Happy World Meditation Day!
Who really knows their Ohm from their Om? I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’s spent years flirting with meditation of all hues and vibes. When we’re feeling all wrong, we can check our Qui Gong but how do we know it’s not more likely to be our Kundalini in chaos?
The truth is, I’m still confused! But the really good news is that we don’t need to know the detail – in many ways meditation is a metaphor for life. It’s so, so easy to get wrapped up in waves of left brain loops, well meaning wisdom and advice, along with credible bullets of short-cut logic intended to guide us to ‘the right’ meditation as quickly as possible.
The Purists. The Disciplinarians. The Trendies. The Intellectuals. We’ve all got our favoured angle, as unique as the nose on our face.
Here’s the big scoop, a result of decades of my mindful dallying “Don’t think!” Feel your way around the meditation minefield, if it feels right stay with it until you’re guided towards another flow.
My motto is clear:
If you’re getting results, it works for you, it’s right.
If it works for you, keep doing it.
Stay blinkered, you do not need to know what others are doing.
When you’re ready to find something new it will be presented, you do not need to search.
Focus on feeling the ‘new you’ vibe, you will attract perfectly.
You cannot fool The Universe. You have attracted your life as it is through a magical force of vibration. Culminating from thoughts, patterns, emotions, connections, beliefs, wounding, DNA, health etc – everything counts. From where we shop to how we pray. Everything is energy and therefore contributes towards the frequency of your personal magnetic force field. Radio Stations are a great analogy. Kiss is on 100FM, Capital 98.6, Virgin 97.5 such tiny tweaks to your controls but receiving a totally different experience …. Know your frequency and own it. Do not let anyone mess with your vibe.
Meditation is one of my most important personal disciplines, especially when I need to rebalance my energy, connection and frequency. If I asked you “What is meditation?” How would you respond? Your answer will almost certainly differ to the next person! Meditation is a personal experience and has become one of the most misunderstood words, and practices, in the English language!
I’m not sure where the belief began that the goal of meditation is to stop our thoughts. But I do know it’s a belief that’s caused many a meditator mental anguish and ultimately to retreat from practice. Others believe meditation means we must be absolutely still and seek our inner Buddha. No wonder people give up, setting all but impossible goals is not a great motivator for even the most stoic of spiritual students.
Let’s celebrate World Meditation Day today by getting back to basics. Across the globe researchers consistently conclude that meditation really does produce significant and measurable brain benefits.
Yale Researchers have used newly available brain imaging to prove that experienced meditators are able to switch off areas of the brain. Specifically impacting brain regions associated with daydreaming and also psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.
“Meditation has been shown to help in variety of health problems, such as helping people quit smoking, cope with cancer, and even prevent psoriasis.” Says Brewer, a Yale Assistant Psychiatry Professor.
I started Transcendental Meditation last year and can vouch for the hype and much more. The toughest part is finding the discipline to take two thirty minute chunks out of my day! I knew when Oprah, Goldie, Jennifer and Gwyneth were spouting enthusiastically in the media about their commitment to practice, there must be some pretty big payback. These are busy peeps, I can’t imagine they set aside an hour a day without serious consideration of the benefits!
When it comes to mental issues common in old age, a study from UCLA shows reduction in brain volume and density in old time meditators is significantly reduced compared to non-meditators. This is true throughout the brain, rather than just specific regions, as scientists had anticipated.
My own 15 years of encouraging people to find their unique meditative state supports research findings. Pretty much everyone benefits from a well curated guided meditation to connect with our elusive inner child, or perhaps our fantastically feisty teen. Maybe it’s a meditation to help connect with repressed emotions we really need. Or simply a practice promoting deeper relaxation and awareness of self. There are so many ways I use meditation to help people become their best selves. When peeling back the layers, it’s also a powerful daily practice to witness ourselves and who we’ve been today.
If you’re in need of a little inspiration and want to give it a go.
Meditate on being the best version of you. ( Conscious awareness is adorably addictive, be warned 🙂
Sit with your feet on the ground and back straight.
Breath in to the count of four through your nose.
Notice the feeling of the air coming into your body
When you get to the top, hold for the count of four.
Continue to focus on the feelings of the air in and around your body
Now exhale to the count of six
Go slowly, empty yourself of air, go as low as you can go. ↯
Do this several times until you feel comfortable closing your eyes
Now focus on your breathing as you inquire to yourself what the best version of you would do right now, in this very moment
Just let that feeling flow through you. Do not question or judge as right or wrong. Good or bad. Whatever you’re thinking and feeling is enough.
Keep focusing on your breathing.
And keep feeling how it feels to be the best version of yourself in this moment.
Breath that feeling into every cell of your being, over and over.
(Some people shudder and shake as they break through to another energy level, relax into it, know it’s a good sign. )
You cannot force, nor control, the process but you must set the intention to be open to flow. Let the flow find you. It may not happen on day one but you might be surprised how fast you find an inner well of peace and contentment which colours your life.
Meditation is energy at work. It’s important to surrender control but to take action in line with your goal and then to trust. The Universe will deliver your frequency back to you, with perfection. Daily meditation is proven to help us feel good, rebalance, de-stress, release low vibe, toxic energies, reconnect us with self. Perhaps most under-rated is the knowledge that regular meditation practice reduces our sense of separation from others, whilst nurturing a feeling of connectedness.
With just a short period of consistent practice you can expect unconsciously held low vibe emotions to be raised to the surface for your awareness, process and release.
Happy illumination, connectedness and vibing ………..May The Force be with you!
Namaste.
