Practice meditation

Meditation, Gently Let Go, Simply Begin Again

Three Misconceptions About Meditation

If you want to start a daily meditation practice, gently take care of these basic, understandable misconceptions.

First, a common misunderstanding is that meditation takes the mind from where it is now, to a more blissful state or place.  Second, another misconception is that meditation is designed to block out the unpleasantness of life.

And while it is true that there are valuable relaxation and visualization techniques that encourage us to imagine our favorite relaxing place.  These techniques don’t share the same immediate aim of mindfulness meditation.

We are not looking to flee from life; we are tuning in, getting real.

What’s more, Mindfulness and calming meditation are mutually supporting techniques that aim to help us make continuous, nonjudgemental contact with life.  Consequently, that means choosing to make contact with the unvarnished emotional ups and downs of life. We are not looking to flee; we are tuning in, getting real.

Third, many people think they’re “doing it wrong” or that they’ve failed in the past because their mind often wandered off during meditation.

Yet, the mind wanders. It’s dynamic, energetic, and amazingly creative.  No one can blame you for getting carried away.  Accordingly, when the mind wanders, nothing has gone wrong.

The Mind Wanders.  That’s No Big Deal.

To demonstrate, this style of meditation goes like this.  We set a time for meditation, say five minutes.  Next, we set our intention to restfully focus on the breath as our point of immediate, present awareness during those five minutes.  Then, especially in the beginning of practice, but even in the later stages, the mind wanders.  We notice this wandering.  Next, seeing that no matter how sticky or grabby our thoughts seem, we learn that  we can let go of wandering thoughts.  Above all, we discover that we can gently let go. We can always begin again.

The Mind Is Very Wild.

This is what the great meditation teacher, Pema Chodron, has to say on this topic in an article at Lion’s Roar.  It’s called 5 Reasons to Meditate,

The mind is very wild. The human experience is full of unpredictability and paradox, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. We can’t escape any of these experiences in the vast terrain of our existence. It is part of what makes life grand—and it is also why our minds take us on such a crazy ride. If we can train ourselves through meditation to be more open and more accepting toward the wild arc of our experience, if we can lean into the difficulties of life and the ride of our minds, we can become more settled and relaxed amid whatever life brings us.

Here’s the link to the whole article: lionsroar.com/5-reasons-to-meditate-september-2013/

Here is a link to Part 2 of this post: sweepingheartzen.org/meditation-let-go-begin-again-attention/

Minimalism and simple living: sweepingheartzen.org/zen-minimalism-m…ulness-affection/

Here’s another  link: sweepingheartzen.org/mindfulness_meditation_mind_yoga/

Have a wonderful week!