You probably have heard meditation is great to reduce stress in your body mind and spirit. When you google this ancient practice the list of benefits is quite long. With the long list of benefits you would think it would be easier to meditate on a consistent basis!
Most people tend to struggle with any kind of meditation practice. They give meditation a try and a few days later they become disillusioned and quit because you aren’t noticing any changes yet. Have you ever experienced that? To help you establish more of a consistent practice consider the following approach when it comes to your current or future attempts around meditating.
When you try to meditate so many things fight for your attention! You feel different kinds of sensations in the physical body. Aches and pains from sitting still for too long. Maybe your nose gets itchy. The mental body gets very loud with all kinds of thoughts. You should be cleaning the house. You need to be taking care of the kids first. Then there’s unrest which surfaces in the spirit body. Are you meditating correctly? Is this working? You wonder if meditating can really help you find inner peace!
During meditation unrest in the body, mind and spirit fight for your attention. You continually try to reposition yourself so there are no aches and pains. You continually try to silence all the thoughts running through your mind. You continue to doubt the impact of your meditation. To fight is a reaction and reactions are quite draining. How can you stop reacting in a way that will be most optimal for your growth?
Firstly, whenever you want to make a change of any kind it is not effective to try to change everything all at once. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself permission to work on one area at a time and see the change through to the end. In other words work with one change you can stick with until you experience a positive difference either inside or outside of you. The more positive changes you see the more motivated you are to continue forward.
Go about your meditation breaking down your difficulties into categories of body mind or spirit. Think of just one specific category you could easily work on for yourself.
Do you want to make a change with regards to your physical body? Maybe you heard you need to sit cross legged while you meditate. You try sitting cross legged and find you have muscle cramps or your legs fall asleep. It’s hard to meditate when you are distracted by pain of any kind. Consider sitting on a chair with your spine erect and your feet touching the floor. This practice is very effective and helps you to physically relax throughout the meditation.
Maybe your mind is the area you struggle most with. You find you get really frustrated and distracted by all the thoughts that run through your head. The thoughts which are causing the most frustration would be the ones you need to pay attention to.
Consider learning how the mind works in relation to meditations. As much as it seems there are always thoughts running through your head, those thoughts come and go. It is not possible to hang onto a thought for a long time. If you don’t believe that, think of something good and try to hang onto that thought! See if you can do it.
Frustration is a reaction. What would you be reacting to? Would you be reacting to the content of some of the thoughts? Would you be reacting because you can’t control your mind? Frustration can also have to do with attachment. You may be attached to a certain outcome.
Start to notice what is causing the frustration. Work with the different reactions as they show up. It is far easier to work with one or two reactions at a time. Once you move through the reactions, thoughts will come and go without any frustration at all. You want to get to a point where your thoughts no longer cause you to react. This change alone can be very motivating to move you forward continuing your meditation on a consistent basis.
Maybe the one area you want to focus on has to do with your spirit body. There may be a lot of unrest around wanting to quit because you don’t feel the benefits yet. That’s when excuses surface around the wrong timing and location. You doubt yourself and give up.
It does take time to get into a routine that actually works for you. You may need to experiment on what time of day works best. You may need to really be aware of the different ways you can talk yourself out of doing something you commit to doing. Talking yourself out of things is a form of resistance and resistance can show up in many ways.
Trust yourself to see any changes through to the place where you start to notice a positive difference in yourself. The body mind and spirit all work together as a whole. You cannot make changes in one without impacting the other two. When you make any kind of change and willingly see that change through to the end you will be rewarded in more ways than you know. You may be pleasantly surprised to learn your meditation practice is a great way to release stress and experience the many benefits.
This concept of changing one thing inside of you can easily be applied to any changes you want to make in your life. Make one change inside and people and things outside of you will reflect that change back to you.
Be willing to see changes through to the end. In other words stay with your change until you see and feel the difference inside yourself. That difference inside leads to movement on the outside. Meditation is that powerful.
Wherever you are on your journey, may you find what works for you…find your own truth…and you will always be guided to feel at peace inside.
Sheila Unique, Self Empowerment and Inner Strength Expert!
