If a friend jumped off a bridge would you do it? Maybe, if it was tall and I had a bungee cord tied to my legs, or if it was very short, over deep water and on a hot day. I am glad my parents never asked that question; it might not have ended so well.

The desire to tap into the unseen is universal.

Humanity has sought a higher power and a belief in something greater than itself for millennia. The ancient practice of meditation is a primary means to achieve this connection.

Meditation may include silence, song, movement, prayer, reading, drawing, or even running. Today's world is too connected to everything else and requires a deliberate action to still the internal voice and listen.

The practice of mindfulness has caught on as a major trend. Expanding beyond the hippie communes, into urban centers, out to the suburbs, and apps on the smartphone.

I jumped off the proverbial bridge with friends and tried several different meditative practices over the years, and have by no means exhausted the list. 

This experimentation has opened my eyes to the beauty of expression and language I had previously resisted. I believed there was only one way to meditate. I had a handy set of metrics I would use to chart my progress, and didn't need anything else. Thankfully I have grown. Sometimes it requires a crazy friend and a bridge to learn something new.

The variations are endless, but the commonality is a deliberate, regular, repeatable, contemplative, practice. There are plenty of ways to identify what group we belong, but let's start with humanity.

Going Further: How did you arrive at your current practice? How long have you been using this same practice?