I grew up on a the tropical island of Hawaii (or Hawai'i). That would be the large one. And no, it's not Oahu, like most people think, and Honolulu isn't there either. The Big Island of Hawaii is the largest, not most populated and hardly developed compared to Oahu. The more popular side of the island, especially in tourism is Kona, or Kona side. Filled with golf courses, large white sand beaches and littered with every kind of resort from harbor to Kailua and beyond. That side of the island is known for being dry and windy, almost desert like. Instead of sand, we had lava rock. This is also the side where an Ironman is held every year. I grew up on Puna side, or Hilo side. Puna was the district and Hilo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilo,_Hawaii) was the largest city in the district. Hilo was hit by a Tsunami in 1946 and 1960, destroying the small and wonderful city a few times. That slows down development a little. I grew up in an even smaller town. I lived in the tropical part of the tropical district of the tropical island. It rained... a lot.
We've established that I am a water sign, have an affinity towards water, well, I'm going to hit that nail a little harder. I love storms. I love the rain. (It's common for me to bathe in the jacuzzi outside during a storm. LA is scheduled for rain today and possibly tomorrow. That is where I will be should the precipitation start.) As a kid, I used to bike ride in the rains that turned roads into rivers. I love the sound and feeling of rain.
Today, I used an iPhone application called Brainwave Power Nap (http://appshopper.com/healthcare-fitness/power-nap). They uses audio signals and wave patterns to induce various levels of R.E.M. cycles for efficient napping. But, they also include ambient soundtracks including Rain and Thunder! Perfect. I've used this application several times for actually napping and it usually works wonderfully... if I can hold still with earbuds in while I'm trying to sleep... The cool thing is that the app allows you to control the volume level of the ambient noise and the brainwave (that sends you into R.E.M.). Since I do not want to nap and need to concentrate, I turned the brainwave off completely. I set the timer to 30 minutes with an alarm and a back up alarm on my phone. It might take me a few minutes to settle and slip into a session but at least with this much time, I'll hit my 20 minute goal.
I had a few things in my head going into this meditation. I have been suffering an ankle injury for a while. Being that I do not have strong ankles and that I have a very active and aggressive lifestyle, I need my injuries to recover. Also, I'm short on time. I was headed to Crossfit (http://www.valleycrossfit.com/) almost immediately after my meditation. Crossfit is extremely intense and I was worried about how my ankle would handle having over a week away from any exercise. But, I do know that training will strength that weakness and hopefully prevent such injuries in the future. My goal was to seek a calm in my anxious state. I also wanted to set my mind to ask my body to heal itself, perhaps faster than what would be considered normal for my age and injury. Thinking about the old Guru that was able to meditate nutrients into his body, maybe it would work for an amateur, focused on advanced healing techniques, at much shorter intervals... Well, I can always dream.
This was a fantastic session. I am keeping the specificity of my mental journey to myself as I heard and felt exactly what I needed to find peace in that half hour. I hope, if you are taking a similar journey or dedication as I am that you will experience the same inner-encouragement. I felt myself drift out of the meditation 30 seconds before my alarm went off, to my satisfaction. I slowly re-established the connection to my body, feeling my fingers and toes first and stretching out so that every part of me was ready to face my intense work out.
The work out was a success (to a point). I did not finish. Although, I was in a class above my skill level and I enjoyed pushing myself to try. Even capable endurance is no match for experience, in my opinion. I had a great work out. I pushed myself as hard as was responsible for me to do.
In short, meditation allowed for concentration for physical success. That's a win.
Today's session was approximately 28 minutes.
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