Quiet the mind and the soul will speak.
If you’ve read my self-discovery series, you may recall that in Part 2, I asked you to meditate. I suspect many of you visiting Codex Vita may already have a daily meditation practice, but for those of you that don’t I felt a bit guilty with the brief instructions I left you with. However, I did promise to explore meditation with you – and so here we go with the very first of (what is destined to be) many posts on meditation.
Before we delve into techniques, tips, and tricks I thought it might be worth exploring why meditation is so important to our well-being. Oh, and maybe we should define what meditation is since it is one of those terms everyone seems to have a different definition for. Realizing some of you may not agree with my definition (and that's ok, I forgive you), here we go!
I view meditation as the practice of quieting the mind, allowing it to open up to input from the universe. Often we meditate to achieve understanding on a specific topic of interest or focus. That focus might be the discovery of your life purpose, an exploration of the relationships in your life, a reordering of thoughts to solve a particular problem, to derive health benefits, or simply to find inner calm and peace. You get the idea! There are many different approaches to achieving the meditative state, but the end game is always the same – to quiet the mind and allow it to open to the universe.
So what the heck is this “universe” stuff you ask? Trust me for now on the importance of connecting to the universe. We are going to spend a lot of time talking about what this means in other posts. For now, just accept it as the way you bring your life’s desires into being. You may have already heard of “manifesting” and “The Law of Attraction.” That’s what I’m talking about! Much, much more to come on this subject!
Let’s get back on topic by examining the opening quote which actually sums meditation up quite well. Quieting our mind through meditation, even in the midst of the cacophony that is life, allows us to hear our inner soul (the universe). This opens our mind to all of the possibilities we are capable of achieving. It produces an inner calm and happiness and enables us to gain insight into ourselves – our inner mind, our deepest desires, possibilities that are open to us if only we can see them.
Meditation can allow us to flow our thoughts freely, engaging us in a dialog with ourselves. This is how we discover the inner guidance that leads us through life. Without the quiet mind that comes from meditation we often cannot hear the inner guidance that is so critical to leading a meaningful life. Just as an aside, you might be interested to know that I meditate before I write each post, asking for guidance in writing in a meaningful and engaging way. I’ll let you be the judge on whether it's working for me!
While the benefits to the mind make meditation worthwhile in and of itself, there are a host of benefits to the body as well! There are published studies showing meditation can lower your blood pressure, enhance your immune system, reduce inflammation, and even alter your genetics by activating genes that fight disease (according to Dr. Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who led the research discovering this phenomenon).
So, you might be thinking, meditate schmeditate, what’s the big deal? How hard can it be to sit down and clear your mind? Well, it turns out it can be quite the challenge! We are confronted with many directions in our thoughts throughout the day. Worse yet, the thoughts are often random and constantly changing as our point of focus changes. So many people tell me what a difficult time they have finding their way into a meditative state! The challenges of today’s hectic lifestyle present a constant barrage of information to our brains that simply doesn’t stop, even when we seek a quiet space. Quieting the mind can be such an incredibly difficult task at first, so much so that many people give up on meditation after only a few attempts.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way! We are going to systematically explore ways to achieve a meditative state. What you will discover is that some of the methods will simply not work for you. However, all it takes is to find that one method that does work! So, stick with this series. If a particular technique doesn’t work for you, abandon it and move on to the next technique. Of the ones that do work, some will be more effective than others. Each method brings a new way of discovering ourselves and our true path in life. This is why you have to explore all of them as you embark on your journey to a holistic lifestyle!
You might wonder how meditation fits into the overall scheme of holistic living. It turns out almost everything we will do and talk about will require some degree of “turning inward” that is enabled through meditation. You could say it is one of the foundational skills we must have to follow an authentic, holistic lifestyle.
Hang on to your hats, next post we are going to meditate!!!
Namaste