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Uhm (not Ohm)

Last year I went to a meditation retreat with a friend.  Other than hairy armpits and the all angry hippies bitterly searching for peace it was really great.  I never thought that I could meditate.  Every time I tried to meditate I would start making a To Do list in my head, after a few seconds I would get up, get a pad of paper and start writing things down.  I started meditating a couple of times a week and had the best To Do lists ever.  They were color coded and had check boxes. My bliss only lasted so long before I decided that I should really try meditating and not what it turned into, quiet list making. 
Anyhow, I went to the retreat and I was able to meditate.  There was one meditation session that lasted about 20 minutes but it seemed like time stood still and only a few seconds passed.  (I was not asleep.)   Afterwards, I was more relaxed, had more energy and was able to focus so much easier than usual.  I need to continue meditating at home on the regular basis.  Ideally I would like to have a meditation corner that is set aside from everything else in my house.  The first problem is, where will I find this serene corner in my house?  I suppose if I put the laundry away it would open up some space. (A meditation chair would be great but I think I need to stick with it a while before I make a purchase.

Reconsidering how I approached meditation was helpful.  The first step was erasing the thought that I can't meditate.  "There's too much noise in my head that will not allow me to meditate." "It is boring."  But, it isn't like staring at a wall in a quiet room.  "I don't have the time."  Lack of time is my favorite excuse but, every single day I am able to carve enough time out to talk about things that really irritate me.  Maybe if I used that time to meditate, fewer things would irritate me, consequently, I would have less to complain about and more time to meditate, among other things. 

The replacement approach started with these thoughts:
-Let go of any "If only I...had, did, didn't, etc."
-Stop fighting the battle about what was supposed to have been.
-Everyone is a paradox. Full of contradictions. A hypocrite. Enjoy everyone including yourself. We are all God's creations.  All unique and special. (All and everyone includes me.)

To meditate, I sat down in a relaxed position and did the following:
-Relaxing my body from the top - down
-Feeling and hearing my breath, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth.  (Just doing this step and tuning other noises out was a giant step.  Obviously, I still heard what is going on around me, but I would reset and start over again, so it wouldn't become a major distraction.)

After settling in I would think about these thoughts or focus on these sounds:

"If you put a tablespoon of salt in a cup of water the water tastes salty.  If you put it in a lake you hardly taste any salt at all.  Make your mind and spirit so large and vast that everything becomes small.  Nothing will have an effect.  Peace."
or
"Breathing in I calm the body, breathing out I calm the mind."
or
Listening and concentrating on the sounds around me.  
(I have used a mediation bowl, a sound machine and music.)

Now, I just need start.  

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