I Drank the Kool-Aid – Meditation Changed my Life – Can it Help You?

Photography by Sara Therese Moore
Sara Therese Creatistry

 "The goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts, it’s to stop letting them control you.”  ~ Ajay Puri

Do you have a daily meditation practice?  If you do great, keep it up, as the calm you bring to the world is contagious.  

Are you a crisis meditator?  A crisis meditator only meditates when life gets crazy. If you are a crisis meditator, now might be the time to get back into a meditation practice.  

Are you a person who has never meditated, but are interested? Now might be a great time to start a mediation practice.  In this blog, I will share some of my insights and a few meditation resources.

Meditation changed my life.  I had never meditated when a friend sent me an email about a free 21-day meditation challenge. I ignored the email and said to myself, “I have a Type A personality,  I am goal oriented and an ‘achiever’ and always on the go, there is no way I could sit still for a minute let alone thirty minutes.”  I saw the friend again and she asked me if I had tried the meditation challenge and I said that I had not.  So, I went home and said to myself, “I will listen to one day of the meditation challenge and then I can tell my friend it didn’t work for me.”  I plugged in my headphones and listened to a man named davidji lead me in a guided meditation and I was hooked.  I went back and listened to the series from the beginning, it was like coming home to a place of peace.  Then, I signed up for a 3-day meditation retreat.  I drank the Kool-aid as they say (No, meditation is not a religion or a cult, it way to live mindfully and more at peace).  

Meditation changed my life; I became calmer, more grounded, less reactive, I learned to go with the flow. Meditation lowered my blood pressure and I went off all daily prescription medicines. That was 9 years ago and I have meditated every day since my first session.  I took my meditation practice deeper and became a Certified Chopra Center Primordial Sound Meditation Instructor.

Do I still get angry, anxious and depressed?  You bet, I am a human being and doing the best I can when life’s challenges arise.  Meditation doesn’t take stress away; it helps you respond differently to the stressors in life. We will all have challenges in life and we are facing huge challenges now, but meditation helps me respond from a calmer place.  I am now mindful and aware when I am letting my anxiety spin out of control and I recover much faster.  I start each day with 30 minutes of mediation and it sets a peaceful tone for the rest of the day.  

Many people who have tried meditation feel that they are doing it wrong.  There are four things that can happen during a meditation.

1. You repeat your mantra, follow your breath, or whatever tool you are using for the meditation
2. You have thoughts
3. You fall asleep
4. You enter the Gap – the place beyond space and time

People believe that when they meditate that thoughts will stop.  I have NEVER had a meditation without thoughts.  We have 60,000 thoughts a day, they just keep coming and they don’t stop during meditation.  The thoughts slow down and the more I practice the better I get at having fewer thoughts during meditation, but everyone has thoughts during meditation.  So, if you have thoughts during meditation, then give yourself a pat on the back because you are meditating correctly.  We suggest that you repeat your mantra until you realize you are no longer repeating it and then GENTLY return to repeating your mantra – we do not berate ourselves during meditation. This is a time to be nice to yourself and give that Inner Critic a time-out.  

Meditation Resources

1. I have created a Meditation Basics page with a 30-minute presentation on information for beginners about meditation.  The page has the presentation, slides, handouts and some guided meditations. 
   
   
2. Insight Timer is my favorite meditation app.  I use it as a timer for my daily meditations.  However, my students love it for the guided meditations.  Try the free version.  Currently, Insight Timer has over 30,000 free guided meditations focusing on sleep, anxiety and stress, with meditations about coping with Covid-19. Some of my favorite meditation teachers on the app include Tara Brach, Jack Kornfied, Glenn Harrold, davidji, Sharon Salzberg, Thich Nhat Hanh and Liz Gilbert has an excellent presentation on fear.
   
   
3. Hope in Uncertain Times – a 21-day meditation by Deepak Chopra and Oprah started this week.  They usually keep the five most recent meditations available for free. 
   
   
4. 10-day Path to Becoming the Calm Amidst the Chaos by davidji - enjoy the calming voice of davidji and hear his insights about thriving during this pandemic.

 
It is easy to judge a meditation as good or bad, but that is not the point, nor what you should do.  As Deepak Chopra says, “the only bad meditation is the one you don’t show up for.”  The purpose is to show up daily for the meditation practice and you will see the benefits in how you react to the challenges in life during the rest of your day.  

Let’s all find time each day to go to a place of silence and stillness with meditation so that peace and compassion spread throughout the planet.
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Do you have a daily meditation practice?

• If the answer is No, what can you do to begin a practice
  
  
• If the answer is Yes, how is helping you currently?

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