on meditation ⬇️
After meditating for a while, there a few things about it that I really like and hope to describe in some way
that is less "spiritual" which I think puts some people off.
focusing on your body ⬇️
Firstly, noticing how you feel in your body is very grounding, it helps you to feel, it helps you to place
your mind and centre back in your physical location. It’s quite relaxing to notice where you are, think
simply about your surroundings and feel that you are somewhere right now, existing in a place in a moment
with some things around you. It’s just that. You are here right now and you are going to think about some
things.
noticing our ideas ⬇️
Secondly, we rarely notice our ideas, we just have them and exist in them without noticing we’re having
them. If we identify really strongly with our ideas as belonging to us and forming our identity then we get
into a tricky situation where we are trying to resist our own thought process when we don’t like our own
thoughts. Meditation allows us to change this process. By noticing ourselves having thoughts we become
better at seeing the process for what it is - our brain wants to think things, it’s pretty good at
connecting random dots to produce ideas, but not very good at telling itself what it’s just done, and just
like moving your arm doesn’t tell you how it works, your brain doesn’t tell you how it works either -
meditation is how we come to see the mind at work.
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“When we resist or obsess over thoughts, we pour fuel on the fire. It’s far better to step back,
observe, and let the fire peter out on its own”.
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“Focusing on meaning, we miss the discovery. Focusing on the destination, we miss the journey”.
relaxing our mind ⬇️
Thirdly, this idea of washing your mind or doing something that actively relaxes it. Our mind is a bit like
a machine and every now then it can do with a clean. Focusing our mind on something really simple, that
requires all of its attention but is a really simple task is very relaxing. We might get this from menial
tasks sometimes - like doing some basic drumming or tapping, or maybe from listening to music, our mind kind
of switches off or goes into this flow state where it’s preoccupied doing something but it’s not stressful,
it’s easy enough to just kind of go into autopilot but it’s hard enough that you can’t think about other
things at the same time - this is often the feeling I get when I meditate. But it’s a bit more than just a
distraction, we are actually feeling out the very mechanism by which we are having thoughts themselves,
watching them arise and drift away.
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“There’s nowhere we can go to escape our mind. So it’s far better to sit down and make friends with
it”.
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“There’s nothing more important than an open mind in meditation. As soon as we try to dictate the
experience, we’re thinking, not meditating”.
being conscious ⬇️
Fourth, we are rarely conscious during the day. As we grow up we get awfully good with our muscle memory and
can really sleepwalk through our day, week, entire life. When a challenge arises we can open up and rise to
it and meet it, but typically it’s much easier to put up resistance and get angry or frustrated and let the
idea of the challenge itself become bigger than it is. By meditating we train the conscious part of the
mind, we train ourselves to find it easier to tap into our consciousness, to really open up to what we are
feeling right now and facing in front of us, we put ourselves out there a bit more. We are alive, we are
awake, we are vulnerable and we aren’t perfect but we can try and apply ourselves and that’s all we can ask
from ourselves.
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“Meditation isn’t a defined path, it’s a way to approach the path you’re on. Simply apply the
approach to your path”.
acceptance ⬇️
Five, once we become comfortable with thoughts coming and going, we become less judgemental of ourselves and
start to connect the thoughts we are having with feelings that we have and circumstances that we are in.
There’s not necessarily any need to control those feelings or analyse why they are there- most of the time
they’re just feelings and they also come and go, likewise circumstances change. We start to give ourselves
more time and space to just see how things go for a while, tuning into how we feel and what we’re thinking
but not worrying too much about where life takes us because we’re comfortable with the thoughts that arise.
We get a bit better at dealing with shit because it doesn’t pin us down, it washes over us- we don’t ignore
it or treat it superficially, we process it, feel it, see it come and go and know that it’s something that’s
happening to us and not something done by us.
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“The moment we let go of thinking, the moment we step out of confusion, the world appears different.
But the world hasn’t changed. The mind has”.
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“In learning to allow thoughts to come and go with ease, we also learn to be less attached to
circumstances within life’s ebb and flow”.
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“As humans, it’s natural to experience challenging emotions. We can ignore them, resist them, or use
them to better understand the mind”.
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“So much time and effort is spent wanting to be different. Imagine if we spent that time being
comfortable with who we are right now”.
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“Meditation is like a magnifying glass for the mind. The trick is to not get swept away nor shy away
from what we see”.
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“A content mind doesn’t differentiate between busy and quiet, difficult emotions or pleasant ones.
It is at ease with whatever arises”.