Well, I was trying to find some hope for my natural stress on that meditation practise, but it was not my thing. Then someone told me that meditation could be much more than staying in a rigid position, with our eyes closed and thinking of nothing. We could be dancing, washing our dishes or even relaxing before falling asleep.

On 31 March, I virtually met Sara Khan, she is a meditation guide based in Porto, who also confirmed that opinion. In fact, washing dishes could really be a way to achieve a really good state of joy. It depends on how we do things. “You can think it is a boring job to do or you can think wow, this is going to be the best washing dishes ever, it depends on you. How you do it is up to you. You can choose to do it in grief or pain or not”, said Sara.

According to Sara, meditation rules - that you have to sit in a specific posture, close your eyes and try not to think - are barriers. “I don’t want to follow any specific mediation doctrine or formularies. Specific formularies are not a bit rigid? Meditation can be everything – like I’m talking to you and I’m really enjoying it, I’m not thinking when it’s coming to the end of this conversation, so for me talking with you and engaging with you in this way, I love it because I’m in it”. So, be present.

“People have these very fixed ideas, you have to sit like this, you have to do it that way, you do this for five days, but these seem like torture for me”, she said laughing. So, meditation could be just a moment of joy and maybe one day you’re really not thinking about anything, but until then it’s great anyway.

“The practise of meditation is not about killing your thoughts, it is to try to not attach to the thought. The problem arrives when you start thinking about the thought”, she stated. An example, you’re meditating and then a thought comes – a friend of yours is coming tomorrow to dinner. Then, instead of letting this thought go away, you start thinking about the thought like: “What should I cook? Where am I going to buy food? What kind of wine? And then another thought... So the thought comes, and you just have let it go, don’t start thinking about it”, she explained.

According to Sara: “Meditation practise is a key to learning a language we have forgotten. The practise is not our ultimate state, it is a path. You could be practising and not be in this state of meditation but it does not mean that you will not get there tomorrow or in two seconds”.

Although she believes that a practise should not follow a pattern, she admits that group meditations could be more powerful, because “it just takes one person to elevate the rest of the room, it’s like me showing the best version of myself inspiring others to be the best version of them”, she told The Portugal News.

She also prefers not to charge for meditation sessions, which is a different concept. “I don’t charge for meditation sessions, I can’t because I believe meditation is our natural state of being, basically it is like you paying me to tell you that you’re Paula”. However, she doesn’t judge anyone who does “because people have to support themselves”, she admitted.

Sara Khan does not have a website, but she is more than happy to reply or to share meditations with those who ask for them. Any doubts please contact: saramar.khan@gmail.com

Author

Paula Martins is a fully qualified journalist, who finds writing a means of self-expression. She studied Journalism and Communication at University of Coimbra and recently Law in the Algarve. Press card: 8252

Paula Martins