Meditation is not hard. If I were to explain it to someone who thinks it has to do with religion or the occult, I’d say this: meditation is exactly like praying, except the fact that you’re not wishing for anything at all. You just sit there, eyes closed, observing everything that’s happening in the mind without resisting or having any sort of intervention. You just sit and notice.
As humans, we’re always trying to find that next big thing. Either a new business, or maybe something that will cure this disease or that issue. Yet we’re always missing the point. And the point is, the greatest issues that we’re facing on a daily basis arise from us being unable to explore simple solutions. A simple solution towards any issue is simply accepting it.
In this guide:
It’s all in the mind
If you can’t accept that you have a problem, no treatment will work for you. This is a known fact, not an ideology or dogma. When you say “I’m facing this issue, I have to do something about it”, then yes, you can do something about it. Most issues we face in the modern world are based on our lack of understanding of how things work around us, but also within. Like the mind.
Meditation is not given enough credit these days. I’ve been doing it for years, but never regularly. For exactly 100 days now, maybe even a tad more, I’ve been doing it regularly, as often as running. I combined the two for a greater result. The mind is where your control panel is. The body is where everything gets put into motion. You can’t have one without the other.
A little deeper into meditation
Many people have many views on meditation. Most people see it as an occult, special, intricate, hard, not working for the usual folk, demanding practice. The reality is this: meditation is just sitting there, closing your eyes, breathing and focusing on the inhalations and exhalations. That’s meditation. What do you do with the mind? Nothing. You can’t turn off the mind, that’s stupid.
What you can do is observe the mind. Consciously observe every thought. Every emotion or feeling that comes from these thoughts. That you can do. That is meditation. Sitting quietly with the content of your mind, observing your thoughts coming and going, and then doing absolutely nothing about it. No intervention, no confrontation, no battle. Just sit and observe.
What I’ve learned from meditation
One of the most important things that I’ve learned from meditating daily for 100 days straight is that there’s no reason to combat the mind. It’s crazy. Here’s a thought. You’ve made up the thought, from memories or from imagining the future. All right, now go fight the thought. Challenge it, put it down, have it put you down, do the entire karate fight with it.
No, you don’t have to do that at all. All you have to do with meditation is, you have to do it. Sit quietly, eyes closed, mind open, and just observe the thoughts. That’s when it works. It’s like running for the mind. When you run, it’s one foot in front of the other. Nothing else. So it is with meditation. One thought after the other, no friction. Fitness for the mind, running for the soul.
1. Fighting the mind is idiotic
When you first start meditating, there’s a war of thinking happening under the hood. You sit there like this, and breathe like that, and try to calm the mind. But the exact opposite is happening. And you can’t control it. Meditation is not about that. You can’t control the fastest, most intelligent supercomputer on the planet. The mind is powerful. But you can tame it.
2. (Most) thoughts are useless
For a thing as powerful as the mind is, most of the stuff that it throws at you is useless. 99% of our thoughts are just pointless crap. Recycled memories, which mostly get us into cycles of thinking that get us nowhere. Meditation lets us see thoughts for what they are: simple thoughts, mostly useless. From the ocean of thoughts, we can then select the good and amazing ones.
3. Sitting down with yourself shouldn’t be hard
But it is. At least during your first few tries. Sitting there, doing nothing is extremely hard. Thoughts going around everywhere. Body aching. Screaming for you to stop this nonsense and get on Instagram. You know why? Because sitting down with yourself is unpleasant. Which means you are an unpleasant host to yourself. Meditation will slowly change that, no doubt.
4. Whatever you want to do, you can do
While meditating, the mind will ultimately become still. Not quiet. Still, calm, relaxed. This is when you can actually think consciously. Not just have a mental breakdown every time a nagging thought comes along. When this is the case, you will see that whatever you think about doing will be met with tons of ways of doing that certain thing. Everything becomes possible, literally.
5. The more you do it, the better the outcome
Meditation works if it becomes a habit. Like most other things. Making money works if you get good at what you do. Which never happens overnight. In order for meditation to work for you, make it a part of your day. Ten minutes a day are enough. What will you gain? Mental clarity, enjoyment of anything and everything, a sense of calm and ease. Just do it, every single day.
Next? Yoga, obviously. I just hope I won’t break anything in my room with it…
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Hi! My name is Gabriel, nice to meet you.
I run Gabriel Iosa Writing Services, my online dream business that’s now 4 years in the making. I’ve also worked as a journalist for 9 years and counting. My job is to come up with the best content for you regardless if it’s for your blog, website, book, social media posts or anything else. I can also help you with organic or paid reach so that you can put your products or services right in front of your future clients.
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