Understanding Meditation: Stop trying to clear your mind

This episode is about meditation.  People think they have to shut their minds off in order for meditation to be "successful".  This is not true, and we cover many ways to introduce meditation into your life.  It isn't as complicated as we make it and hopefully this episode helps you see meditation in a different light.  Give it a try, What do you have to loose?

The music in this episode is titled Pomelo and the Artist is Jonii. It was provided by Epidemicsound.com

Transcript

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I was talking to someone the other day about meditation, and they had a response that's fairly common with people, which was, Well, I tried to meditate before, but I couldn't shut my mind off. So it just doesn't work for me. And I thought today we could kind of talk about what meditation really is. So meditation doesn't have to be as complicated as we make it. At its core, meditation is just really paying attention, but on purpose. Usually it means noticing things like your breath or doing a body scan or even your thoughts, just noticing, without trying to control everything. Really, if you think about it, you're not trying to empty your mind. You're just training it. And to simplify meditation, instead of trying to go into a 20-minute meditation or 40-minute meditation, just try a two to three minute meditation, which I'm gonna post a few of those so that if you want to try meditation again, you can. But just try something simple. Either sit in a chair or lie down, close your eyes, or if that bothers you, soften your gaze just a little bit. Just allow your eyebrows to relax and maybe not close your eyes all the way. You're gonna focus on your breathing. That's pretty typical in every meditation. And when your mind wanders, accept that it will. And it's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. The best part of meditation is when you realize your mind is wandering and then you bring it back, whether it's to your breath or the body or whatever. So some things that help when you're meditating is keep it short. So again, we'll try the two to three minute ones, or even two to five minutes, and think about it this way: consistency beats anything else. So even if every day you take two to five minutes, do a quick meditation, it will train your body that you can regroup when your thoughts are getting overwhelmed. Expect distractions. Getting distracted does not mean you've failed at meditation. It means that your mind hasn't learned how not to wander, and that's okay. If you think about it like you're going to the gym and you do reps, that's what meditation is. Every time your mind wanders, bring it back and consider that you did a rep in meditation. You don't need perfect posture, silence, and you definitely don't need incense to make a room smell a certain way. It's just taking a minute for yourself. Some of the things that complicate meditation for people are some of the thoughts we have. Things like I'm bad at this, or I don't know how to calm my body down, or I'm not relaxed, so why should I try it right now? You're just learning to notice, not suppress. And all these thoughts are just part of the noise that's distracting us. So meditation isn't about emptying the mind. Even experienced meditators have thoughts constantly. We all do. You don't have to sit perfectly still. You can move, you can scratch, you can make adjustments if your back is hurting. Just don't turn it into fidgeting. Every two minutes of meditation is a way to bring your parasympathetic nervous system into play. Calm your thoughts, bring your body out of survival mode, and just note, sometimes you're gonna get bored while you're meditating. Sometimes you might get restless or annoyed. That's super normal and it's okay. And if for some reason you're having a problem with meditation, try attaching it to something that you already do. So every day you brush your teeth. Maybe right after you brush your teeth, you give yourself two more minutes just to sit and meditate. That way it doesn't feel like you have to schedule it out in the middle of the day or you don't have to wake up and do it. Just attach it to a part of your daily routine, even if it's before going to bed. And then pick a style that fits your personality. If you have a busy mind, try something that focuses on the breath. If you're an overthinker, try a body scan. It takes you out of the thoughts you're having and puts your attention onto your body. If you're restless, try a walking meditation. That way your body's moving while you're doing it. There's all sorts of ways that you can do meditation. It took me quite a long time to figure out how I wanted to use meditation in my life, but now that it's part of it, I really love it. And I hope you do too. So till next time, give meditation another try. Talk to you soon.