Meditation in it's most basic form is just an exercise to help you become aware of what you're thinking, and learning to mindfully let that shit go - even just for the duration of the meditation. Monks and all kinds of clergy have been doing some form of meditation for probably as long as humans have been around. Recently, studies have shown that through practicing meditation and mindfulness you actually build your brain tissue in the areas responsible for memory as well as logic/reason and emotional regulation. So science proved that this thing we've been doing forever does actually do something pretty neat. No wonder we as a species keep doing it.
So what I wanna say is you're not hippie woo woo for meditating because the tibetan monks and even the druids n shit got there way before the hippies got patchouli oil all over it.
I guess I feel like there's a large gap between traditional meditation and mindfulness, where the first is more like mind emptiness.
Dissolution of ego by radically different paths.
I have to confess that I spent a chunk of the afternoon reading about and watching videos about forest bathing. What is it, what do you do out there, what the typical "session" looks like. I get how people can gain value from it. Looks like something that would go great with mushrooms, tbh. "Split up, go find a piece of bark, and really look at it. Reflect on how it protects the tree while the tree supports it. The tree and the bark work together, and both of them are doing their best. Later we're going to meet back up and drink tea and talk about the relationship between the tree and the bark, and how despite neither being perfect, they're both doing what they need to do right now."
I know people who hunt ducks where that experience brings them into a very mindful state. "It's like you're part of everything."
I know people who hike the PCT or AT get into a deep state of meditation. Whether it's being present or being absent, I can't say.
I know that the Rosary is a practice of reflecting on one thing with the hopes of aligning with the divine.
And then there are practices that invite other powers into your body.
To bring this back to Kev,
GONNA GET HAUNTED IN MY NEW AMHOLE.