What is thirst? My mouth lets me know that it's dry and wants water. I'm in a body. This body will die some day. Everyone I love will die some day. What if I were to die right now? Maybe I am dead right now. Who am I? Why am I here?
If there's one thing I've learned after over a decade of meditating, it's that my mind can wander - sometimes to very interesting + profound places, other times to seemingly trivial and mundane places.
Until recently, I would have said that the point of meditation is to choose one thing to focus on, and every time the mind wanders, bring it back. If I'm meditating on my breath, then I notice when I'm not thinking about the breath, and I return my focus to my breath. But, after talking with Jordan Grinstein, Mindfulness Director at Shrewsbury Public Schools in Massachusetts, I started to question that notion. Jordan advocates for a much different orientation - one that trusts the mind's intelligence and allows thinking to be a part of the meditation.
A few weeks before we recorded this conversation, I attended a 10 day silent meditation course with my good friend, Erica Tait, licensed psychotherapist and co-owner of Quantum Psychotherapy Group in New Jersey (and she's completed 9 silent meditation courses, which, for any one who's attended one of these courses, it's no joke). For 10 days, we sat in silence, and practiced two forms of meditation that are very explicit about the central importance of bringing the mind back when it wanders.
So, when I met Jordan, I thought - oh there's a good conversation to be had. In this episode, I've brought Jordan and Erica together, to unpack their differing perspectives on meditation. I believe that disagreement has the great potential to lead to expansion, and I definitely left this conversation with new insights about my own meditation practice. So, whether you are brand new to meditation or a seasoned meditator, I trust that this episode will serve you well.