Sit With Us by Bill Wofford
Don’t just do something. Sit there.
If your upbringing was anything like mine, you might have heard these same words a time or two, but probably arranged a bit differently and meaning the exact opposite. I’m not sure who deserves the credit for this twist on that classic nugget of parental wisdom. Sylvia Boorstein? Thich Naht Hanh? Regardless, the invitation to be still stands in stark contrast to central tenets of mainstream American culture which push us to want more, buy more, work more, do more. More, more, more. And in some ways, that tenet works. GDP is up. Productivity is up. The stock market has hit a lot of highs in the last year. And how about well being, health and happiness? Hmm. These may be harder to measure (unless you happen to live in Bhutan and track the Gross National Happiness Index), but I think we can agree that there is plenty of room for improvement.
Well, what if I let you in on a little secret? There’s this thing that reduces feelings of stress and anxiety, helps with sleep, improves focus and may even spark creativity and enhance athletic performance. Oh, and support spiritual development if that is your thing. No, I’m not talking about Clark Stanley’s famous Snake Oil Liniment, Professor Mack’s Miracle Elixir of Life or a new superfood or cure-all supplement. Nor are we talking about a radical life re-set involving a strict regimen of diet and exercise. Nope, this prescription is one dose of meditation every day for forty days.
That sounds too good to be true, you reply. Maybe, but experts from all major wisdom traditions (including modern western science), who don’t agree on much, agree on this. Mindfulness and other meditation practices have exploded in popularity in the West not because they got a new publicist or mastered the art of TikToking (is that a thing?), but because a rapidly expanding body of research shows benefits such as reduction in heart rate and blood pressure, reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol, reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and reduction in age-related memory loss, among others. If practiced consistently, the studies show, the stuff works. Of course, our brothers and sisters from the East have known and taught for centuries that meditation is a cornerstone for sustaining expanded states of consciousness, fostering spiritual growth, and deepening self-awareness. So too with Judeo-Christian faiths. Meister Eckhart, writing of the deep meditative state, observed: “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”
But I’ve tried meditating and I can’t do it, you protest. Actually, you can! And if you practice regularly, you can expect your practice to get stronger.
OK, but why forty days? Because that is what it takes to form a new habit. In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that some of the studies referenced above involved 8 weeks of meditation. 40 days? 56? The rest of 2025? Don’t sweat the numbers. Just get started and see how it goes.
Ready to get started? Or dive deeper? Come join us in the studio this Saturday at 3pm for our first monthly meditation workshop to kickstart your new practice.
And if that doesn’t work for your schedule? Well, you might follow the counsel of Thomas Aquinas who wrote, “if you cannot meditate at one time upon all things, then you should meditate at another time.” For instance, all are warmly invited to join the new, free meditation circles facilitated by our friends from Sacred Path Community every weekday at 6:30am and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 (Google meet: http://meet.google.com/voj-hvae-odr).
