I’m sure a lot of you have seen dozens upon dozens of articles written about meditation in the past couple of years or so, dutifully explaining its techniques and health benefits. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super important to inform yourself as much as you can to make the best-educated decisions for yourself, especially when it comes to any practice or lifestyle that benefits your health. But It annoyed the crap out of me that there was such a saturation of information on meditation. Everyone was suddenly an expert or a guru, and it became a free-for-all for those that seek to capitalize on the next trend. As for myself, this over-saturation of information caused my brain to go into overdrive and eventually crash my system. Needless to say, I lost interest very quickly. Here’s where my teenage-self came back into my life though, as if on cue…

After my parents divorced when I was twelve, life was quiet. No more yelling, no more occasional glass shattering, and no more static friction that sometimes grew to the size of a force field. At first, the silence was hopeful and peaceful. But as time crept by, peaceful silence became chest-compressing loneliness. It was in nature that I sought refuge from the sometimes deafening silence: from the loneliness that would seep through the cracks of my room when cooped up for too long. Nature became my lifeline; the only true, honest, unpretentious living being and the one redeeming quality about having moved to the burbs. Crickets at twilight would signal the approaching night, cuing in the soothing, quiet, trembling thunderstorms in gradual crescendo. Nature became my confidant, my teacher and my muse. She became my Goddess, whom I came to love and worship. I could sit still for hours, watching nature ebb and flow, rise and fall.

I would practice this form of meditation consistently for the next few years. Funny, I never once got bored. I also never realized this was a form of meditating; to me, it was something I did to feel alive, to feel connected to some being, and with myself. After years of doing this on a consistent basis, I began to have lucid dreams where I would fly over my house, or levitate from my bed. Another by-product that came from my ‘natural’ meditation was a skill I came to develop of being able to read people like an open book. Not in a soul-piercing, judgmental way, but in such a way where I was able to tell whether or not someone was genuine, sincere and/or authentic. I also developed this deep sense of understanding; a sixth-sense, if you will. I experienced some fascinating, magical things during this time of my life; unbelievable experiences. No really, if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. Those experiences changed me in a profound way, and made me see things beyond the superficial world. I came to experience the awesome power of meditation through nature, and I was never the same afterward. It was an awakening of my mind and of my spirit.

Now, I must warn you: if you don’t use it, you lose it. This happened to me as I came closer and closer to my eighteenth birthday. I thought that turning eighteen meant I had to leave my explorer-self and my child-like curiosity behind in order to become a responsible adult. Turns out I never had to stop being an explorer, or seeking nature and connecting with her. I was reminded of that when I climbed to my rooftop through the fire escape one moonless night. I smoked a little and happily laid on the floor, counting stars. I had a thought cross my mind, “how cool would it be if I saw a shooting star on the rooftop of a New York City five-story building." Guess what? I saw one. Have you ever seen one before? I dare you to try it. It is magical. During that entire time, I thought of nothing but the stars and how many I could see, aiming to reach the dimmest stars in the night sky. I was meditating without knowing it.

So whenever you need answers, put on your David Attenborough hat, take a walk through the park and explore. Or climb to your rooftop on a cloudless night sky and see how many stars you can count; I promise you that if you look out into the night sky long enough, you’ll see a shooting star. Tried-and-true. Don’t get caught up in all the technicalities out there. It may work for some people, which is great, but if you’re like me and overthink things, it’s best to keep it simple and impromptu. We can find the answers we seek if we’re patient and look hard and long enough. After all, nature and the cosmos are the masters of the Universe and in the art of living.