A few days back in the comments, Elizabeth suggested I try meditation. I’m always up for trying things that may help, so I did.

Loved it.

My gym has meditation on Sunday afternoons. It was a class full of beginners, so the teacher cut down the 45 minute session to 30 minutes. She said that when you start, you should start slowly and build-up. Meditating can be hard.

The hardest part for me was my aching back. Sitting in good posture for half an hour left me sore. (That is so sad. I need to do better things for my body.)

I could have sat there in blissful silence for hours, I thought. Hours.

The teacher started talking about Buddhism. I’m not Buddhist, nor do I intend to become so. I’m too old to be taught a new religion, and my own suits me just fine. I guess my thoughts on religion are that they’re all good, but how you act outwardly matters most of all.

Anyway, I was raised and still am Catholic, and while there are some parts of the religion that bother me deeply (that women can’t be priests, the stance on birth control), I go with it. You could call me a cafeteria Catholic — I take what I believe to be Truth from the dogma, and scrap the rest.

Catholics meditate — in ways very similar to Buddhists. It’s just not well-known, even within the Catholic community.

Catholics practice something called Centering Prayer or Contemplative Prayer. Same idea as Buddhist meditation — you sit, empty your mind, and restore your connection with God. Of course the Catholics like to go into the whole Holy Spirit and Jesus bit, whereas the Buddhists don’t. But it’s the same idea. Emptying out yourself to make space for divinity.

Long story short, I liked meditating. Loved the suggestion (thank you!). And at least for today, am going to try to practice centering myself around the divine again.