After watching Dr. Jeffrey Martin’s video sharing the various styles of meditations and hearing him say that after 40 minutes of meditation a shift happens, I decided to try a one-hour meditation. There were several people in my house late last night – some watching ball games and others in other parts of the house. Sitting on the front porch would make me a mosquito magnet.

So I decided to meditate in my office chair. My office probably is not the most ideal location since that’s my work space, but I figured I was going to close my eyes anyway, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

I started out with breathing in/out and noticing the sensation of the air in my nose as I breathed. Then, I settled into a mantra of “Rejoice Evermore.” I’ve had some neck tension so as I meditated I rotated my neck in circular motions and let it stretch — like I do when I’m doing yoga.

My intention was to let the meditation and the mantra sink into my neck and relax it. If I felt discomfort, I’d hold my neck in that spot that was tense and let it stay there until the muscles relaxed. Then, I’d continue the neck rotation. All the while I repeated the “Rejoice Evermore” mantra in my mind… kind of pouring the mantra into my neck.

Toward the end, I stopped the neck rotating/stretching and just relaxed. I started dropping the mantra into my mind and letting it go and see where it went. Eventually, the mantra melted into the background and my mind went still.

Results of My First 1-Hour Meditation

After the hour was up, I felt the urge to go to the piano and play. Below you’ll find the musical piece. The beginning isn’t that great but it quickly goes into something pretty, I think. Most of all I was able to relax, play and let go of some of the techniques I’ve been learning. I’ve been sort of stopped-up musically lately and this seemed to loosen things up significantly.

Sometimes I learn new techniques and get boxed into them. After meditating I was able to go back to more free flow. While some of the techniques I’ve learned integrated seamlessly into the piece, they weren’t controlling or dominating the song…. if that makes any sense.

The meditation seems to have helped in a way I hadn’t expected. My neck still sounds a bit like Rice Crispies in milk when I rotate it, but the pain left and is still gone today.

• Note: being in my office close to my computer monitor made it easy to check the time on the computer clock. I could peer with half-closed eyes to note the time. Next time, I’m going to get away from any clocks.

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