You can't meditate like that

So if I have not already made it abundantly clear, I am a total hippie. And I practice meditation. 

Let me be clear - I don't meditate. Meditation is a state of mind-body-spirit that I can only dream of one day reaching. I practice. 

In finding my own personal form of mediation, I have tried a LOT of things. And I don't think I've 100% got it to a science, but I have some tools I know help me personally, and I will always be refining. Like the practice, we as humans are also evolving and in flux, and so adapting to this is also part of our practice. 

No matter what I do in a day as part of my ongoing practice, I almost always try to give myself a 15 minute, more traditional quiet, mind-clearing still meditation alone in my room. The instructions given by the majority of teachers I've encountered in my studies recommend not lying down. Though many of the meditation techniques come from the East, most teachers know that when Westerners lie down, we tend to fall asleep. We can't help it - we are overworked, overstimulated, and in need of rest. 

.   .   .   

One night around the age of about 6, my dad was putting my sister and I to bed. I was lying on my back with the soles of my feet on the bed and my knees in the air as he tucked me in. 

"You can't fall asleep like that," Dad told me. 

My child-brain interpreted this literally, as any parent-trusting youth would. I in fact believed that it was humanly impossible to fall asleep in this position.

So for the following several weeks, I was determined to prove him wrong. Each night after my parents tucked us in and left the room, I assumed the impossible sleep position, only to awake with legs straight or curled into my chest. As I would lie there in defeat, I became more convinced that my dad was in fact always right.

Until one night I awoke, (probably having not yet even really fallen asleep, but those are just details), and MY KNEES WERE RAISED! 

I had done the impossible. 

I was astonished at the powers I posessed, but I knew I could not bear to tell my dad that he was wrong, so I kept it to myself, for probably another few years (entirely too long), until I thought about it again and realized, my dad merely meant, "it would not be ideal to try to fall asleep like that, though, come to think of it, it is possible to fall asleep in many positions - sitting up, at your desk, or even sometimes while driving."

.   .   . 

When I learned you maybe shouldn't meditate lying down, something in my head struck that old chord, as I was transported back to my 6 year old girl self, ready to prove the world wrong. 

I tried still meditation practice in many seated positions, but nothing got me into the zone like lying on my back with my knees up does. And so, that's how I prefer to meditate at night. 

And I almost never fall asleep.