Every morning, before I allow myself to get lost in the business of the day, I will make some time to move, to stretch, and to meditate. It’s not like I bound out of bed excited to do this; it does require discipline. It requires me to shut off from the rest of the day until I cross this off my list. To just start no matter how bad my mind tries to trick me out of it.
Not something that you would expect to hear from someone that meditates daily right?
This is what has driven me to share this with you. To let you know that you will probably never reach the stage where you are excited to meditate. Or that you will want to put meditation before everything else happening around you.
So, if it can be a constant battle just getting to the cushion, then why on earth would anyone want to fight that and make meditation apart of their daily routine?
I’ll tell you why I meditate; so hopefully you can begin to understand.
Meditation Increases My Ability to Focus.
It teaches you how to really focus your energy into what you choose, rather than being taken away with all of the less important distractions.
This results in me having the skills to really get done those things in life that I dream of rather than getting distracted by the things that don’t add value to my big picture or sitting around waiting for someone else to make them happen.
Meditation Increases My Awareness.
If you were to take a child at the age of 7 and consider all the things that he/she is aware of in the world it would be quite limited. A seven-year old’s awareness will revolve mostly around themselves and their family. They may not be aware of how hard their parents work to put food on the table and provide them with a safe home. If you were to compare the awareness of that child to an elderly person who has lived an adventurous life traveling and gaining lots of life experience, the elderly person would have a far greater awareness of the world around them.
By increasing your awareness, you are able to tap into, and use more resources to help you navigate life. If you had limited awareness, it would be like a race horse with blinkers on, only seeing the path straight in front and missing all the options available to them on the side.
Meditation Heightens My Senses.
Our senses are how we interact with the world and receive information. By increasing your senses, life becomes more vibrant and alive. It also helps you to receive information that you might otherwise not be aware of. When your senses are heightened, you begin to notice the miracles of life all around you — the smell of the flowers, the taste of the food the feeling of sunshine on your face.
Meditation Wrangles in My Inner Critic.
This is a big one. When you get sucked into your thoughts, you begin to allow those thoughts to control your life. Your thoughts are the logic and reasoning that allows you to chunk large bits of generic information together so that you can move through life with decisions that are all designed to keep you safe. Your thoughts don’t always look at the accuracy of the information received, and therefore, cannot always be trusted.
Before I was meditating regularly, my thoughts were very good at keeping me safe by calculating what I was wanting to do and then telling me I wasn’t good enough to do it. The logic being, if I didn’t do it, then I would be safe. I would continue on doing things the same way as I had always done, which had proven to keep me safe. Meditation allows me to wrangle my inner critic in and do the things that I really want to do, even if I occasionally have to shush that little voice telling me” I’m not good enough.” That little voice is not me. I am so much more powerful than that.
Meditation Teaches Me to be ok With Sitting in Discomfort.
It allows me to be more comfortable with the uncomfortable. To know that this too shall pass ,and that in this moment I am uncomfortable and that is ok. When we spend our time running from things that make us uncomfortable, we allow the outside world to control our every move. When you are able to lean into the discomfort that is when you allow healing to occur and lessons to be learnt with less tension and resistance.
Meditation Teaches Me to be Present with People, Which Builds Really Powerful Relationships and Makes Me a Better Healer.
I am able to listen actively in the moment rather than getting caught up in my own thoughts. I am able to bring more compassion and understanding to the relationship. It helps me in those difficult relationships not to take anything too personally, but rather see the other person as someone that is hurting. Relationships are such an important part of life; we all have them and all rely on them to navigate through this life successfully. When you are able to bring compassion and presence to the relationships in your life, then it makes life all that much easier. You create more allies and have fewer enemies.
Meditation Allows Me to Notice Thought Patterns that No Longer Serve Me and Hold Me Back.
Through meditation, I have been able to change my relationship with practical things like exercise. Even more abstract things, like realising that If I was sick, then I should not be well enough to be experiencing moments of joy, which actually helps you to heal and should be something that we welcome in bucketloads.
Every morning, before I allow myself to get lost in the business of the day, I will make some time to move, to stretch, and to meditate. It’s not like I bound out of bed excited to do this; it does require discipline. It requires me to shut off from the rest of the day until I cross this off my list. To just start no matter how bad my mind tries to trick me out of it.
Not something that you would expect to hear from someone that meditates daily right?
This is what has driven me to share this with you. To let you know that you will probably never reach the stage where you are excited to meditate. Or that you will want to put meditation before everything else happening around you.
So, if it can be a constant battle just getting to the cushion, then why on earth would anyone want to fight that and make meditation apart of their daily routine?
I’ll tell you why I meditate; so hopefully you can begin to understand.
Meditation Increases My Ability to Focus.
It teaches you how to really focus your energy into what you choose, rather than being taken away with all of the less important distractions.
This results in me having the skills to really get done those things in life that I dream of rather than getting distracted by the things that don’t add value to my big picture or sitting around waiting for someone else to make them happen.
Meditation Increases My Awareness.
If you were to take a child at the age of 7 and consider all the things that he/she is aware of in the world it would be quite limited. A seven-year old’s awareness will revolve mostly around themselves and their family. They may not be aware of how hard their parents work to put food on the table and provide them with a safe home. If you were to compare the awareness of that child to an elderly person who has lived an adventurous life traveling and gaining lots of life experience, the elderly person would have a far greater awareness of the world around them.
By increasing your awareness, you are able to tap into, and use more resources to help you navigate life. If you had limited awareness, it would be like a race horse with blinkers on, only seeing the path straight in front and missing all the options available to them on the side.
Meditation Heightens My Senses.
Our senses are how we interact with the world and receive information. By increasing your senses, life becomes more vibrant and alive. It also helps you to receive information that you might otherwise not be aware of. When your senses are heightened, you begin to notice the miracles of life all around you — the smell of the flowers, the taste of the food the feeling of sunshine on your face.
Meditation Wrangles in My Inner Critic.
This is a big one. When you get sucked into your thoughts, you begin to allow those thoughts to control your life. Your thoughts are the logic and reasoning that allows you to chunk large bits of generic information together so that you can move through life with decisions that are all designed to keep you safe. Your thoughts don’t always look at the accuracy of the information received, and therefore, cannot always be trusted.
Before I was meditating regularly, my thoughts were very good at keeping me safe by calculating what I was wanting to do and then telling me I wasn’t good enough to do it. The logic being, if I didn’t do it, then I would be safe. I would continue on doing things the same way as I had always done, which had proven to keep me safe. Meditation allows me to wrangle my inner critic in and do the things that I really want to do, even if I occasionally have to shush that little voice telling me” I’m not good enough.” That little voice is not me. I am so much more powerful than that.
Meditation Teaches Me to be ok With Sitting in Discomfort.
It allows me to be more comfortable with the uncomfortable. To know that this too shall pass ,and that in this moment I am uncomfortable and that is ok. When we spend our time running from things that make us uncomfortable, we allow the outside world to control our every move. When you are able to lean into the discomfort that is when you allow healing to occur and lessons to be learnt with less tension and resistance.
Meditation Teaches Allows Me to Deepen My Spiritual Gifts
Meditation attunes you to the more subtle world and allows you to become more aware of your subtle body and the energy around you. As I have increased this awarenss I have increased my ability to connect with other spirits and my own intuition.
So, you might not always be jumping out of your skin to get your butt onto that cushion, but as you build meditation into your daily routine it does become easier. When you experience all the benefits that meditation brings to your life, it becomes something that you will absolutely fight to keep in your life.
