There are many scientifically proven physical benefits to a Meditation practice. Meditating can lower your blood pressure, reduce anxiety and stress and improve sleep. These reasons alone could be enough incentive to begin practicing, but they are not the ultimate reasons why I teach and encourage people to meditate. The best reason to adopt a meditation practice is because meditation will make you fall in love with yourself.
The more you get to know yourself the more you will love yourself. The practice of Mediation reveals our authenticity not only to ourselves but to others. You become aware of your thoughts and your feelings at such a deep and profound level that they become impossible to ignore. You begin an intimate relationship with yourself. You begin to know yourself so well that your intuition strengthens to the point where it cannot be ignored. Automatically, you become true to yourself. Your instincts will sharpen and will kick in upon necessity.
Certainly, your flaws will be revealed along with your qualities, but both aspects will become very attractive. It becomes apparent that your beauty is found within your imperfections. When you develop a consistent mediation practice the subtle parts of yourself are discovered, for better or worse, and the relationship with yourself is developed and deepens over time.
Knowing yourself is more important than changing or improving yourself. In fact, real change is a result of knowing who you are and loving yourself so much that changes begin to occur without having to pummel yourself into submission. You don’t have to twist yourself into a knot to become the person you admire and appreciate. It’s the other way around. Once you admire and appreciate yourself you will witness change taking place in a way that is organic, with no need to struggle.
Meditation will alchemize you with the outer world. People, circumstances and opportunities come into your life that help you maneuver through the world with grace and competence. You will no longer feel the need to force things to happen, but you will provide the space to allow things to unfold for you.
The best part is these changes occur on their own. Your only job is to learn how to meditate and make it part of your daily practice. Everything is energy, including human beings. As energy we are vibrating with varying frequencies. Meditation practice can induce positive emotions which can raise one’s frequency. There are some theories that would suggest higher frequencies influence our thoughts, which, in turn, alter our reality. Although, yet to be proven scientifically, the anecdotal evidence for this is compelling. People who practice meditation have witnessed significant improvements and serendipitous occurrences in their lives.
As simple as meditation sounds, it is a difficult challenge. The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal once said…. ”all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Although you can be graced in an instant with sudden wisdom and understanding, for the most part it is a one step forward, two steps back process. Typically, the improvements are incremental and miniscule, but rest assured they are solid and accumulative. As a teacher, my job is not only to teach the actual techniques but provide the encouragement and support to my students, so they don’t give up. One does not have to devote a lot of time to meditation, its more about consistency. Three minutes three times a day every day can be just as powerful and sitting for 30 minutes every morning. The key is to adopt the practice that works for you. Start somewhere and see where it goes.
Don’t waste time and energy living your life the way others expect you to. Instead, practice meditation and allow the life that is uniquely meant for you to reveal itself. Enjoy the freedom to live life on your own terms. I believe this is your obligation to yourself and your responsibility to the rest of the world.
