One of the most beautiful tools/actions we can take to clear the mind, connect inside ourselves, relax, regenerate and re align the chakra system. There are many misconceptions about meditating. People seem to have a perceived notion of meditation being hard, fearful, has to be a certain way… I found there were too many rules and for the most part I found it was creating another belief system I didn’t need to add to the list. Thats why I don’t call it meditation anymore, I call it inward time or self time and I do breath work to help connect, centre and align myself.
The mind will make up all kinds of reasons for you not to have inward time or meditate. The most common reasons people give for not meditating or taking time to go inward; “I don't have time in my life, it’s too hard, I can't stop my mind from racing, I don't know how, it takes to much focus and I don't have focus, I can’t keep my legs crossed very long, its uncomfortable, it’s too noisy where I live, I have kids, I work a lot”…
I will admit in the beginning I had no idea how, what or why to meditate. I just felt it would be a good practice to learn to quiet the mind chatter and go deeper into myself.
At the point I started working with meditation I was on meds for ADHD as well as Bi-polar and depression. My mind was all over the place and I didn't feel like I would be able to do it, or for very long. I had excuses rolling around in the mind like nobody’s business, but I also had a good friend that told me the benefits and what it could do for me. So, I started giving it a try. I would sit cross legged, straight back, crown chakra shooting to the stars; it seemed correct as to what I had read anyways. So I was doing this for a while, maybe a few times a week for a couple months. My friend asked how it was going, I said not the best. I was finding it tough to concentrate and stay focused, my mind was racing as well as my legs were going numb and I was very uncomfortable throughout the meditations. I was frustrated and felt like it wasn't for me. I would decide to meditate and the excuses would start coming, almost like a fear of not knowing would creep in that would have me skip meditation or self time. My friend smiled and told me this; “Jeromie, meditation is not perfect, there is no correct way to do it. Meditation should be comfortable for starters so get comfortable, lie down, sit up, sit in a chair, stare at a candle, go for a walk… So many ways to do this, but you need to be comfortable or it will take away from the meditation.” I quickly realized I did way better with meditation lying down. Also, she said as far as the mind racing, you are meditating to learn to release the mind, so do just that. When thoughts come up, instead of engaging with them, see them come up and let them go, do not engage them. Of course it will happen but just keep releasing them as you catch yourself engaging. I even started using the word release to myself when I caught myself running with thoughts, this helped as well. The point is, a lot of us are running from meditation letting the mind create excuses, it’s mostly due to having to be with ourselves for a short period of time in quiet. We run from our thoughts on a daily basis, why would we want to be with those thoughts... Lol and you don't need to be. You simply release them. As we learn and practice releasing the thoughts we are training a sort of muscle, this will make it easier and easier every time we go inward or meditate. They do say most people give up on meditation within the first few weeks as they get frustrated. Well that's the total opposite of what we are trying to accomplish here. We don't want to put any expectations or beliefs towards the process, this is why I don’t stay fixed with the word meditation.
At the beginning we are literally just getting used to the action of releasing the thoughts. This can be done very well by using and focusing on the breath. The breath is such a powerful force. We can do all kinds of releasing with the breath in different ways and practices but for beginning meditation or inward time we are focusing on the deep inhalation in and the deep exhalation out. Eyes closed focusing on the breath will keep us from engaging in the wandering random thoughts, as soon as we feel ourselves caught in thoughts we go straight to the breath, big deep inhale through the nose feeling it fill your belly, bringing the breath up filling the chest and then the shoulders feeling a slight lift and hold for a couple seconds, then release through the mouth. This is powerful on its own. You will see that if you truly focus on your breath you are definitely not thinking about doing laundry. Always use the breath to focus you, it’s a gift of a tool as well as the breath is going to take you into a deep state of consciousness. I always begin with that breathing technique as it pulls me in quick, if my mind is really racing, I keep doing it focusing on every step of the breath with all of my attention, feeling it come into every area of my body as well as making sure my entire body is relaxed from head to toe. Making sure I am holding no tension anywhere. We can hold tension in our eyes, shoulders, hips and hands or anywhere really so do a scan to see you are relaxed and always back to the breath. Basically you are training your mind to turn off when you want it to. Obviously there will be a learning curve so it’s important not to judge yourself or give up. Again it’s like riding a bike, first couple times were not the most fun, but as we went on we were riding with no hands, it’s the same principle. Allowing this practice the time and space to grow is essential, next thing you know you will be a master of stillness and quieting the mind which will come in handy later along your journey ;)
As far as how long we go inward or meditate, that's all up to you and what kind of time you can and will put towards this practice. Starting with 5-10 mins just to start to feel the breath and how to release the thoughts is great. On you tube there are all kinds of meditations to listen to, I personally use a mix of binaural beats, selfaggio, delta, beta and theta waves etc. So as we just spoke about energy and chakras we know that everything is energy and has a frequency, each chakra has a specific note and frequency it resonates too. So if we are playing the frequency that resonates to our heart chakra then we are doing some sound balancing and aligning our heart center. You can find meditations that work on all 7 chakras or just each individually. Or you can find beautiful guided meditations, these are great as well to keep your mind from wandering in the beginning or we can just simply sit in quiet and be in stillness. All are wonderful and again there is no perfect way. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, if someone tries to say you are doing it “wrong” or there is a perfect way, they are stuck in a program/belief system that is true to them, not you.
Benefits to regular inward time/meditative practice include, reduced stress, anxiety, depression, improves concentration, centered and focused, increases self awareness, increases happiness, slows aging, benefits cardiovascular and immune health, balances chakras, stills the mind chatter and teaches us to just simply “BE”.
After practicing for a while and feeling comfortable we can use inward time to get clear answers to questions we have or go directly into specific chakras to see what is blocking and needs to be released. We can lucid dream and astral travel, this is where we can start to have profound insights as we are releasing the mind, giving us access to higher states of conscious awareness and start cultivating the connection with our “Higher Self”. The main purpose of meditation or inward time to me has always been to connect with my higher self.
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