Meditation. Can’t do it?
A post on meditating.
The most common response I receive when I ask – ‘Do you meditate?’ is…
‘I can’t meditate’
‘I don’t do it right’
Or, an awkward and almost shameful ‘No’.
I’d like to achieve a few things in this post.
To convince you there is no right way to meditate.
To eliminate some ridiculous ideas about meditation
And to offer you a new way of experiencing it.
***
Simply put, meditation is everything they say it is. And when you do it on the regular – shit changes.
You become a nicer human.
Life doesn’t take you under as quickly.
And you get to know yourself, in a way only meditation can bring.
The following are some of the rubbish things we expect meditation to be:
1) To quiet the mind into complete and utter silence … now this isn’t to say it’s not possible, but it’s not possible straight away nor every time. And even if you do achieve it, it’ll be fleeting. You’ll dip in and you’ll dip out. Why? Because the mind is an incessant pain in the arse. Incessant.
When I did Vipassana early last year – I experienced this first hand. For 10 days I witnessed my mind think about the most futile and BORING things. Agonisingly so. Our minds are constantly doing this – to stop giving it the power, we meditate so we can learn to, with time, observe it, not believe it.
2) That you’re meant to experience some sort of bliss – a week after starting. You gotta respect the process. You gotta build some muscle. Good things take time. They just do. Honour this. http://www.sarahwilson.com/2011/05/being-great-takes-time-so-take-it/
3) You need to have an alter. A space. Time set aside.
Rubbish. You can do it anywhere – if you choose. Public transport. In a park under a tree. At your desk, under your desk. Put the lid on the loo down and take 10 mins of time out – not ideal, but it’s possible to do it anywhere.
By all means, create the alter, honour the ritual, but don’t use it as an excuse.
A quote I’ve mentioned many times before from Gabby Bernstein is, ‘If you’ve got 10 mins to feel like crap you’ve got 10 minutes to feel good’. Each time (most times) I open my laptop and start to watch something mindless this quote pops in. If I’ve got 20 mins to watch an episode of a series and I haven’t yet meditated for the day… I now close the laptop and meditate. 10 mins. 20 mins. I just do it.
In each moment we have the power to choose. So choose.
***
Now for the reframe. As mentioned at the beginning I want to offer a different perspective to meditating.
That is… You’re just hanging out with your spirit, with yourself for a short bit of time. It’s time to be with yourself. Just you. Think about this.
The reason I developed a meditation practice was for client sessions. I felt insanely guilty if I wasn’t crystal clear and aligned. Truly. On a client day – it was a non negotiable. I just did it.
Then with time I realised how crazy this was, to do it just for clients and not for myself.
So I started. On the regular. Always holding the intention that I was going to meet with my spirit for a short amount of time. If I achieved a quiet mind, bliss, it was bonus. If not, it was cool to just meet with my spirit and be.
And I tell you, shit got better. My relationship with my spirit went from casual acquaintances to being in constant cahoots. And your spirit is definitely someone you want to be in cahoots with.
So go. Go sit with yourself. Drop the need for the experience to be anything.
Your mind will race.
You’ll re-write your to do list.
You’ll go off to places so far away.
You’ll fidget.
You’ll want to check the time – with an itching constant desire.
And eventually, you won’t.
You’ll sit there. You’ll breathe. You’ll acknowledge the divinity of your spirit and you’ll simply say “Hello, I’m here to visit. How nice it is to be with you today”.
Try it x
