After last week's post, people commented that they're intrigued by the concept of meditation and want to try it, but would like to understand more about what's actually behind it. So I wanted to write about how you can take something like the concept of meditation (which may sound great in some abstract philosophical sense), and create real change in your life. Not only inner change, but clear, sustainable outer change. That's the bottom line you're trying to achieve - a noticeable difference in the way you feel, think, react, and experience events in your life. When you change the inner, the outer automatically changes - that's the secret.The true litmus test of any set of beliefs, whether they come from organized religion, spiritual beliefs, or your own personal experience, is whether they are adding value and helping you create the life you want to live. If your beliefs are not helping you grow, evolve, and accomplish the things you want, it make senses to explore and adapt them to what will work for you. So ask yourself, is your belief system helping you or hurting you?
Meditation helps you to do just that - instead of assigning random outside causes to things in your life (I'm unlucky, the economy sucks, I was born into a bad environment, my government is holding me down, my husband/wife is unsupportive, etc), it helps you look within to create change. Think about it - you really have no other option - if you do not look within, you are looking without. While it is certainly true that outside circumstances do influence your life, you can slowly begin to change those circumstances from the inside out, which is the only real way to create change.
Meditation helps you get in touch with the part of yourself (your consciousness, or the greater Energy source that some people call God), that is beyond your mind, ego, and body. It is a way of silencing your mind so that you establish a stronger and clearer link to your own power source. As you begin to identify more with this Source (which is only pure, positive energy), your mind and body benefit as well. For example, after a while you will notice your breathing become deeper and more relaxed (in fact, this should be one of the first things you should notice). You thoughts will become more peaceful and have more clarity. You might notice negative emotion like fear or anger subside; on the flip side, meditation sometimes heightens emotions that are laying just below the surface in order for you to be able recognize and deal with them more effectively.
There is no absolute set of things that will happen to any given person, simply because no one has the same thought patterns, emotional blocks, expectations, desires, and goals as anyone else. It is a highly personal journey, just like your life. But your own consciousness or higher self is always aware of everything that is going on with you (past, present, and future), even if your mind is not. Flashes of intuition, insight, solutions to problems, healing in your body, and seeming coincidences all come from this untapped pure, positive Energy space. The impulse may occur to you through an idea in your mind, a random synchronicity in your life, or an inspired action. But the source is always the same.
Simply put, the goal of meditation is to heighten your awareness, and to increase your level of consciousness to the point that all your thoughts and actions are always inspired. But, it's not an all or nothing game, and no one is keeping score. You can never lose. Consciousness is always present, beckoning you. The only choice you have is whether or not to answer the call.
