As someone who has struggled with a lifelong penchant for getting lost in anxious ruminations and rigid self-expectations, my intermittent meditation habit was a way to practice momentarily releasing the desperate grip of control I usually maintained.
After enough profound moments of tuning into the present moment, I knew on an intellectual level that a regular meditation practice would help me. That’s when it struck me—maybe community is what I needed to overcome my blockage and cultivate a regular meditation habit.
The Modern-Day Minimization of Community
Many of us, especially in the U.S., are conditioned to value rugged individualism since before we can even understand what that means. We are tasked from an impressionable age with enacting our will on the world around us to crush our hyper-individualized goals and come out on top of whatever we set out to do, all on our own.
Although the optimistic go-getter in me loves the ambitious element of this make-it-happen manifesto, it’s no secret that it’s also contributed to an ongoing loneliness epidemic and societal void of deeper meaning, especially as we find ourselves isolated and staring at screens in our own individual worlds.
But the simultaneous magic of this individualized and now digitized world is that we have more agency than ever before to seek out meaningful connections with like-minded people, no matter where in the world they are.
Trying an Online Meditation Group
As I began brainstorming how I could seek a community as interested in making meditation part of daily life as I was, I wasn’t sure that any of my many supportive relationships would want to join me in this commitment. The commonalities we found prevented any awkwardness that otherwise could’ve arisen from three strangers convening online.
We’ve now been meditating together for three months, Monday to Friday, on a Discord voice call. My self-confidence and perception of what is possible have greatly improved.
Being part of a meditation group again, even though it’s virtual, has given me the push I needed to stay accountable for showing up for myself every day of this ongoing journey towards greater awareness.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Enrique Salmerón @_enrique
This image by Brazilian artist Genildo Ronchi came to mind when picturing the transformation that meditating consistently has encouraged in me.
It’s also unexpectedly become the social outlet I didn’t know I needed. The experience has reminded me how deeply we all need each other, not only not to be alone but to share profound truths and discoveries about our shared experience of existing on this planet.
