{"id":9326,"date":"2014-03-29T12:28:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T12:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/blog\/?p=70"},"modified":"2021-07-31T13:20:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T13:20:42","slug":"making-meditation-work-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/making-meditation-work-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Meditation Work for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without a doubt, meditation has made more of an impact in my life than any other ”self-improvement” tool I have utilized in my little journey. Research is continually emerging showing the practice to be beneficial for all sorts of conditions, both mental and physical. How exactly is not always understood, but this simple act appears to produce all sorts of changes in the body which benefit our health.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also an extremely powerful spiritual tool, which aids us in strengthening our connection to God, the Universe or whatever force you believe lies at the foundation of this crazy existence of ours. Whether your interest in meditation lies in its practical or spiritual benefits, you probably know adopting a regular practice can be quite the challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having been meditating regularly for years now, I still find it difficult sometimes, and still find myself making lame excuses why I can’t sit. Having had many conversations with people who spoke of their failed attempts to meditate, I wanted to share a few tips that can hopefully inspire you to keep going.<\/span><\/p>\n

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If you find it difficult to sit the first few times you try to meditate, don’t conclude you are not cut out for the practice and give up completely. Just keep trying. Even if you let yourself go a few weeks without doing it, give it another go. Keep at it until you are able to sit daily, or at the very least, several days a week. It might be a long road to becoming a ”regular” meditator, but there is no rush.<\/span><\/p>\n

Start off with shorter sessions; no need to jump right into 60 straight minutes in lotus position. Even if you just sit for five minutes to start, you will begin to notice a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Accept Each Session for What It Is<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When we first begin meditating, we have this vision of becoming this zen-like person who enters another dimension during our session. Our minds are completely devoid of thoughts and we are just humming with powerful, life-altering energy. While the longer you sit, the more profound your sessions may become overall, you will also have some sessions that may not feel much like meditation at all. You may find yourself thinking of your 3rd grade crush, or unable to get the theme song from Spongbob Squarepants out of your head ( this actually happened to me once, and I have no idea what made it pop into my head.)<\/span><\/p>\n

You may feel worse after rather than better.\u00a0 This does not mean you are not progressing, or that you are regressing,it just is what it is. Don’t let this discourage you.\u00a0 No matter what sort of experiences you have during an individual session, know that regular practice will impact all areas of your life positively. Don’t focus too much on what happens during your actual meditation session.<\/span><\/p>\n

The More You Are Resisting a Session, The More You Need It<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are going to be times when you are feeling particularly anxious, irritated, depressed or whatever, and the last thing you will feel like doing is meditating. But, the more you resist sitting, the more you actually need to. Even after all these years, I find myself skipping sessions because of this, so I get how hard it is. So, you will find yourself doing it too probably, and that is okay. But, keep this truth in your awareness, and do your best to sit, at least for a few minutes, when you are feeling this way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t Worry about Emptying Your Head of All Thoughts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Meditation is all about calming the mind, and while we should try to keep our thoughts to a minimum, it is almost impossible for most of us to just not think about anything at all. And that is okay…it does not make you some sort of mediation flunkie. In this situation, your goal should be learning to observe all these thoughts without becoming attached to them, or making any sort of judgment about them. It is about learning the powerful truth that all this mental chatter is not you, it is separate from you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling Like You Might Go Crazy is Not Crazy at All<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When you first start meditating, it seems like your mind speeds up to a thousand miles an hour. But, guess what? That is the speed at which your mind is normally operating, but you just don’t notice it because you are busy doing all this other stuff at the same time. When you slow down, and it is nothing but you and your thoughts, it can feel overwhelming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes you might feel like you could go crazy; we have all been there, and feeling that way is actually anything but crazy. I remember being at a retreat where we were meditating several hours a day, and I can’t remember how many sessions I felt like running out of the hall screaming because the thought of sitting there for one more minute seemed unbearable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Buddha noted meditation as one of the key practices to purify our minds, reduce our suffering and improve our lives. If you don’t know much about him, let me just tell you he was one smart cookie, and following his advice, regardless of your belief system, is a good idea. Trust me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without a doubt, meditation has made more of an impact in my life than any other ”self-improvement” tool I have utilized in my little journey. Research is continually emerging showing the practice to be beneficial for all sorts of conditions, both mental and physical. How exactly is not always understood, but this simple act appears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,29],"tags":[27,23],"class_list":["post-9326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inner-peace","category-meditation","tag-inner-peace-2","tag-meditation-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}