Find – not fight – yourself in meditation
“I can’t meditate”
We hear this line so frequently within the Academy from new and interested students. Many who say so without having a sense or a definition of what meditation actually is. There are many pre-established styles of meditation and some are more user-friendly than others. Before deciding whether meditation is something you can or cannot do, take a moment and consider what the purpose of meditation might be.
When you google “meditation”, you will inevitably encounter a plethora of serene images, a scene of a silhouetted person sitting on a beach somewhere, effortlessly finding their zen, sometimes with their hands in the air. Perhaps this a metaphor of how we will feel by meditating, or maybe it’s a literal ideal.
The truth is, most of us don’t have daily access to a quiet beach. Even if we did, we may or may not be comfortable sitting on that rock or sand for long periods of time. You might get cold or wet or distracted by seagulls! This doesn’t mean you can’t meditate! Maybe a forest, a couch, a bed or a bathtub is a better location for you!
Meditation doesn’t have to do with where you are or how you place your body. It has to do with investing and committing your focus to an internal awareness. It is a discipline, but can be approached in ways that suit – not fight- who you are.
“The thing about meditation is: You become more and more you.”
David Lynch
The “I can’t” of meditation is often a result of people feeling like they are fighting themselves in order to experience calm and peace. But what if it isn’t you that you are fighting? What if meditation helps you to build the focus so that you can see yourself beyond all the noise we carry from the world?
We get layered with a lot of stuff in life. Be it the demands of daily life and relationships, to the deeper elements of what keeps us from a feeling of peace: Our history, old pain and fear and the stories we repeat about ourselves over and over…
What if the source of your stress is actually everything and anything that isn’t you? Maybe buried underneath all of that “stuff” is you, just you. When you connect to a greater Love in meditation, the true you can feel safe to come forward, bit by bit, as you build the focus. So as you develop the discipline to meditate, consider what you are committing to. In my experience, there is no better investment than in the relationship with yourself.
From our foundational courses onward, we work with an active style of meditation in the Training in Power Academy. We engage the mind with purposeful activity that helps you to build your focus and bring more Love into your life. If you’d like a sample of our meditational style, check one of the Guided Meditations created by the Academy’s founder Faye Fitzgerald.