Mardi Gras Meditation
A Mardi Gras meditation.
Say what?
Mardi Gras is the last thing you might think could be linked to meditation, but I’ve got a fun way for you to use carnival parades to the advantage of your enlightenment – or maybe just to lighten up!
Mardi Gras Meditation
Practice this Mardi Gras meditation seated with your eyes closed or as an act of mindfulness during an actual parade.
Choose which side of the street you will watch the parade from – sidewalk side or neutral ground side (the median).
The theme of this parade is Your Thoughts.
Watch each float/big thought pass by you on parade.
Some floats will stop in front of you and begin to spin off more thoughts as if the riders were throwing you Mardi Gras beads.
Try not to catch the beads, let someone else scoop them up or let them fall to the ground.
The bands will play and the floats will continue to roll through your mind.
That’s it, relax and enjoy the Mardi Gras parade!
Want to upgrade your Mardi Gras meditation?
Upgrade your parade viewing by standing on a ladder or sitting in the VIP stands.
Name each float/big thought as it passes. In other words, if the big thought passing through your mind is based on fear, the float is named Fear. If the big thought is based on pleasure, name it Pleasure.
It doesn’t matter if all the floats in your parade are named fear or pleasure, sadness or joy…whatever. You are simply observing the parade, labeling what you witness without regard to it being good or bad, and then letting it pass by.
Did you catch some beads? That’s ok too.
Sometimes we just can’t resist, but rather than keeping those beads around your neck offer them back for recycling.
Rather than practicing meditation to become enlightened, consider practicing simply to “lighten up.”
Practicing meditation and non-attachment to our thoughts doesn’t mean that we have to be disconnected from the world.
In fact, those 10 to 20 minutes that we practice each day help us enjoy the parade of life that much more.
Do most of your floats have the same name?
Practice and tell me in the comments below.