What counts as meditation?

Meditation is, for me, a mental state which can be achieved in a wide range of activities which require single- or non-focus. One of my favourite meditative practices is washing the dishes. Feeling the plates and cups, the heat of the water, the sound and scent of the bubbles, the chinking glasses and the metallic clang of the draining board. Being totally in the flow of my activity, totally aware, totally empty and hollow and transparent to all that comes my way.

That is, on those rare occasions I don't use the dishwasher.

Another is walking in the woods, although that goes beyond meditation for me and is more a communion with the holy. I'm a practitioner of shinrin-yoku, aka Forest Bathing. It's a tremendously meditative thing.

Meditation isn't just something you do by crossing your legs and trying really hard not to think about lunch. It's a state of mind, maaaaan.