A No-Squirm Way to Meditate

Here are some other ways you can immerse yourself in meditation:

• Just sit in silence. Have the silence around you be the focus. Notice the small things you hear that you’d otherwise miss. The hum of the fridge, the neighbor’s voices, cars driving by, an airplane in the distance, the birds.
• Speaking of birds...listen to them. First, you’ll likely hear more birds than you see with your eyes. Listen carefully, and you’ll start to pick up on their language. The call and response. The variations on a theme. Are different types of birds communicating with one another, or just with themselves? Get a bird song identification app to learn their names.
• Sit in the sun, close your eyes, and turn your face to the sun. Feel it on your skin. Notice the sun through your eyelids. Do you see colors and shapes? Notice how the smell of your skin changes when heated. Notice how you respond to the heat. Imagine yourself being softened by the sun and your concerns melting away.
• Dance or move your entire body freely. Let yourself sway and twirl, swing and dip. Try all of the movements you can think of — flowing, sharp, light, heavy, big, small. Don’t make it structured, like you’re trying to “do” a dance. Notice which parts of your body want to get involved, try something new, and let yourself get brought along for the ride.
• Give gratitude. It’s best to say your gratitude out loud. Look around and name all the things you are grateful for. Then think of all the things in your life that you can’t see that you appreciate. Next, think of everyone and everything in your past you are grateful for. And finally, give gratitude for what hasn't happened yet, but will. You could do all this in one meditative sitting, or focus on each one separately.
• Eat a piece of ripe fruit and experience every aspect of it, from taste and texture to sweetness and juiciness. Feel how it has soaked up the sun and is providing you with that beaming energy. Delight in its flavors and color and shape and nuances. Is it fuzzy, shiny, bright, dark, mottled, smooth? Think about how that ripe fruit came to be, from its start as a bud to a flower to a fruit...and how if left on its tree or plant or vine it would shrivel and turn to seed and start the cycle all over again. Marvel in this creation that you are now enjoying!
• Stretch your body. Pick one part or do the whole thing. Feel your muscles, joints, and tendons resist and release. Notice what each part feels like as you stretch it and then let it slacken again. Nudge your stretch a little bit further and see how that feels. Breathe warmth into places that feel especially tight. Notice how you feel when you’re all done.
• Stare at something as a focal point. Locate something you don’t have to strain to see and is slightly moving, like a candle or a tree or a body of water. Let everything around it and in the background fade away and notice the subtlety of movement, color changes, or shapes it takes on.
• Write. You can free write (whatever comes into your mind without judgment or editing), write your thoughts on a topic or theme, answer a question you’ve posed to yourself, or write to yourself as if you were someone else.
  I bet you can now think of a few more ways to meditate that will provide insights into your life.