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Welcome to the Eastwesticism podcast where our host Todd Perelmuter shares the lessons he's learned spending eight years living with gurus, monks, lamas, and shamans across 35 countries and five continents. Join in the journey as he brings the best scientifically proven methods for living your best life from the east and the west, straight to the path to peace, love, health, and happiness starts here.

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Hello, hello. Hello, and welcome. And thank you for listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter. And today, we're going to answer a question that I get all the time in my meditation classes. So many people ask this, so I thought it'd be a good time to briefly talk about it. The question I get is, How do I know if I'm meditating correctly? It's such a common question. Because everything we do in our lives, we do with care and concern. And we wonder if we're doing it correctly. 

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But meditation is the one thing where you're not doing anything. You're only being we are human beings. We're doing constantly. But we are in meditation, able to just be. And so we've been conditioned, am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? That we don't actually understand that meditation is the one thing we're doing right or wrong does not come into play. 

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The only wrong way to meditate is to not meditate. What people usually really mean when they say, Am I doing it correctly, is they mean, I'm thinking all the time. I can't stop my mind from racing. I keep forgetting to focus on my breath. I keep forgetting to say the mantra. You know, however, however you're meditating, they keep you know, they they lose focus. 

2:36  
And that is so normal, when 100% of your waking life has been in constant thought that it's not going to stop this deeply ingrained, habitual thought process that it's developed over decades, in 20 minutes, two minutes, 10 minutes. And the most important thing is to let go of the expectation that you're going to be amazing the first time or that you're going to clear your mind for 20 minutes or that it's going to be some magical experience. 

3:19  
All of these things make it more difficult to relax and settle in and make peace with the nothingness. Simply by sitting down, closing your eyes, tuning out any distractions. And just sitting with your thoughts is an incredible meditation. You cannot do it wrong. You are developing and it won't be overnight. But you are developing patience. You are developing a sense of calmness, acceptance with what is your developing a focus and concentration. 

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By learning to block out distractions, you are heightening your awareness. Because without distractions, you're able to observe your thoughts and your emotions and your body. Whether you're meditating by repeating a mantra in your mind, or trying to focus on your breath, or observing your body, it's completely natural, even after years of meditating, to be lost in thought most of the time, but over time, there will be brief moments of pure awareness. 

4:56  
And over time those brief moments will become longer. or there'll become more of them. And all it takes is one brief moment to stop a habitual train of thought a to break your habitual thinking, and to become conscious. And that can change your whole thought patterns that can change your whole day. They say a lot that meditation isn't about the actual act of meditation. 

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It's not supposed to be about a half hour of bliss. It's about how does it make you feel the rest of the day? How does that spill over into the rest of your life? How does that make you a happier, more peaceful, more loving, more grateful, more present person after meditation. If it was just about 30 minutes of joy, you could watch a TV show, you could get a massage, there's a lot of things we can do. 

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But meditation is about training your mind to tap into this inner source of happiness, we all say happiness comes from within. But very few people actually have developed the ability to create that experience. But that is the true source of lasting happiness. 

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And that's what meditation can do. So if you've been trying meditation for a while, and you're not getting results that you're wanting, let's say after a month or so, you can try increasing your meditation time. Make sure you're doing it every single day. But it's kind of like working out where the more you do the better. But any is better than none. 

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We have some great YouTube videos, which we'll put a link for in our podcast description. That will teach you a great meditation technique that you can really used to build a solid foundation of meditation that you can do every day. And you cannot not get benefits from meditation, it may take longer than you expected. You just got to let go of those expectations and you got to trust what's happening is normal. 

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And you have to stay focused on your goals, what you're hoping to get out of meditation, whether it's sleeping better, being happier, more peaceful, more present, developing stronger relationships, being a better person to your friends or family or find more discipline and inner strength, more patience, more focus and concentration, greater appreciation and gratitude and sense of common love and less stress. 

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It's important to let your goals motivate you, not your expectations or how you think meditation should go. Or maybe your last meditation wasn't as good as the one before that. And maybe you're not making the progress you think you should be making. Just have to have patience. 

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And meditation, luckily, helps with that. Whether it's math or medicine or law, or coding, or playing music or painting. Some people learn faster than others. Some people seem to have a natural gift. But research has shown that no matter who you are, if you have a basic level of intelligence, you can become a master at anything. It's called the 10,000 hour rule. 

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And that's to become an expert. I'm talking one of the best in the world. If you put in 10,000 hours into something, you can become incredible at it. But that rule shows us that no matter what anyone is trying to learn, they can. Some people maybe take longer, some people shorter but no matter who you are, if you put in the effort, you will get the benefits. So stick with it. Let go of any expectations. 

9:40  
The more you can sit with yourself. Make peace with the present moment without being distracted by hyperstimulating foods and entertainment and distractions. The more peace and joy will come into your life. I hope that answers your question. Thank you so much for listening. It's been an absolute pleasure as always, please like and subscribe and give us a great review. It will mean the world to us and until next time, peace and love.

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You were listening to the Eastwesticism podcast. Be sure to visit us at eastwesticism.org to join the conversation and receive enlightening emails. Until next time,