There is this dirty little secret in the world of meditation no one wants to talk about . . . . .
Are you privy to it?
Some of you may be, others not so much.
Take a moment and read over these questions. If you answer yes to one or more and continue to push yourself in meditations, you probably have the wrong idea of what meditation is all together.
How does your meditation usually go?
Do you get stuck?
Are you fighting yourself, your thoughts more than anything else?
Do you have a really hard time sitting on your bottom for the duration of your “spiritual journeying”?
How about these questions?
Do you have SPECTACULAR visions full of Unicorns & Magical Creatures?
Do you connect to this loud booming voice that tells you all the deep dark secrets?
How about Buddha, do you sit with Buddha?
Listen, if you answered any of the above questions, whether they be yes or no or a combination of, you might have the wrong idea about meditation.
Yes really!
I know some of the Spiritual stuff out there can get really goofed up along the way. Everyone giving their own impressions, experiences, google, enhancements, etc. we tend to compare our experiences and more often than not, fall short of the expectation.
Please do not do this to yourself. It’s depleting and undermining to you.
Your experience is not my experience. Joe’s experience is not Patty’s experience. Buddha worked really hard and devoted himself more so than most of us ever will. It’s life, it’s reality, it’s a fact. Give yourself a break!
Now for the part no one ever talks about.
Meditation is not about visions. It is not about life changing experiences while your eyes are closed. It’s not about sitting cross legged on the floor and humming. Although it can help some, that’s not what meditation is for.
Meditation is to strengthen the mind, to sharpen your focus, to regain control in a world that rips it away from you. It’s a tool or exercise to assist the mind in calming enough to be able to absorb surrounding information.
Oftentimes the benefits of meditation get mixed up with the act of meditation itself.
Think of it this way, you sit down and pull in tons of thoughts, right? Random shit, current issues, so on and so forth. What do you do? You think you’re not meditating, you’re not doing it right, you’ll never get it.
Not true.
Meditation is to release and process those things! They come, you acknowledge it, then let it go and move to the next thought. That simple.
You see, without processing it, you’re ignoring it, essentially storing it for later. . . you don’t want to do that.
If sitting still is a problem, go outside, exercise, take a walk, do something you really enjoy. Paint? Write? Dance? Read? Anything that makes you happy & comfortable, You’re stepping into meditation to process, to release energy and emotion, you’re not meditating to punish yourself.
Doing this on a regular basis will train your mind to process and release the emotions that come with the thoughts. When you make a habit out of it, you’ll find it easier each time you go in, to have silence.
The silence is where you’ll want to be. Silence is where meditation really begins. Opening up to be able to sit with yourself & enjoy it is the ultimate goal or The Part of Meditation No One Talks About.
Blessings, Elizebeth <3
