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Meditation – Am I doing it Right?

If you are anything like me ad you spent spent a good portion of your life feeling like you are s spiritual person, knowing you believe in the concept of God, source energy, the creator, higher self and spirit,  regardless of your religious beliefs; then maybe you are also like me and you spent a good portion of your life being weird ed out by the idea of meditation.

Hey its ok if you find meditation to be uncomfortable and strange.  That's the motivation behind this blog post. 

I hope that by sharing my own experience and growth with meditation, I can help soothe and simplify the process with you.

Meditation is gentle and all too often, whether we are new at it or whether we feel seasoned in our practice we all tend to judge our meditation ability.  There is no right or wrong way to meditate.  We are all unique people which is a beautiful thing to be embraced and celebrated.  Meditation is about quieting the mind.  It is about relaxation, peace and communication with divine energy.

 

 IMG_0552Our human tenancy is such that we have ideas about what we think mediation should be and if we hold those images up to our experience of meditation, we start to create the belief that we are doing it wrong.  I will use some of my own experiences with meditation as examples: 

When I began my meditation practice I placed a lot of expectation on myself to find stillness quickly,  I have perfectionist tendencies and so, sitting in the energy of expecting perfection blocked my progress. 

I got irritated with myself if I couldn't block out background noises or the sound of m own thoughts.  I was frustrated if a guided meditation called for me to visualize, and I couldn't seem to bring the image to my mind. 

The pressure I was putting on myself to be an expert at meditation was preventing me from creating the peace and communication with spirit that I was seeking, want to be clear though, that meditation is a journey not a destination.  Some days you will feel a stronger connection than others. 

divine

There may or may not be days when you feel a wonderful profound connection to spirit, and there may be days when things just don't gel, and you feel frustrated and uncomfortable.  That's completely natural.  As humans we tend to be very hard on ourselves, at least I know I am.  But as I progress with my daily meditation I've learned to relax more with it and accept that there is no set of rules for the way meditation is "supposed to be"  I have found the key is in gentle acceptance of what the meditation experience is for you.

Here are some brief suggestions that you may want to use to simplify your meditation process:

1) Focus on your breathing

Allow yourself the time and the comfort to feel your inhalation and exhalation breath.  You may want to close your eyes depending on what is comfortable for you.  Sometimes our human nature may get caught up in our "meditation tools" such as music, length of time, or how we position ourselves during meditation, I have found simplifying to breath to be really important,  When I forget to breathe, my body automatically tenses.  I have also helps when I remember to allow my exhalation breath to be twice as long as my inhale, my relation deepens and my connection to the divine energy deepens too.If you find it hard to focus on your breath, you might want to try taking your pulse and connecting first to the beat of your heart.  Next you can practice your meditation breathing though a straw – with your  exhalation breath being twice as long as your inhale,

2) Try a mixture of techniques and  meditation music styles.

 Pay close attention to how you feel while trying each type.  Notice the feelings in your body, choose what makes you feel most at ease.  Don't be afraid to change styles, techniques, teachers or background sound as time goes on.  Change is a natural part of the process as well, and stagnate energy is sometimes created when we established predictable routines,

3) Practice self love and acceptance of where you are at. 

Allow your mediation to be perfect as it in each moment.  The more you can embrace the feelings, thoughts and distractions that occur and simply allow them to be present without resistance, the more gentle, relaxing and peaceful your practice will become with time.

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