Before I started spending most of my time doing martial arts, I played guitar as much as I could. I still play, and I love seeing how different guitarists play their own personal styles. One guitarist I discovered a couple years ago is Tim Henson from the band Polyphia; they’re a progressive/math rock band whose songs are heavily centered around the guitarists. They actually don’t have a singer, they write their lead guitar riffs to emulate a singer’s melody.
Tim Henson posts regularly on his YouTube, mostly videos of him playing ridiculously intricate songs or verses he’s written. One caught my eye the other day, titled “Quintuplet Meditation”. It was a 9 minute video of him jamming out on his couch, finger-picking an acoustic guitar at an incredible speed, relaxed as ever. In addition to being inspired by his seemingly effortless playing, the video got me thinking about the concept of meditation as a whole.
Oftentimes, people think of meditating as sitting still with your eyes closed, trying to clear your mind and think of nothing. For most people, this sounds next to impossible and if nothing else, pretty boring. But meditation at its core is essentially finding stillness in your mind, focusing your whole body and mind into a state where you’re un-distracted and fully concentrated on the skill you’re performing. Oftentimes, practicing in this focused headspace will make you much more successful in the task at hand.
Whether it be playing guitar, practicing martial arts, painting, cooking, even motorcycle maintenance, anything can be meditative. Get to meditating!
