Meditation vs Contemplation

Of course meditation is almost ubiquitous in wellbeing circles these days and stands as the cornerstone in many eyes to growth and self-enlightenment. And I agree, meditation has been and still is a vital part of my journey. It’s a wonderful skill to be able to sit in awareness for a brief moment - and also to realise that the nature of the brain makes these moments fleeting and most of the rest of our lives might be spent trying to get back to this space of gentle equilibrium.

Now of course there are many many different types of meditation and I am going to be over-generalising enormously when I say this, but overall I think the goal of meditation is to be able to see our thoughts and not let them affect us. And again that is totally noble and needed - however, I increasinlgy feel that there is a space missing in this equation. And I call this space contemplation.

What I mean by contemplation is the practice of actually sitting and being with something that is on our minds, rather than just meditating past it. Because it’s OK to have thoughts and feelings and worries and for me at least I find it can really help if I actively sit with those and work out where they are coming from, what might be going on underneath the surface and what I might be able to do right now to help move in a positive direction.

For me contemplation comes in various guises. My favourite is probably in the bath, candle on and with no other distractions, where I can really sink into what is alive for me. If I feel there is something really knawing at my psyche this is always where I will go to first to try and figure it out. Another nice place can be sleep - and again if something is up and I can’t quite work out what or how to deal with it, I might just have it on my mind as I get into bed; I find often times interesting things come through in sleep or dreams. Exercise can also be a good place to engage in some gentle contemplation with the added bonus of creating more positive energy as well, and all the better if we are able to throw in some nice nature connection as well through a little walk or run somewhere green. Those are just a few places where I find it really beneficial to grapple with stuff that is going on in my life, and it is by no means an exclusive list.

How does this land for you? What is your practice if there is something on your mind that you can’t quite get to grips with? Do you already have a contemplation practice and if so what does that look like? Or if not how does this idea land for you and is it something you might give a try in the coming days? As always I would love to hear about it in the comments.