How long should you meditate ?

How Long should you meditate

How Long should you meditate?

This is one of the most asked questions on Meditation.

How long should you meditate?

Honestly speaking, there is no single answer.

The answer depend on your expectations with meditation. If you are planning to live in an Ashram, Retreat Centre or any similar institution to devote yourself fully for the development of your spiritual self, then it would be difficult to assign a specific time schedule for your meditation practice except what will be provided to you by your teachers there. Moreover, when you devote yourself in the practice of meditation full time, you will eventually evolve a time schedule on your own.

However, if you are living in a family setup (as a homemaker or the head of the family or a student) then you will be having a whole lot of activities to do on daily basis. As such, meditation will be one of the many other things you will like to prioritize. My advice on the expected duration of meditation  is aimed towards those people who are living a busy and modern life and want to utilize the full benefit of meditation.

So how much meditation is enough ?  

The fact is : it depends.

To really having a feeling of something, as if you have been immersed in the process of meditation, at least 20 minutes are required.

After a very long practice of meditation that was consciously maintained in an extremely busy schedule, it is my personal opinion that a 20 minutes practice of meditation is bare minimum to have an in depth feeling of it.

So if you can spare at least 20 minutes for your meditation practice, that will  be golden.

But what if you can’t spare even 20 minutes a day for meditation.

Then do it for 15 minutes.

If that is not possible, then do it for 10 minutes. Though this duration of 10 minutes is not enough, still with consistent practice, it will produce its desired effect.

But What is you can’t spare even 10 minutes a day for meditation.

If you don’t have time for even 10 minutes for meditation, then it means 2 things:

1) The first thing is that your priorities are highly  imbalanced. How many minutes you spend everyday on Whatsapp and Facebook? If you can’t spend even 10 minutes on meditation then you need to reorient your priorities. In a day that consist 24 hours, finding a time for 10 minute meditation practice is not an impossible task. The only thing that is required is an honest contemplation of your entire schedule for the day and minimize the non-essential tasks.

2) The second meaning (of your inability to find time for meditation) is the brutally honest fact that you simply don’t want to meditate. As simple as that. Because, just like every other thing in life, you can always find time for something that you want to do.

Let me tell you something on the basis of experience of my own and those of numerous other – Meditation is  joy. It is a sort of pleasing addiction with no negative traits of other addictions. Once you start doing it on regular basis, it will start attracting you like a magnate.  It is something that you will WANT to do daily. Once it happen, you will find time for it.

The only thing that is required is a genuine effort on your part to give meditation a try for at least 10 minutes.

You must be wondering why I did not advise to meditate for 5 minutes or less a day? I know that there have been many videos/article on internet where masters have advised their disciple to meditate for whatever duration they want- even if it is for one minute only. While I respect all these masters, I do not agree with that.

A daily practice of only 5 minutes of meditation per day is not advisable. It must be at least 10 minutes for a bare minimum and at least 20 minutes for some substantial gain. However, when you are doing it daily for at least 10 or more minutes a day and if on a particular day, the prevailing circumstances does not allow you enough time, then and only then, you should reduce your practice for less than 10 minutes. On these days, your emphasis should be to at least ensure the continuance of the practice- even if it is for one minute only. But under no circumstances you should make it a daily routine to meditate for less than 10 minutes.

In summation, my answer to the question : How long should you meditate? is as under :

You should meditate at least 20 minutes a day to ensure fastest growth.

At least 10 minutes a day for ensuring any meaningful gain from it.

Never less than 10 minutes per day as a matter of routine.

Only  in unavoidable circumstances, you may reduce your duration to less than 10 minutes.

I hope you have gained something from above article. In case, you have any question, feel free to ask by making a comment below

Meditation – Does It Help Lower Blood Pressure or Not?

Why Patients with High Blood Pressure Should Practice Meditation

Meditation helps in lower blood pressure

Does Meditation helps lower blood pressure

Meditation is an ancient practice from the Buddhist tradition in which an individual tries to focus on peaceful thoughts and relax their mind. Despite the high-stress environment many people live in today, only about 8 percent of Americans take part in some type of meditation.

However, some research points to the fact that stress may impact heart disease, which is a major cause of death worldwide. For example, psycho-social therapies have been found to prevent secondary heart attacks.

“When stress is excessive, it can contribute to everything from high blood pressure, also called hypertension, to asthma to ulcers to irritable bowel syndrome,” explained Ernesto L. Schiffrin, M.D., Ph.D., physician-in-chief at Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital.

If a high level of stress leads to hypertension, would stress reduction via meditation help to treat the condition? Keep reading to find out!

American Heart Association Found Meditation May Decrease Blood Pressure

In September 2017, a group of heart disease experts and a neuroscientist from the American Heart Association reviewed past research on several typical types of sitting meditation and their impact on heart disease risk factors including blood pressure.

The researchers looked at the following types of meditation:

  1. Relaxation Response
  2. Loving-Kindness (Metta)
  3. Raja Yoga, Mindful Meditation
  4. Zen Meditation
  5. Vipassana
  6. Samantha
  7. Transcendental Meditation.

The findings show that all of these types of meditation decreased anxiety and stress while improving sleep. The researchers also discovered that meditation may have led to lower blood pressure. However, it is difficult to tell exactly how much it would decrease blood pressure in a particular patient.

Hypertension Expert from Massachusetts General Hospital Prescribes Meditation

Randy Zusman, director of the hypertension program at Massachusetts General Hospital, spent much of his career following the traditional route of writing medication prescriptions for patients with high blood pressure.

However, after taking part in a three-month study, he began prescribing meditation to his patients as well as recommending lifestyle changes.

In this study, patients treated for high blood pressure with medication were also enrolled in a relaxation response training program. These particular patients were taking medicine and following recommendations prior to the study, but their blood pressure was still sky high.

The results from the study showed that around 40 out of 60 patients taking part in the meditation program had reduced blood pressure levels and were able to change the dosage of some of their medications.

Once again, research showed that meditation and relaxation programs do result in lower blood pressure.

Stress Management and Meditation

Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Kent State University, and Rice University published a paper in which they discussed how stress-management therapies have been found to successfully reduce blood pressure levels.

Despite this, stress-management treatments have not been widely implemented in the medical field partially due to the lack of healthcare experts who can provide stress management education to patients with high blood pressure.

This is where meditation comes in.

Meditation can be practiced independently and may not have the same mental health stigma associated with stress management techniques. Transcendental meditation is one type that has been widely studied as a type of therapy for high blood pressure.

One study discussed in the paper found that both men and women who underwent transcendental meditation gained significant reductions in blood pressure levels after three months.

Why Meditation is Worthwhile

These are just a few reputable sources that agree that meditation can lower blood pressure levels among many individuals.

But why would you take part in meditation when your doctor only told you to take your medicine?

If you are able to reduce your blood pressure through meditation and other home remedies, you may eventually require a lower dosage or even be able to stop taking medication altogether, depending on your doctor’s advice.

Why would you prefer to stop taking medication?

There are many side effects that blood pressure medication brings. You may feel dizzy, drowsy, tired, or nauseous. Other side effects include increased sensitivity to the cold, headaches and weight changes.

Another negative aspect of taking blood pressure medication is the prohibitive cost and once you add visits with a cardiologist and medical tests, the price grows much too high.

As such, taking part in meditation to reduce your blood pressure is a much simpler measure. All you’ll need to do is look up a video online describing a form of meditation or possibly take a meditation class at your local YMCA.

Then you can find yourself a quiet space, meditate, and watch your blood pressure drop.

About the author :

Trysh Sutton is a wife, mother, attorney, interior decorator, strategic leader and teacher. She runs a website called Pure Path Essential Oils, a naturopathic wellness company that promotes healthy living and healing through the use of essential oils and sustainable living.

5 Tips to Improve Your Mental Health Through Meditation

5 tips to improve mental health through meditation

The role of meditation in promoting improved mental health has been recognized for centuries. As more and more medical studies seem to provide concrete, irrefutable links between good mental health and meditation, however, its positives effects are becoming more mainstream and more widely recognized.

If you think that your own mental health could be improved through meditation then you might be right. If you want to see for yourself, then here are 5 simple ways that meditation could improve your mental health.

Practice

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that meditation can help to reduce anxiety and stress, including from studies at Harvard University. However, in order to gain these benefits, you have to meditate. We recommend setting aside at least 10 minutes a day to meditate, and with this practice, you will inevitably see the benefits to your mood and well-being. There are apps available that can track your practice, such as Headspace.

Listen to guided meditation

Meditation provides a space to think and to listen to your body. Some issues that affect your mental health can have underlying, physical symptoms. But let’s face it, how many of us have time to listen to the signs and warnings our bodies provide us that something is going wrong? Meditation reverses this trend – it allows a period of reflection, where you can actually listen to your body and to your mind. One way of improving your mental health through meditation is to listen to guided meditation tapes of YouTube videos, which can provide a sense of calm. Someone who is well known on YouTube is Jason Stephenson. Check out his guided meditations.

Learn from the best

In today’s hectic lifestyles, with time sapping chores and rigid schedules it can be hard to simply find time to relax – and that is not good news for your overall mental health. Finding time to meditate however can really help in this area too.  However, perhaps even more helpful is to rely on an expert to teach you how to meditate to reduce anxiety. One example is Andy Puddicombe, who is the founder of Headspace and former Buddhist Monk, who has written a number of books and created a number of platforms to help you to learn from the best.

Combine with Yoga

If you suffer from long-term illness then this can often have a detrimental effect on your mental health. Meditation can be an underutilized tool in combating a number of illnesses, both long and short-term. It is particularly effective in managing illnesses that are worsened by stress. ‘Meditation’, of course, can mean a number of things, but by meditation, most of us will mean sitting quietly and contemplating. Yoga, however, is also a form of meditation, and one that, if combined with quiet contemplation, will also aid anxiety, as it provides another way of practicing mindfulness, and will also give you some physical outlet, further helping with your anxiety.

Of course, meditation should not be seen as – and definitely is not – a replacement for traditional treatments for illness. It is a good idea to consider consulting with your physician before you begin a program of meditation.

Try mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is where mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy combine. It involves interrogating your thoughts in order to change your thought process, and it could be very effective in treating anxiety, as it is more the sum of its parts and not merely a combination of mindfulness and CBT. However, if it is to work, you need to stick to it, as practice is the key.

One of the great things about using meditation to help improve your mental health is the fact that is so easy! 10-minute windows of meditation in the day can really work wonders, making it easy to fit into busy schedules. There is little – if actually any – equipment really required.

Marcus regularly blogs at psysci, a psychology, science blog that examines the latest research and explains how findings can impact and improve people’s lives.

 

What if you can’t meditate despite trying

Frustration in Meditation Photo

What to do when you can’t meditate ?

This is a very common problem. You make a routine for meditation and allot some time for meditating. However, despite your trying your level best, you find that on a one particular day or,  for some days in succession, you are not able to meditate.

Focus, simply is not there. You feel as if this whole thing is fake.  Meditation is not for you. No matter, how sincerely you are trying, you are just not able to focus. Time just fly away in that particular slot. You start by focusing on you breathing and, after 15-20 minutes, you end while thinking about that nefarious fellow in your office who is hell bent on creating as much problem in your life as humanely possible. Or you end up thinking about that marvelous shirt you wanted to buy in the Mall during your weekend trip but could not as it was for display only !

In nutshell, your mind go into the whirlwind of desires during that short dedicated span of meditation. And you are nuts.

So what to do in this situation?

Nothing. The very fact that you are realizing that it is difficult to focus during meditation is itself a positive step in the right direction.  You set aside some portion of time in your daily routine for meditation, you sit peacefully during that time for meditation and you tried in a genuine way to meditate. This itself is enough. Even if the end result was not as satisfactory as you wanted. The time that you spent trying to meditate is not all lost. Believe me. When you realize that your mind keeps wandering during meditation, you actually enhance your knowledge about the nature of your monkey mind.

The most difficult thing is to be aware  of this wandering of the mind. Once we get involved in the thought process, we give fuel to this wandering. But as soon as you realize this wandering, you gently come back to the very process of meditation. Then you again got involved in the wandering. Then again you realize and come back. And it goes on.

Slowly slowly, as you keep trying, you deepen your practice. You start choosing not to get involved in the thought process. And this involvement is the food of the mind. Once , the supply of this food is stopped, the mind starts following your command.

It appears difficult in the beginning.  However, as you keep trying, it become very easy. Eventually.

The key is to not get discouraged. When you are working on your mind, you are working on the most difficult beast in the world. It is extremely difficult to tame it. But you can tame it, provided you don’t get frustrated. Provided, you keep learning its nature.

In the long run, the very act of sitting daily for meditation, even if the same does not appear to have any effect on your inner being,  will bring remarkable change in you. Just wait and watch.

Regards,

 

 

OM088 – Exploring the Practice of Radical Acceptance with Morgan Dix

OM088 - Exploring the Practice of Radical Acceptance with Morgan Dix

In this week’s One Mind Podcast I review the book Radical Acceptance, written by buddhist teacher and clinical psychotherapist, Tara Brach.

Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering,” says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork–all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled.

Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach’s twenty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students.”

LINKS:

Purchase the book ‘Radical Acceptance’ by Tara Brach

How Does Mindful Meditation Affect Your Brain

 

Mindfulness and Brain

Mindfulness and Brain

How is it possible to make changes to our brain? Instead of going online or playing another game on your phone, try quieting down your mind.

Not possible instantly!

However, try to pay attention to your thoughts and remain passive without reacting.

Research over the years proves that just a few minutes of meditation may make a big difference. Let’s examine how.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is an active form of brain training. This mental training activates increased awareness of the mind. There are various meditation programs prescribed by experts to approach it in different ways.

A review study conducted by Madhav Goyal of John Hopkins looked at the relationship between mindfulness meditation and its effect on brain. This research established that “meditation isn’t a magic bullet for depression, as no treatment is, but it’s one of the tools that may help manage symptoms.”  

Another evidence has linked practising mindfulness to improvements in many parts of the brain.

Researchers suggest that mindfulness can affect the production of chemicals that change our mood. In fact, there are evidences to prove connections between different regions of the brain that change when we are mindful.

“Mindfulness is a kind of mental exercise for your brain. Based on meditation, it helps you to focus on the present moment.”, says Meena Joshi, Mindfulness Expert for Bupa UK.

Technique & Benefit

Mindful Meditation requires focused attention on one specific thing. This object of focus could be anything – it could be your breathing, a sensation in your body or a particular object outside of you. Mindful Meditation focuses on one point and continuously brings your attention back to that focal point when it wanders away.

An intriguing study carried out by the Yale University proved that meditation reduces activity in the brain’s “Me Centre”. This implies that the mind that meditates amply does not think about itself. It transcends beyond this realm.  Mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN) or the brain network responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts.

Being sad or pensive, or moody is typically associated with worrying about the past and future, the ultimate goal of meditation is to prevent this. Several studies have shown that meditation is an effective natural tranquilliser.

For developing brains of children, the results of mindful meditation are even more promising. To deal with modern stresses, many schools have introduced yoga and meditation into their curriculum.

Several studies have confirmed the cognitive and emotional benefits of meditation on school children as well as adults. Some of the benefits of meditation include:

  • Better Focus
  • Less Anxiety
  • More Creativity
  • More Compassion
  • Better Memory
  • Less Stress &
  • More Gray Matter (associated with energy and intelligence)

 

In fact, a sub-genre of meditation, called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness aims to reduce a person’s stress level, physically and mentally. Studies have proved its efficacy in reducing anxiety even years after the initial 8-week course.

Benefits of Mindful Meditation

In recent years, the public attention has soared about mindful meditation.

Mindful Based Stress Reduction(MBSR) brings about real time change in brain regions involving attention and relief from symptoms of social anxiety, as per Stanford University team research. Therefore, people with social anxiety disorder can benefit from it as well.

  • Well designed studies have shown benefits for patients of depression, chronic pain, and anxiety engaging in a mindfulness meditation program, with effects similar to other existing treatments. Research has also shown benefits of mindfulness meditation on an array of conditions both physical and mental, including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
  • With more studies, researchers have concluded that human mind is a very complex organ and that mindfulness brings about real changes in the brain.

These changes are both simple and very complicated, and that mindfulness is helping us change our minds for the better. Since mind and body work in unison, there are many more unexpected ways that we could expect the results as per the stimuli.

Mindfulness experts reported feeling less pain than people who didn’t practice mindfulness. By not drawing on memories of pain, the experts were able to feel less pain.

  • Another significant benefit of meditation was better brain preservation. A very interesting study from UCLA has pointed out to the benefits of meditation. Meditators who had been practicing meditation for twenty years or longer had better preserved brains and the volume of grey matter was significantly higher too. Even the brain loss that happens with prolonged age is lesser in them.

According to Scientific American Journal, “the effects of mindfulness have been great to see it move away from being a spiritual thing towards proper science and clinical evidence, as stress is a huge problem and has a huge impact on many people’s health. Being able to take time out and focus our mind is increasingly important.”

The quasi-spiritual connotations of meditation have so far prevented mindfulness from being hailed as an antidote to this frantic chaos of  New Age. Mindfulness has come to stay and in few years time, it could become as much a part of our mundane chores like taking a bath or sleeping are.

Contributor Bio – The article is presented by Sharda Hospital. Sharda Hospital is one of the largest super speciality hospitals in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR).

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5-step Formula to (Finally) Creating a Regular Meditation Habit

community meditation Meditation is a desirable habit to cultivate.

There are hundreds of scientific benefits associated with regular meditation, and it is a key life habit that also sparks a chain reaction for other good habits to take hold, such as:

  • Quality sleep
  • Enhanced mood
  • Better relationships
  • Increased self-awareness

If you’ve been wanting to start a regular meditation practice that will create very visible, real and positive changes in your life, follow this 5-step formula.

5-Step Formula

1) Identify

The best way to successfully change any habit is to get crystal clear on why you want to do it. Take out a piece of paper or start a note on your electronic device:

  • Write down all of the reasons you want to meditate. Keep going…
  • Reflect on these reasons and continue to write about very specific circumstances, situations and experiences you would like to see improve.
  • Visualize all the ways your life will be enriched as a result of a regular practice.

For example, if you want to sleep better, continue to reflect on how quality sleep will give you more energy so you can be more productive or creative on a project.

You might visualize how happy and refreshed you feel after waking up from a deep night’s sleep.

Perhaps you become less emotionally reactive when things go wrong and your family comments on how cheerful you are.

Continue this reflection for each of your reasons for wanting to meditate.

When the benefits are more compelling than the time required to meditate, you will find the time. A powerful why can endure any how.

2) Choose

When you are certain your reasons for wanting to meditate are strong enough, pick a start date to begin your meditation habit.

This is critical.

The date you are about to pick is a transformational moment you will remember for the rest of your life.

Take out your calendar and look at the week ahead:

  • Select the day you will begin to consistently practice meditation. Between now and the next 10 days.
  • Clearly mark this day on your calendar.
  • Schedule two short periods of time to meditate that day. It can be as little as 2-minutes or as long as 30-minutes.

I highly recommend that you start small. Perhaps as small as possible to ensure your success.

You may increase the amount of time later, but right now you are establishing a realistic commitment to meditate twice daily, once in the morning and once in the afternoon (for a minimum of 2-minutes).

Pick an amount of time that is “challenge resistant.”

Obstacles will appear. A day will come that you will not feel like meditating.

Your commitment should be so ingrained that you make time no matter how you feel, what else happens or what anyone else says.

From this day forward you will never have to negotiate whether or not you will meditate again. You will simply find the time.

As you move through the next few days, begin to prepare your schedule:

  • Reflect on how you spend time each day.
  • Decide on areas you want to modify, rearrange or rebalance.
  • Begin to adjust or eliminate unwanted things from your life.

Review your whys every day and get excited for what is ahead. Just as you will never forget the day the love of your life appeared, you may never forget the day your life transformed as a result of meditation.

Quick Tip: Set up a daily calendar reminder of your start date. Add the journal notes from Step 1: Identify so you can read them daily and get excited.

3) Energize

Everything in life starts with intention. You have made a powerful decision. The universe has received your intention and the transformation has been set in motion. Now it’s time to energize it.

  • Write down the names of three people who will support you on your meditation journey. These are your “Energizers.”
  • Contact each of these people and share your plan. Most importantly, share why this is important to you and the benefits you desire.
  • Ask for their support and set up a regular check in schedule. What would it look like to have your friends and family support you?

These people are going to be your cheerleaders and accountability partners. They are going to keep you on track, celebrate your wins and support you when you don’t feel like following through on your commitment or hit a stumbling block.

Use these three people as your lifeline for success. If there are other people close to you that you need or want their support, share your excitement for transformation.

It is likely you will inspire others. If you find another person powerfully committed to change (meditation or any other positive life change), become buddies for transformation.

Enjoy the next few days of bubbling excitement and preparation.

Every day reread your whys.

Visualize how your life will be different this time next month or next year. Imagine yourself enjoying the twice daily times you’ve set aside for yourself.

See yourself effortlessly meditating and living life with more joy, clarity, love and ease.

4) Recognize

Habits are never easy to change. You will come up against challenges. Get clear on obstacles that may arise.

  • Brainstorm the three most likely obstacles that will throw you off track.
  • Create a plan to overcome these challenges.
  • Speak with your Energizers in Step 3. Ask them to role play these scenarios with you.

Ask yourself, Am I confident my plan is strong enough to overcome these challenges?

Ask your Energizer, Do you think my plan is strong enough to overcome these challenges?

Create a plan (and a backup plan) for unexpected emergencies. They have a way of coming up at the worst possible time and usually when you least expect it.

Preparation allows you to move through obstacles gracefully without missing a meditation beat.

5) Organize

Organize your life so you have the mental, physical and emotional space for success.

For example, if you were starting a physical cleanse, you would need to prepare the kitchen and pantry. You would likely eliminate processed foods and unhealthy snacks. You would shop and replace these with fresh ingredients and groceries. You would have nutritious menu options planned and healthy snacks that are easy to grab.

Reflect on your schedule and organize your time:

  • Eliminate at least one “time-zapper” from your life.
  • Review your other consistent daily habits.
  • Identify one habit in the morning and another in the late afternoon that you can connect your meditation to.

Habits stick when they are connected to an already established routine.

Consider your morning routine: wake up in bed, rituals in the bathroom, drinking or eating, etc. Review your evening routine: close out the workday, change clothes, switch on the TV, surf the internet, etc. Choose an already existing daily habit (such as brushing your teeth) that you can connect meditation to.

Most people find it easier to maintain a morning practice. As the momentum of the day picks up, it can become difficult to find quiet time, but this is an important time to release stress from a busy day.

Take a mini relaxation break.

Even if it is just for 2-minutes, promise yourself, promise me, that no matter what happens you will sneak away behind a closed door or find a corner to sit down, close your eyes and breathe deeply.

You deserve it. And it continues the momentum of regularity and makes you a meditation super star!

The universe is constantly moving in the direction of higher evolutionary impulses, creativity, abstraction and meaning. – Deepak Chopra

So are you. Cultivating a new habit may not be easy, but you are infinitely flexible.

You are continually evolving. You are a dynamic living being.

The moment you wholeheartedly identify that you truly want meditation to be a part of your life, you become unstoppable. Your life will transform in ways you never imagined.

Have fun, be kind to yourself and enjoy the journey.

When you are ready, start the 31-day Meditation Challenge.

Share your personal tips that have helped you prepare to cultivate or change a habit. How have you been successful?

Share your tips below.

Finding the Faith to Let Go

Finding the Faith to Let Go

When the great mystic poet Rumi was asked, “How should one meditate?” his reply was simply, “Close your eyes and surrender.”

Entering the unknown

Meditation is a conscious practice of letting go of the mind. That means consciously entering into a space in which we authentically and literally know nothing.

This is a very practical way of understanding what might otherwise be spoken about as entering into the divine mystery, or as it has been referred to in classic literature, the cloud of unknowing.

We live in a culture in which knowing is referred above almost all else. Most of us have an intense aversion to the uncertainty and insecurity of not knowing.

When it comes to matters of significance to use we only feel comfortable when we know. As soon as we realize that we don’t know a tremendous need to find out arises in us.

Knowing feels safe. Not knowing feels frightening and dangerous.

When we meditate we enter into the unknown by letting go of the mind and this journey from knowing to not knowing necessitates a profound faith in life because it requires us to give up control.

That is what is so terrifying – giving up control.

Closing our eyes and surrendering.

Letting everything be as it is.

Leap of Faith

Without a tremendous degree of faith it’s impossible to let everything be as it is without any attempt to control or manipulate our experience in any way.

What you need to have faith in is the inherent goodness of life.

You need to know that it’s safe to give up control.

Let go

If you don’t feel safe giving up control – if you are in any way to any degree convinced that you need to defend yourself against life – then it will be impossible to let go of control; it will be impossible to let things be as they are.

If you are uncertain about the inherent goodness of life it wouldn’t make any sense to let go.

The great realizers of all traditions throughout all time unanimously tell us that it is safe to let go.

Yet, we still find it incredibly challenging to have faith, and for good reason. We’ve all been hurt, we’ve all experienced the pain and suffering of life.

The fact that life is inherently good doesn’t mean that pain and suffering do not exist. It means that despite the existence of pain and suffering, there is an overarching goodness to the whole process of being alive.

I would ask you to contemplate for yourself: how much do you trust life?

Give up control

How ready are you to give up control?

Why is it that we think that we can avoid pain and suffering through control and manipulation when the great wisdom of most spiritual traditions tell us that our efforts to manipulate and control are actually the cause of suffering and pain?

Our struggle to control life is making the experience of pain and suffering worse, not better.

Meditation gives us the opportunity to let go, to give up control and discover that life is trustworthy. The universe that gave us life is not out to get us. In spite of the fact that things happen that cause pain and suffering life is fundamentally good.

The recognition that life is fundamentally a benevolent process is one way to understand enlightenment. When we see that life is good we can finally relax into being here.

OM089 – Becoming a Conscious Leader with Megan Marini

OM089 - Becoming a Conscious Leader with Megan Marini

Megan Marini is a speaker on emotional intelligence and conscious leadership. After leaving a job in finance to teach yoga, she dove into wellness and leadership. Later attending Naropa, a contemplative psychology and Buddhist college where she started building communities and mission driven brands. Today she runs Boston Men’s Group, a project that prepares men for the shifting power dynamics in the workforce through leadership and self-awareness training.

LINKS:

Megan’s Website
Boston Men’s Group

Megan’s Facebook Page
Megan’s Twitter Page
Megan’s Instagram Page
Megan’s Linked In Page

Improv and the Art of Being Present

 

Improv and the Art of Being PresentI have minimal experience acting or performing, and recently I pushed an edge of mine and took an 8-week class in improv comedy which culminated in a showcase performance.

My personal goals with taking the class were to spend more time out of my analytical mind and be more fluid and let my natural silliness come out more. I didn’t quite realize how similar the teachings of improv would be to the teachings of meditation and mindfulness.

You Already Have Everything You Need

Each week of the class had its own theme. Appropriately, the week of the first week was “You already have everything you need.”

The idea in the improv class was that you don’t need to go and learn all these different ways to be funny, or a litany of different theatrical styles or concepts in order to be good at improvising. Stick with what you know and how you feel, and you’ll always have something to offer the scene.

The resonance this holds with the core tenets of meditation and mindfulness were immediately apparent. In the practice of meditation, there is no “there” to get to. There is no where you need to be in order to be a “good” meditator or even to be able to do it.

Meditation and being present are so deeply inherent to being alive that most of the process to “learn” how to meditate is to stop engaging in the processes which take us away from being present. Being present in our natural state. We already have all that we need.

Plans are Useless

A friend of mine once quipped that “Planning is essential, but plans are useless.” While it can be helpful to have a general direction for the journey you’re on, making a specific plan often creates undue rigidity and tension on your experience.

With specific plans in place, our minds tend to cling to those plans as the way things should be and we have difficulty handling the natural ebbs and flows and interruptions that life inevitably throws our way.

The day of our showcase I was simultaneously quite nervous and completely at peace. There was no script for me to have memorized, no instrument or musical piece for me to master. There was no preparation possible, which was both relieving and worrisome.

Even without the possibility to be perfectly prepared, my mind anxiously scanned for things that would be funny for me to remember to bring out that night when on stage. Even as that was happening, I knew that process was completely pointless. I had no idea what the situations I would be placed in.

There was equal chance that I would be in a scene at a high school graduation or a courtroom or in the locker room after losing the Super Bowl. Anything was possible, which made it impossible to plan for.

Being Present

I found comfort in the fact that when I was present with the situation on stage, I would know what to do and what do say. Not because I had pre-planned it perfectly. But rather, I would surrender to the moment, and use what was in front of me.

In the end, that’s exactly what happened.

The same goes for every moment of our lives. We can attempt to plan out our days and cover as many details as possible, but when we let go and give ourselves the space to respond to how life has unfolded, that’s when magic happens.

Working with what life gives us in any particular moment gives us the capacity to respond fully and discover the outcome of our actions.

In the end, we are just improvising our way through life. I encourage us all to be present and enjoy the process of making it up as we go.