Let me guess,
You don’t meditate because you tried it a few times and you couldn’t stop your mind from “thinking”?
Then you thought to yourself, “I must be doing it wrong” or “I just suck at meditating.”
I get it!
Meditation is hard and it’s especially challenging when we first start.
But here’s the truth:
It doesn’t have to be!!!
Meditating for the right reasons
One of the quickest ways to get yourself into some trouble when meditating is to go into it with an expectation.
The minute we start meditating with an agenda we are setting up our practice for failure because at that point it’s not about the practice anymore, it's instead about what the practice can give you.
Those with a mindset like this are doomed to be frustrated with their practice because you never truly know what you are going to see when you sit down to meditate.
But the point of meditation isn’t to feel a certain way.
The point of meditation is to see how we are feeling and to not judge what we see.
We meditate to understand ourselves better—not to avoid ourselves.
This means we must commit to the practice before we can truly receive the rewards of the practice.
So simple, you just might mess it up
Meditation gives us a front row seat into the story of our lives and more specifically, our lives through the lens of our egos.
The minute we can experience these thoughts instead of being the thoughts we have successfully seen the mind clearly and that is the true essence of meditation.
Now, I know that might sound a little too far-fetched for some of you but think of it this way:
Imagine the observation of your mind is like going to the movies.
Meaning, the point of meditation isn’t to get caught up in the movie. The point of meditation is to watch the movie and know you’re watching a movie!
This means of course there will inevitably be parts and scenes from the movie that we don’t like, but simply seeing that we are the watcher of the movie creates enough space to see our silly little egos more clearly.
The more we see how the mind thinks, the more space we create between the thoughts that have since controlled our lives.
After doing the practice for enough time, we will soon see that we are much more than our thoughts and emotions.
Eventually, the practice will take us to a place of peace and stillness but first we must tame the mind before we can make the mind still.
How to do it right
Next time you sit down to meditate keep this in mind:
Meditation is not a pass/fail proposition.
Therefore, it cannot be won. It can only be done.
So, if we sit for 30 minutes and we’re lost in thought for 29 of those minutes but then suddenly become aware of the fact that we’re lost in thought, we are officially “doing” meditation.
It might seem in those moments that a meditation practice that long, yielding that few results, would be pointless but trust me - it’s not. Spending even a second to realize you are not your thoughts is well worth the time spent sitting in meditation.
The compound effect is powerful and before you know it there will be enough space between you and the thoughts for healing and understanding to occur.
Eventually, we might even find ourselves becoming curious about how the minds work.
Curiosity as it turns out is one of the greatest ways to inspire concentration which means being curious about how our minds work can lead us to really deep places in our meditation practice.
If we can see that we are not our thoughts and we can even appreciate the experience of being ourselves, then we can turn our meditation practice into an enjoyable and peaceful experience.
Conclusion
Meditation is not about being a certain way.
Meditation is about being who you truly are which inevitably leads to equanimity and peace.
So the next time you sit down to meditate remember to stop avoiding yourself and embrace what’s there—no matter what it might be.
Don’t be scared of your mind and your thoughts.
Be intentional about seeing your mind clearly and know that every time you see yourself as the seer of those thoughts you are on the right path!
Trust the process and don’t wish it was different. Wish you could see it differently.
Ask for perspective and guidance instead of peace and calm and I promise you will eventually find yourself in a place of greater peace than you could have ever imagined!
Thank you as always for reading this week’s blog!
We hope you enjoyed our conversation on how to meditate the right way.
Let us know what you think.
Did we get this one right or is there a different way to look at it?
Leave us s comment and be sure to check us out next Wednesday for our next blog post!