How do I convince myself to Meditate I often get asked this question. “Why do you want to meditate?” I ask. “It’s good for me, isn’t it?” “Sure its good for you. But good as in how?” Here I usually meet with a confused stare. “I mean what do you think it will do for you. “I don’t know…I’ve heard it can help you relax, right…and to sleep better?” “Absolutely, and more. But is this what you want, relaxation and better sleep? ”Well, yes…” “Ok, good…. Anything else?” A tentative pause… “Please understand, I’m not trying to pry. My interest in asking you these questions is to try to uncover your internal reasons for wanting to meditate. Other people’s reasons might work for them but they wont help you. No matter how persuasive they may seem.” So why do you want to meditate? Yes, you? Spend some time right now considering this question. Answers may or not come, but that isn’t the point. Consider how you live…how you spend your time and what you find yourself regularly focusing on and thinking about? Consider what you know about yourself, too. For example, you are a living being given to paying attention to the things that you do, to what you think about and to how you feel. But do you also pay attention to your being? Are you present when you are doing, thinking and feeling? Whatever your reasons for wanting to meditate rest assured beneath this desire lies a deeper motivation compelling you to better-understand yourself, from within. To meet yourself eye to eye. The very act of enquiring in this manner will bring you to a closer understanding of yourself, and you may be surprised to discover simply sitting there, being, with increased awareness. Answers may or may not be forthcoming. Just sitting with the questions is all that’s needed. Meditation will help you unwind; it will help to quiet your mind and to sleep more soundly too; it will help you deal with negative emotions and anxiety. Significantly, meditation will return presence into your life. Practically this means that you will learn to live your life with presence. Since it is in the absence of presence that stress and anxiety arise, this is highly important. Stress and anxiety are manifestations of habitual reactions to outer stimuli when there is no one there to oversee… Without presence we live as if on “automatic”, in accordance with the precepts of our conditioning. Influences from the outside which we can’t always control, topple us easy. With presence the picture is vastly different. Awareness is there. Reactions are replaced with thoughtful responses. Whatever your reason for wanting to meditate - and the reasons are as varied as the individuals who take up the practice - ultimately the primary motivating factor is bound to be Self Realization. Knowing this may or may not help you to establish a regular meditation practice. It may not even touch you in any significant way. But it will get you thinking, that there is more to you than mere action, thought, and feeling. “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body!”
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 22:42:31 +0000