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What Is Meditation?
What even is Meditation?!
As I mentioned in my last blog post, meditation is the practice of becoming aware of our thoughts.
That's it: it's that simple!
Once we have an awareness of our thoughts, we then have the ability to choose which thoughts stay in our mind and which thoughts go. "Send them on down the river," as I like to say.
When we sit in meditation, we don't force our thoughts out or try and control our mind. We train ourselves to recognize the fact that we're even having a thought in the first place and slowly guide our attention back to our breath.
Each and every time we do this, we create a habit of 1) recognition & 2) redirection.
We may have to redirect our thoughts a bajillion times throughout one meditation, but THAT is the practice!
Suddenly, without us even realizing it, the coolest thing happens: the mind begins to settle and the time between each thought becomes longer, creating a little space of no thoughts.
It's exhilarating! We do a little mental dance and then realize, "Oh, now I'm thinking about my thinking, how do I get back to that space?"
So, we return our attention back to our breath and repeat. Again, and again, and again. That is the practice.
I can teach you to let go of any expectations you may create around your practice. Any questions, frustrations, or insights that may come up for you as you make progress.
Eventually, this practice transcends off of our mats and we see the benefits in every day life.
The pause meditation creates between thoughts is the same pause that prevents us from reacting to the man who cut us off in traffic, at immediately saying "yes" to something when we really wanted to say no, to recognizing a belief about ourselves that is no longer serving us and having the ability to let that go by replacing it with another empowering belief.
In my next post, I'll explain the different types of meditation and how versatile the practice.
In the meantime, if you're curious about meditation or have had trouble with meditating on your own, then let's chat.
If you're also someone who has said "Meditation isn't for me. I can't stop thinking/ my mind is too busy/ it's frustrating" then I'm happy to share that you, more than anyone, could benefit from this practice the most.