Guided Meditation: The Airport Practice

Flying can be stressful. The airlines have designed cramped seating to encourage upgrading to “premium economy” or even first class. Parking is hellish. The TSA lines are hellish. The entire boarding process at the gate is beyond hellish.

Here’s a new approach. Arrive at the airport two hours early, or even three hours. It doesn’t matter.

There’s no penalty for arriving early!

Park at leisure. Stroll to the terminal like you have all the time in the world (because you do). Amuse yourself in the serpentine TSA line by smiling at everyone ahead of you. Take off your shoes and belt like you are at a beach cabana, and changing into your swimtrunks for a swim.

Don’t go straight to your gate. Go to an empty gate, where a flight has just left. They might not be using it for half an hour, or more. Take a seat. Get comfortable. You still have an hour (or more) before your flight boards. Meditate. Read a book.

Boarding can be stressful, so board last. If you’ll notice on most flights, nothing happens for twenty minutes after everyone’e boarded. It’s very calm and deserted on the jetway. Smile as you pass the people in first class. Give thanks that people have been that successful in life. You’re going to the same destination, but at 1/4 the cost and 1/10 the entitlement.

Middle seat in row 35? It used to matter to me. Now it doesn’t. My ego is comfortable, seated snugly between two other amazing humans I’ve never met before. I know my place in the Universe. I don’t really matter.

This essay is an excerpt from “Dissolve: Spirit Poems and Guided Meditations” by Jon Obermeyer, available on Amazon, December, 2019.

Photo: Haneda Airport Terminal 2 by Y Kanazawa