When I was first introduced to the concept of meditation I was skeptical. Well, no. At first I actually thought this is complete and utter bullshit… yes, that describes it better.
But somehow I came back to it, probably years later when I was reading Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now (which is by now still my favorite book and you can read my book report on how it changed my life here). My perspective on it somehow slowly began to change…
Although I was skeptical at first – after some practice and endless hours of “fighting” stupid thoughts in my head – I slowly began to get it. I began to understand what you can get out of it. I pushed it so far that I now would say that what daily meditation gives you is priceless. I cannot emphasize this enough. I would even go so far and assert, that meditation can cure all your worries and problems (I know this sounds absurd).
So, what is it all about?
Basically meditation is somehow an overused word. It sounds like some zen-like trance-style monk stuff for a most of the people who never heard of it. I was clearly one of them. But it is a rather simple concept. All you have to do is sit in a quiet place where you will not get disturbed for twenty minutes and breathe.
Sounds simple, right?
Well, it may be simple, but not easy. (But I have put together a simple 4-step checklist on how to become more successful with your meditation experience in 5 minutes or less…)
When you decide to do this, your first twenty minutes of meditation will probably be the LONGEST twenty minutes of your life!
The idea behind all this is to focus yourself on your breathing and enter a thoughtless state of mind where your primary focus is the breathing and nothing more. The problem here is that we are not used to this. When we sit in the room and start to watch the blank wall for twenty minutes, probably four seconds later your thoughts are rushing in.
My thoughts were something like:
- “this is stupid”
- “this is so boring”
- “hope this is over soon”
- “why do I even do this”
- “I don’t see the point in it”
- “I have so much more important stuff to do”
- “I should do this”
- “I should do that right now”
- (and a ton of other thoughts like these)
After forcing myself through my first twenty minutes of “meditation” I felt nothing. It felt more like I just wasted some time sitting on the couch looking pointlessly at my wall.
I don’t know what made me to repeat the whole process but the next day I decided to do it again.
With my mindset of “OK let’s get this over with” I again sat on the same spot and focused on my breathing. Again, my thoughts went crazy and I talked to myself how pointless this is.
“Looks like you are far from a “thoughtless state”, buddy!”
I felt idiotic sitting there trying to not think and realizing that I talk to myself the whole time. I felt like a maniac. About 15 minutes of crazy self-talk pass, but then something different happens.
My mind somehow “gave in”.
It almost felt like my inner voice, which I tried to suppress the whole time, surrendered and it went quiet. For the last 4 minutes of this meditation session I was at peace. When the alarm clock I set in the beginning brought me back, I felt amazing. It was like pure peace and my mind felt quiet and at ease. It was simply wow.
I remained sitting on the couch for a while and looked at the wall. Everything felt so vibrant now, like there was somehow a new dimension around me, that I didn’t see and felt before. I know that might sound crazy, but this is the closest I can describe it.
From that day on I never went back, meditating everyday for twenty minutes and I never regret doing it.
What meditation gives you is priceless!
Invest 20 minutes a day into YOURSELF. Not only does it clear your mind and gives you enough space to conquer any challenge in life. It also removes worries and actually every problem you might have. Whenever you focus your thoughts on the present moment you don’t have ANY problems, because there is nothing that can shake you up when your mind is at peace.
It does not mean that you can simply meditation and life gets handled by itself. Definitely not. But you don’t judge it as a problem anymore. Whenever challenges arise now in your life. You just see it as it is. Some issue that calls for action to get it handled.
You don’t make a personal problem out of it anymore, because in fact it isn’t. (Here is my full list of the 50 benefits you can get out of daily meditation…)
For anybody out there who cannot make himself believe this, just try it. Invest 20 minutes of your day in meditation for about one week. Be curious about it. Try to see if this is something you can take advantage of. And if not, you “wasted” only 140 minutes which is probably nothing more than a bad movie you watch on TV. But if you really want to bring yourself to the next level, try it and see for yourself.
You will not be disappointed…
The Dalai Lama said: “If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”
Fun quote right?
I found myself to truly believe this…
(Photo: Flickr)
