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The first time I sat on a cushion and meditated was in a hotel banquet hall in Massachusetts when I attended a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course. Everyone was drinking hot tea and speaking in their quiet voices and I was convinced I was in for some voodoo-level shit.
How easy it is to make myself an outsider.
Convinced I didn't know anything and thinking every person attending the program knew secret ways of meditating, I sat on the small red cushions in a way that looked like everyone else. Within 10 minutes, my feet had fallen asleep and my back was hurting.
Then, I noticed some people were sitting in chairs, some were kneeling with a cushion between their legs, some had one cushion, some had three cushions, and some were just straight-up lying on their backs looking like they were sleeping.
There is no correct way to sit in order to meditate.
Once you let go of looking a certain way, you can get comfortable and focus on the part of meditation that is actually important - i.e., the mental part.
The video above is from the course I taught a few years ago (all videos found here) where I awkwardly explain a few options for setting up for meditation. Seriously, the way I stare at the teleprompter is terrifying.
Watch the video and let me know if you have other ways of meditating that work for you.
Be well,
Catherine