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Rammurthi, Ph.D., is a Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor specializing in developmental issues, the treatment of anxiety and depression and a body-oriented approach to the problems of intimacy. Living and working in the Bay Area near San Francisco he manages to integrate meditation into a full-on schedule. Here's how....
6:00 A.M.
The clock is insisting it's time to get up and meditate, but the body is heavy and protesting the transition from cozy sleepiness to an upright posture with enforced awareness.
It is Brahmamahurtha, considered in the East to be "the divine time" — though any moment can be divine and a time to meditate as far as I can see — and it has a fine ring of silence and stillness.
I have found that meditation at this time sets a good tone for the day, so I hop on the pillow.
6:15 A.M.
I have just settled into a fairly alert but mellow state when the cat starts scratching at the door and wailing as if she hasn't eaten for a month. I immediately feed her knowing full well that if I don't it will lead to a post-meditation state imbued with meows for the rest of the day.
Shaking off annoyance, I return to the pillow and the challenge of witnessing dispassionately and not becoming engulfed by a heavily loaded, churning mind stream.
It certainly helps to count ten breaths, following the inhalation and exhalation closely. Simultaneously I am aware of the sound, location and flow of my breathing and the movements of my chest and belly. At the onset I make a clear decision to constantly return to the gaps between thoughts; otherwise I am simply sitting there thinking or dreaming.
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