Meditation – What’s It All About?

• Meditation is a term that can be lots of many different things. For me the truth is that for every person on the planet, those practising meditation and those not, there are different definitions.

  Typically meditation is relaxing your thoughts.

  Our minds are full of thoughts – approximately 70,000 thoughts a day. A very high number indeed. To add to this statistic, it is also shown that 95-98% of those 70,000 thoughts are all the same, and the majority are negative or “worries”.

  Some of us worry about our girlfriends or boyfriends or other relationships, we worry about our jobs and careers, we worry about our health, fitness and physical image, and we worry about everything in between. I am most certainly guilty of this “monkey-mind” behaviour. For me, it is meditation that helps me to bring myself away from the worries and into believing that all situations are positive, and that there is something beautiful to be gained from all situations.

  So essentially, meditation is being present. Here. Now. Without thinking about the past or the future.

  When you get into a meditative situation, then you only think about what you are doing there and then – using breathing exercises, or mantra’s, or exercises and poses are great ways of doing this.

  But what stops us from using everyday activities as being a part of our meditative practise? After all, we are all busy in our lives 24/7 who needs another 20-40 minute task of ‘Sitting there with your eyes shut’ to add to their “To Do List”?

  (Of course, sitting there, eyes shut, relaxed and focused on the breath/mantra is very beneficial to your health/mind, but not always necessary for the many, many people that don’t enjoy it and therefore shy away from meditation because it’s “alternative!”)

  You CAN meditate in other ways by being active.

  • Picture a 100m sprinter: For 100m he is 100% focused on what he is doing for the whole time they are sprinting. Nothing else enters the mind.
  • A race car driver: When you are driving over 100mph you NEED to be focused on the task. This can be life or death. Nothing else enters the mind.
  • A painter.
  • A musician, performing live particularly.

  But what about you? Do you find yourself doing your daily tasks and tripping, or spilling things, or knocking things over?

  Try being meditative when you are doing the washing up. Only think about the dishes.

  Try being meditative standing at the queue in the bank. Only think about what you are doing, and don’t let the past or future enter your mind.

  Even when you have these worries about your relationships, or finances, or health, take time to sit (or stand) and only think about the problem/worry, and you will quickly find that the worries tend to disappear or at least seem different to you.

  Have you had any other experiences of meditation that you have found beneficial? I would love to read your comments below.

  “We just need to be present with ourselves”

  
  
  May 5th, 2009 | Brett Sanders | 6 Comments | Tags: being present, Deepak Chopra, Meditation, now

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