I vividly recall my first attempt at a sound meditation. I was sitting in a lunchtime meditation session, trying to hear to the facilitator’s voice beneath an unexpected cacophony of ringing phones, loud conversations beyond us, and an occasional jackhammer solo next door. Given the ferocity of the sonic incursions, the facilitator wisely opted to have us focus on the sounds rather than breath.
It wasn’t easy. The chatting, ringing, and sirens were manageable, but the jackhammer and the drilling that followed were almost unbearable. I found myself returning to the breath as suggested given the potential overwhelm. I didn’t want to give up on the sound meditation though. When I felt the overstimulation abate, I shifted my focus back to the sounds.
Initially, I cursed my own persistence. The experience began to tread the line between horrid and what was I thinking?
I wanted to quit. Stop and walk way.
Thankfully, I didn’t give in. I worked that meditation like I’ve never worked meditation before or since.
The session was one of the hardest I’ve ever participated in. It was like climbing a mountain, gaining a few feet, then losing ground as I slipped down those feet – plus – along the cliff face. The facilitator owned as much as she exhaled sharply at the session’s end. “That,” she said, “was difficult.”
Indeed.
I count my blessings my subsequent sound meditations have never approached that level of difficulty. I also know having experience that afternoon’s varied soundscape, other sessions will inevitably seem like glass, smooth and slick, and not like climbing mountains at all. And if they don’t, no longer a novice, I absolutely know what’s required me regarding the climb.
Post-Employment Survival Coaching 
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