A Rebels Road to Meditation

When you think of meditation, what kind of image comes to mind?

Hippies, ashrams, monks and swami’s?

As a rebel and activist, I had never considered Meditation. That was hippie shit, something people did dressed in white in ashrams. I was a questioner, activist, ass kicker, and heavy metal lover. Meditation, who the hell had time for that?

I didn’t know anyone who meditated. My free time was mostly spent in tattoo shops and at gigs. Not really the typical meditation crowd.

I had been attending Yoga classes, but it was purely physical to me at that point. I was clueless about the more mindful, inner aspects of Yoga. It just made me feel good.

When I started Yoga teacher training, I was introduced to Meditation. In my teacher training I had learned that the whole point of the physical poses was to create a body that was able to sit in meditation like meditation was the whole point so I was starting to feel like a hypocrite. 

I naively thought that Meditation would be easy. I’d just sit cross-legged, put my fingers in some fancy ass mudra, and Bam enlightenment, right?

Reality check! I couldn’t sit still, my mind was all over the place, and my back hurt. I was shocked, fuck, this was hard. Clearly, Meditation wasn’t for me, nope, I was way too intense for that shit.

Yet in the back of my mind, “learn to meditate” kept repeating. I wasn’t the type to give up easily (I was hard-core after all).

In my teacher training I had learned that the whole point of the physical poses was to create a body that was able to sit in meditation like meditation was the whole point.

Eventually, I found a teacher who could answer all my questions (I had a lot).

So I learned to meditate. In my first class, my teacher said, “everyone thinks during meditation it’s part of the human experience”.

Part of me was worried that all this Meditation would soften me up too much, that I would lose my edge. Can someone meditate, listen to heavy music, and get covered in ink? Yup, turns out you can.

So now I “sit” almost every day (I am a rebel after all) and It’s made a massive difference in my life, one I am truly grateful for.

My Meditation practice has given a tool to help with anxiety, improved my sleep, taught me how to respond instead of react in tough situations, and made me a kinder human.