Mindfullness and hay fever

I was due to lead the class on Friday lunchtime at the Colchester Buddhist Centre, but around an hour earlier I could feel an attack of hay fever starting to develop, so, although I almost never resort to tablets, I took one hay fever tablet. 'Well' I thought 'it would never do to start sneezing through a class. It's difficult to sneak out without disturbing people if you are leading the class!'

By the time that I arrived at the centre I found that I was feeling very disconnected. I was sitting with the group before we started, but felt that I was watching everything through a very long telescope. I didn't feel that I was there at all. The effects of the tablet must have been very strong as I was unused to taking them.

Luckily my co-leader for this class was there as well and he was kind enough to lead the class for me at short notice.

Even with the sense of detachment that the tablet was causing me I was surprised at how bad my meditation was. It might be thought that it would be improved, but my finding was that I was continuously distracted and had very little chance to reach any depth of meditation at all.