Meditation Misunderstandings are costing you....

You should meditate….everybody’s doing it! 

Whether your “problem” is emotional instability, obsessive thoughts, insomnia, anger issues, ADD, anxiety, stress, imbalanced hormones, chronic emotional states, etc., meditation is offered up as “the thing”.

It makes me think of the patriarch in “My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding” who sprays Windex on wounds because…well…..Windex solves every problem!

Here’s the thing: meditation IS a solution for just about every mind-body “problem”.

But there’s another problem…

Most people misinterpret the point of meditation…the WHY of it. And that’s understandable.

It’s only been in the last 100 years that awareness of meditation gained traction with the general public, thanks in large part to Maharishi Mahesh Yoga, who taught the Beatles how to meditate. But it’s still relatively foreign and ambiguous to the average Jane.

Another reason for the confusion around meditation is due to the commoditizing of “spirituality” especially in the West. Shiny things sell. Quick fixes sell. Salvation from yourself sells. “Being better than”, in order to shield myself from my own self loathing, sells. You can stack a lot of paper by packaging a dream. 

Case in point: you can buy $300 meditation pants…..meditation PANTS. 

Meditation has been made hip, which IS cool, but nowhere in the hipness can we find the practical, down-to-Earth reasoning for WHY meditation is priceless or WHAT meditation REALLY is. 

After we’ve bought all the right stuff to meditate, we’re given some wack ass explanation for what to do next: “Sit quietly (in your $300 meditation pants) with your eyes closed for about 20 minutes, and just don’t think.”

When Miss Lululemon can’t keep her mind blank for even 60 little seconds, she thinks she doesn’t have what it takes…that she sucks at meditating…that she’s never going to have inner peace, wisdom, intuition etc.

It’s hard to see through the sparkle and hype to the root of the matter. And this is an issue, because meditation IS a game changer. If you create a strong meditation practice, your Life WILL become more peaceful, empowering, happy and best of all: clear. 

Meditation brings clarity. Clarity is Queen. 

AND PSA: meditation isn’t about having an empty mind, even though master meditators CAN clear their minds of thought, drop into powerful brain frequencies, heal themselves, leave their bodies and other Jedi-type shit. 

But before I go any further, there is a caveat: I have a daily meditation practice, but I am NOT a master meditator by any degree.  I’m the first to say that I know what I know, but I’m wise enough to know that I don’t know shit. That said, I DO know that I have quirky perceptions, and have been known to come up with powerful insights and connections on the topics I study. This is, by no means, an exhaustive explanation on the topic; I would not be so bold, nor do I have the time here. But you can take what you like, and leave the rest. 

So allow me to begin by stating that the point of meditation…the WHY of it…. is about having a PRACTICE of allowing thoughts to enter your mind without allowing them to take over your mind.……and this, in my humble opinion, is what allows us to experience our lives as actual human BEINGS.

Until we get a grip on our internal world of thoughts and emotions (with meditation being but one method) we operate as machines, or “automatons”  as philosopher and mystic Gurdjieff would say. 

We can be slaves to our thoughts and emotions, allowing these electrical and chemical reactions to literally run our lives. 

That’s not to knock our thoughts and emotions; they are powerful, important, illuminating, sometimes delightful, AND they belong to us….. and THAT’S that point: they belong to US, yet most of us live our lives doing THEIR bidding…jumping at THEIR command. 

We can actually believe that we ARE our thoughts and emotions, which makes Life a living hell. When we believe we are our thoughts and emotions, Life is a nauseating roller coaster ride that violently whips us around moment to moment…and it’s a ride we can’t seem to get off. 

In this state, we are more like human DOINGS, reacting to this and that stimuli, chasing over there before we’re pulled over here….and life quickly becomes meaningless, exhausting, and depressing.

But being a human BEING,  IMHO, means experiencing my thoughts and emotions from the vantage point of the observer; I can hear and feel them just as they are, without buying into them…without being moved to action by them. THEY don’t get to make the decisions and order me around. That’s not their job.

Gurdjieff had a brilliant analogy for my point: think of yourself as comprised as a horse drawn coach. Your thoughts and emotions are the horses, the driver is your ego, the coach is your body, and the Boss Lady inside the coach is your Soul. 

As a human DOING,  you let the horses run without discernment and control. The result is that we get dragged into drama, conflict and suffering real quick…there’s no stopping those steeds, and we certainly don’t get where we want to go. Not to mention, our coach, our driver and our Soul get battered and banged up along the way. 

On the contrary, a human BEING is a coach directed by Spirit, who has all the knowledge, wisdom, intuition and courage necessary to keep the coach in good repair, to give the driver clear directions, as they use the power of the horses to get where they want to go in an orderly fashion.

We can’t ever forget that we are the Boss Lady inside the coach! We are Spirit, not the thoughts and emotions. We are response, NOT reaction. We set the itinerary and direct the course based on deep Inner Knowing. Our thoughts and emotions provide feedback from the road for us to consider, as well as the energy needed to get us where we want to go. 

But back to meditation….

Meditation is worth 10 minutes of your day, everyday. Set a timer. Sit down. Close your eyes. Count your breathe as it goes in and out, from 1 to 10. Then start again.

FYI, you’re going “to suck” at first. You will ABSOLUTELY think thoughts…and feel emotions…and have imaginary conversations….and worry….and mentally add to your grocery list….and fall asleep. 

And that’s exactly right! 

That’s YOU! Meet your internal space with curiosity; you need to get clear on just how noisy it is in there, as well as what your mind tends to ruminate on, and mess around with. Nice to meet you!

So just watch without judgment or expectation. 

If you get pulled in deep to a thought or story, that’s cool. As soon as you realize you’ve been hooked, bring your attention back to your breath, starting the counting over again at 1.

When the 10 minutes is up, get up and go about your business. No judgment. Move on. Repeat the practice the next day. 

The magic of the practice is found in the RETURN to breath. 

The good shit happens when you’ve practiced enough to realize that you have the ability and power to shift your attention AT WILL….. to unhook from the thought and go back to the breath WHEN YOU WANT.

With consistent, committed practice, you’ll discover that:

1.) Your mediation practice becomes a grounding refuge that you look forward to every day

2.) You experience more inner peace, stronger intuition and spontaneous insights to aid your decision making

3.) You feel more SAFE in your own head and heart….that you can trust yourself to make sound decisions….all without needing $300 meditation pants.