Over the winter I read a book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future, that recommended labyrinths. I later added the author, Daniel Pink, to Twitter to tell him I took him up on his advice but he didn’t write back. That’s okay; what I didn’t write to him on Twitter was that the book was only so-so.
A few months ago I did a guided labyrinth meditation in downtown Calgary. [Turns out, Calgary actually has a few labyrinths.] It was very interesting. Many elements were reminiscent of my meditation night class continuing education course, and of yoga.
In the interests of brevity here’s the jist: You can begin your labyrinth walk with a question or idea. You walk into the centre of the labyrinth in a slow purposeful way thinking all the things you want to lay down [in relation to the idea or question], things you want to get rid of, not have, get taken away. Once in the centre of the labyrinth, it’s the opposite: you pause, for as long as neccesary, thinking of things you’d ideally receive, get, attain [again, in relation to the main idea]. Then the walk back out: a general reflection on the whole experience and how it all relates, a re-entry back to the world.
…Not a bad way to frame thoughts. I did the walk twice: first, thinking in very general terms; then second, thinking more towards school/career/classroom-type stuff.
This brings me to yesterday.
I’d meant to get back to the labyrinth to try the whole experience on my own. Just like anything, it took me longer to get back than I thought it would. Yesterday, I thought to myself, I should go to this labyrinth thing and really think about grad school. It’s been on my mind non-stop but I’ve never really given myself time to really think about how I feel about this whole thing.
I decide to go in the morning. Stampede Parade morning. Ug. It becomes a labyrinth getting there, with constant thought as to which underpasses and +15’s will get me across everything and through every crowd effectively. I get there. It’s closed. Downtown is too busy. I feel dumb for trying but then have a thought. Why don’t I just do my own walk and frame things the same way. I don’t need this whole labyrinth prop. I can use, oh, the real-world.
So I do. I set my parameters quickly: I’ll walk the length of Prince’s Island Park with the whole let-go stuff. I’ll pause at the bridge that connects the island to the path at the opposite end for the what-it’s-going-to-take stuff. I’ll walk the remainder of the riverside path for the how-it-all-connects piece.
Voila. A huge success! AND I now have a ready-to-take-anywhere walking meditation. In fact, the whole experience was really positive. …and because it was such an existential type effort, I can’t help but wonder if I was mean to try the labyrinth at a time that it was inaccessible SO THAT, I’d give it all a go in the way that I did. Hmmmm…. maybe a bit to egocentric. BUT, a great morning and great reflection is never a bad result!
I’ll do both (actual labyrinth and do it yourself labyrinth) again, I’m sure. It’s nice knowing I have both options.
Now if only this stinkin’ elbow would get better…. and I could do the yoga thing.