Cultivating Curiosity

A chronically congested nose can at times be our greatest teacher. After sniffling through the winter, I usually find my nose blocked by my springtime allergy. A few days ago on a sunny afternoon I found myself, strangely enough, able to breath freely. I was overtaken by childlike wonder of this feeling of just breathing, and stood there for the next 5 minutes exploring this strange sensation.

When was the last time you allowed yourself be carried away by this feeling of awe and wonder for everyday things?

Meditation as an Exercise in Wonder

The last time I remember myself experiencing something like this was towards the end of a ten-day meditation retreat I was attending a year ago. The first six days or so ranged from uncomfortable to agonizing, but then for some reason my mind settled into a, well, peaceful state of mind.

I remembering walking along the paths during the breaks and staring at just about everything I could find; the beetles, straws of grass, the blue sky, the starry sky, the mundane, and the genuinely beautiful. And everything felt like I was seeing it for the first time. That was the point when I became convinced about the benefits of meditation.

Happiness

Granted, maintaining that state of mind in the middle of our hectic lives might not be easy nor even practical, but perhaps there’s something to be learned here. Relaxing our views of the world, our “knowing”, we can meet the world anew and see it with fresh eyes. We all have our ways to unwind and relax physically, perhaps it’s time to learn how to do so mentally?

When I set out to Amsterdam at the end of September last year, I had the bold plan of powering through winter. The grand idea was that if I managed to get my gym practice, meditation, healthy eating, etc. in place during the winter time, then I’d have no trouble whatsoever keeping it up during spring and summer.

What Happened

While I did in fact get my meditation practice on track, I accomplished practically none of the other items on my list. Part of it was due to external conditions—no gym nearby—and part of it due to my own laziness. But a huge chunk of it was the effects of winter.

Coming from Finland I’m fairly used to temperatures below -20 C and 4 hours of sunlight, but that didn’t really prepare me for the Dutch winter; 5 months of rain, wind, and darkness. Maybe I was spoiled by my year in Malaysia, but I really felt down due to the weather, and not very inspired to to power through anything.

Going with the Seasons

In retrospect, perhaps this was for the better. The intensive inward quest of meditation seemed to be a very natural thing to concentrate on during the winter and now spring is calling me to open up the doors again.

I needed to travel halfway across the world to learn how to use winter as my time to retreat and reflect.