MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK

…IS A  SERIES OF SHORT, EASY TO REMEMBER, AND BASIC TIPS ON HOW TO MEDITATE. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, IS IT HELPFUL?

How To Meditate…

For anyone who meditates, or who has ever tried to meditate, dealing with the thoughts, emotions and sensations that arise during one’s mediation practice can be a real challenge. In fact, these temporary phenomena can be such a challenge that many people abandon their attempt to meditate because of them.

An Amazing Breakthrough in Meditation!

When you meditate, it’s your mind that you’re working to tame, right? Here’s something that many people struggle with when they meditate; they believe that thoughts, sensations and emotions are something that they need to get rid of. Are you one of these people?

In fact, and here’s the amazing breakthrough, the stillness as well as the movement that you experience in meditation are all part of the mind. They’re like the waves and the calm of the ocean, no difference!

Why is this a breakthrough? It’s only a breakthrough for those of us who are used to struggling with movement in the mind when we meditate. In fact, working with stillness and movement has been an integral part of many meditation traditions for thousands of years.

If you spend your time longing after stillness in your meditation and trying to fight the phenomena that arise, you’re fighting against yourself. Letting go of this fight, learning how not to freeze the stillness or block the movement, is really what meditation is all about!

Thoughts, sensations, and emotions are like the waves that arise in the ocean. They’re neither good nor bad. Just as the waves are part of the ocean, rising for a while and then settling back into the ocean, your thoughts, sensations and emotions are the expression of your mind. Neither good, nor bad.

What makes thoughts, sensations, and emotions difficult isn’t the fact that they’ve arisen, it’s the fact that we spend so much time trying to block them, that we forget what meditation really is – a state of non-distraction! Imagine how much you’d enjoy your meditation practice if you weren’t distracted by your mind!

Try Not to Freeze the Stillness, Nor Block the Movement of the Mind

Most of us, myself included, enjoy the stillness that can arise when meditating. Yet, as soon as a difficult thoughts, emotions, or sensations arise, we’re quick to try to block the movement of the mind and freeze ourselves in the stillness that we’d experienced.

What’s amazing is that as soon as we allow ourselves to simply rest in the face of whatever arises, we find peace and contentment in an undistracted meditation. It’s almost as if neither the stillness nor the movement take us out of our practice. We don’t grasp after the stillness, nor do we try to block the movement. We simply “are” present, in the moment-to-moment awareness of the present.

So try this. When you sit down to meditate, practice short sessions, where you simply rest in an undistracted mind. If you notice that you’re in stillness, that’s fine; don’t try to prolong it. And when you notice movement of the mind, in the form of thoughts or emotions, simply remain undistracted, without trying to block the movement.

Be patient with yourself, it will take some time. Enjoy your practice, there is no good or bad meditation. Rejoice in the present moment and in the realization that every second that you’re undistracted is another second of enjoying life in all that it is!

Meditate Now!

How To Meditate

Maybe you’ve already got a meditation practice. If that’s the case, great! Keep it up. And feel free to use all of the content from this site to support you in your efforts. If you haven’t started to meditate, begin now.

Many people don’t meditate because they believe that they need to do “something special” in order to meditate, maybe you’re one of them. “Doing something” special isn’t the case. All you need is your breath, and a few minutes of time set aside to begin your practice. Here are some tools to get you started:

This site has tons of tools for learning how to meditate and be compassionate.

I encourage you to look through the HUNDREDS of articles that I’ve written and especially check out my weekly meditation tips and other useful meditation materials provided for your health and well being. And please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding anything that I’ve written about.

Thanks for visiting and have a mindful day.