11/13/2019 0 Comments Beyond Wanting to Want![]() A curious thing happens often when people find out I am a meditation teacher: they tell me how much they want to learn to meditate. They have heard how good it is for them, know they need to reign in their anxiety/overworked thoughts/stress, etc, have been thinking of starting, and they seem very inspired to learn. When I had just become certified in teaching meditation, I would enjoy these responses with a sense of excitement that I will be able to help this person start a meditation practice which will get them on their way to a calmer life and a greater sense of Self. It's now been a couple of years or so since my first exposure to these conversations, and the sun has set a bit on that enthusiasm. So often I never hear more from the person about meditation, or they will bring it up again but always with the intention of "someday" learning. It could be that they don't even have that little spark of interest in the first place but rather saying they want to learn is just their way of holding up their end of the conversation, believing they are being polite by relating in their way to my interest in meditation (although, I believe ultimately people prefer honesty to politeness, and there are always so many ways to be polite and honest at the same time!). However, I think much - if not all - of the time they are expressing a true desire to learn. More accurately, they want to want to learn to meditate. When we truly want something, we make it happen. We find time every day to eat at least 3 times. Many of us make plenty of time throughout the day to check in to social media. We watch TV, gossip with coworkers, sleep. These are all things we fill our days with because we want to. Getting measurable benefits from meditation requires as little as 12-15 minutes per day, according to research. If we truly want to bring meditation into our lives, we need only dedicate a small fraction of our day to it. If you give 15 minutes of each day to meditation, you would still have 1,425 minutes every single day to do the other things you want to do. For the majority of the population, it's really not a matter of "having the time" for meditation, it is a matter of prioritizing it above the other ways we are filling our days. So, do you want to meditate? Or do you want to want to meditate? If you truly want to get the proven results of meditation, shift from having a vague notion of how you'd like to someday have a meditation practice to realizing that you are the one in charge of your life, and the time is now. Make just a little bit of space in your day for meditation, make it a priority, and start to see the changes! And, of course, if you need assistance with how to start please contact me or another meditation teacher who would be happy to help you get going!
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11/4/2019 0 Comments What Wants to Happen Here?![]() It's been a while since my last blog post! I thought I would be inspired to break down each weekend of my energetic month of Oct (per my last blog post), however what I have found in practice was I didn't really know where to begin (language is oh so limiting!) and I keep putting off writing as I wait for the inspiration to come. My approach at this point is to move beyond feeling I need to share further details of my experiences with the Omega Institute, Sedona, and Reiki training and work with where the energy is flowing. In short, I need to listen to my intuition. Listening to my intuition is an ongoing process for me. Some people are quite confident in following their intuition, but historically I don't feel I've been hugely tuned in to mine. Meditation and my growing spiritual practice over the years have absolutely helped, but I spent much of my life in a much more "practical" frame of mind, counting much more on intellectual reasoning than any inner guidance. Perhaps that is because I don't receive my intuition as "thunderbolts." Some people are quite fortunate to sense inner guidance almost as if it's being given to them. They may hear a response to an inner question, see a vision, get guidance in the form of a dream - there are a number of ways these souls perceive the guidance as though it is generated elsewhere and then handed to them. For me, the intuitive process appears to come directly from within. I often am unable to differentiate my own thought from inspired intuition in such a discernible way as audibly or visually. This often leaves me in a grey area between the rational mind and intuitive guidance. If I feel the thought was created organically within me, then isn't it just one of my thoughts? Sometimes I get inspired while I'm meditating. You might think that this helps solidify that it is true intuition, and yet often even if I think it's a good idea another part of me is thinking my mind must be pretty restless because of the thoughts! lol! What a cycle! It's true that meditation is often about bringing the mind back when it wanders - this is as true for me as it is for you. So again, just because I am meditating when an inspired thought appears doesn't mean I automatically accept it as intuition. So, how do I discern intuition from regular thoughts? A lot of that has to do with trust - trusting myself and the Divine that what I may accept initially as a rational thought is, in fact, intuition. As I give myself to this trusting, I am gaining experience in seeing that when I listen and act accordingly things work out in a more harmonious way. This was proved just moments ago as I proposed an idea to someone which took me outside my comfort zone and had the potential to 1) push me into a space of growth which often also goes hand-in-hand with being unsure if I am ready, and 2) to lead to a bit of embarrassment if she thought it was a terrible idea. I got a quick response of openness, light, and opportunity even beyond what I had asked for. It is continued experiences such as that which help me continue to trust and discern intuition from thought. And you are witnessing through this writing itself intuition at work! As I said, I have felt blocked from blogging lately as I was really trying to shape something from the energetic experiences of October. As I sat to write this post (after disregarding the one in draft which I started yesterday on that stated topic), I really didn't know even what topic I was going to expand upon. I felt that if I just started I could work with my intuition to guide me, even if it took a few days to craft it. In the end, it has flowed very naturally and has taken only a few minutes. Take some time to consider your own inner guidance. Don't feel that just because you don't get some discernible stroke of inspiration that you don't have intuition. Everyone has it! Open yourself up and trust, and you can work with it more and more. |
AuthorI am an Ananda® certified meditation teacher. I am passionate about meditation and embrace a yogic lifestyle for greater wellness physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Archives
February 2020
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