Understanding Meditation

When teaching mediation, I often get comments, like “I can’t stop my brain” “I don’t feel anything”, “It’s hard to sit still”. Even the most experienced of mediators experience this. During times of stress we can experience an increase in restlessness during meditation. It is during these times that we want to continue our mediation, and trust that the very process of mediation will ultimately reduce our stressors, even if we are restless during the experience. 

Meditation is a journey from activity into silence. 

There are three basic experiences we have during meditation: 

• Falling Asleep 
• Having thoughts and feeling restless 
• Experiencing inner silence (space between the thoughts) 

ALL of these experiences are correct.  

Meditation allows us to reconnect to ourselves. It has an abundance of health benefits, including reducing stress. Just as soon as you begin the effects are felt within the body. 

• Stimulation of self-repair 
• Lowered blood pressure 
• Decreased inflammation 
• Increased telomeres 
• Can turn off genes contributing to dis-ease 

When you are finished with your meditation you bring a little of this silence and possibility into your day.  

Thoughts and Restlessness: 

As we go about our day, we absorb more and more stresses and white noise that weigh us down. Meditation peels those layers back to reveal the true you. The process itself allows those stresses, toxins, fatigue to be released. This release can cause some agitation during meditation, Rest assured, that even with the agitation or restlessness, the stresses are being released. So hang in there. In addition, just because you are having thoughts during meditation, that doesn’t mean you aren’t in a restful state.  

I have taught multiple forms of meditation, from breath work, mantras, and primordial sound meditation strategies. (More to come on those in the future). Regardless, stay with it. Always return your attention back to the object of your meditation, like your breath or your mantra.  

As Mother Teresa said, “Restlessness is only the surface level of a beautiful wellspring of energy within.” 

Falling Asleep: 

Is it any wonder? We spend so much of our day in motion. Our bodies are designed to Rest-Move-Rest-Move. For most adults we have conditioned our bodies that when I stop, it’s time for sleep. So no wonder when you start to meditate you fall asleep. Rest assured, as your body destresses this will ultimately resolve itself. If it doesn’t, look at your night time sleep habits and start there. As a side note: do not meditate within a few hours of your night time sleeping, and meditate upright rather than lying down.   

No matter what, if you wake up with 5 min left on the time you set aside, then spend those last minutes meditation using your practices.   

We have been taught that the harder we work and the more we focus, the more we will achieve. In meditation it’s the opposite. You actually do less to gain more.  

So today, just begin. There is no such thing as a bad meditation!