Serenity comes from within. External solutions to our problems only offer temporary solutions.
Recent college graduates with large loans to repay are desperately trying to find work and quickly losing hope.
Highly successful professionals are having trouble sleeping as the stress from being unemployed for several months is mounting at a time when their spouses are worried about losing everything – including their homes.
Financial planners are dealing with unprecedented anxiety resulting from the hostility coming their way from their normally sane clients who are irate over losses in net worth.
There are many ways of dealing with stress.
Exercise is great for temporarily reducing stress because it allows us to take our minds off of problems while getting our heart rates elevated and sweating out toxins. Some of my best ideas are created while at the gym exercising and mentally preparing for the days, weeks and months ahead. If I could exercise all day, I might be able to permanently eliminate fear.
Recitation of affirmations (statements of fact or belief) is another great habit because it allows us to fill our minds with the kinds of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. The repetition of our goals in present tense, sentences full of emotion enables us to create behaviors and attitudes that will become 2nd nature to us. When these affirmations are only based upon our goals and our ideas only, the mind of God is separated from our own minds.
If you’re exercising and reciting affirmations on a daily basis, you are already in the habit of proactively taking care of your body and mind. Congratulations!
There is another habit that I’d like to introduce to you if it’s not already part of your daily routine. I’d like to encourage you to begin the practice of daily meditation as part of your proactive health. This is a practice that positively impacts your body, mind and spirit.
Meditation is the practice of silencing each of the 60,000+ thoughts per day that we engage in long enough to listen to ourselves – our divinity within. Meditation allows us to relax our bodies while we’re focusing or silencing our minds. Deep, slow breaths begin the process of slowing down and becoming comfortable with ourselves and with the solitude.
You can meditate in many different positions. You can meditate while walking or exercising. When meditating in the silence of your home, it can be done in the lotus position with a little practice. I will frequently stop my work day and meditate while sitting in my chair in front of my desk for 5-10 minutes. You can also meditate while lying on a couch or in bed as long as you’re not so tired that you’ll fall asleep!
The practice of daily meditation allows us to answer meaning-of-life questions such as:
Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want?
Where am I going? Where did I come from?
Meditation is starting to become part of our culture in the west, but is nowhere near as popular as it should be. Many of us today are absent of silence except when we’re sleeping. We wake up to the sound of the radio or iPod. The radio or television is on while where preparing for work or school. The radio or iPod is on while we’re driving or commuting. The computer is mesmerizing us for 8+hours per day at work or school. Those of us who aren’t married to the computer are either in meetings or conference calls throughout the day or having an affair with our Blackberrys and iPods. After work, it’s radio in the car, iPod while at the gym and television during dinner and then back on the computer or television until it’s time for sleep.
Do you ever allow yourself the luxury of silence? Do you ever allow yourself to slow down and become silent enough to pay attention to your breath or pulse? Have you ever slowed down long enough to answer the 5 questions above?
There are several different types of meditation. Some meditations involve focusing our thoughts by paying attention to our breath. When first meditating, we have to get used to the habit of not thinking. The Buddhists call a mind that is jumping haphazardly from one subject to the next like a monkey swinging from branch to branch a monkey’s mind. By practicing focusing on an object such as a candle flame, light or object or paying attention to our breath (deep and slow versus shallow and fast), we become aware of the art of focus or mindfulness.
One of the meditations that I gravitated to when I was new to meditation and have maintained involves Buddhist prayers for self and others. I use this meditation as a process for praying for specific individuals in my life who have either asked for my prayers or desperately need them. While sitting or lying in silence I think of the individual and silently pray, “May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be free from suffering.” It’s also an excellent individual prayer. With eyes closed after taking several deep, slow cleansing breaths, I repeat: “May I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I be free from suffering.”
This particular style of meditation really helped me to grow in the art of unconditional love. It’s easy praying for people that you know and love. It’s still pretty easy praying for people we feel neutral about – someone from work, church or the gym – that need our prayers. Buddhists would have us feeling unconditional love towards everyone – even people who have hurt us mentally or physically.
This prayer meditation allows us to pray for ourselves, individuals who fall into all 3 categories (people we already love, people we feel neutral about and people who we find it very difficult to love – sometimes called hatred) and for entire groups of people. Can you imagine unconditionally loving every human in the world – starting with yourself? Baby steps…
Another style of meditation involves the repetition of a word or phrase. You can repeat words or phrases such as:
Love is the answer | Peace is within me | Patience | Don’t worry, be happy
There are meditations that allow you to meditate while walking or exercising. I’ve used the walking meditations while on an elliptical machine at the gym and been amazed at how fast the workout goes by as I’m lost within my deliberately focused mind.
One of the ways that I’ve been very successful using meditation is to slow down and relax my mind and body enough to be able to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night. By the time I get to bed at night, I’m usually so exhausted that it’s very easy for me to fall asleep. Frequently, I’ll wake-up in the middle of the night on my own or as a result of an elbow (intentional?) from my wife. Once I wake up, my mind frequently starts working and racing. When it’s still too early for me to get up, I implement a meditation that allows me to relax my body beginning with my feet and then working my way up to my head. I can’t tell you how much that practice has helped me to make sure that I’m getting enough sleep. Prior to implementing the practice of meditating to fall back to sleep, I’d frequently get up and begin my workday at 1, 2 or 3AM rather than stay in bed fidgeting and disturbing my wife.
I first began the practice of meditating after reading the book Eat, Pray, Love. My initial intention was to develop a deeper relationship with God. From reading that book and several others, I became aware that God is found in the silence of our minds. It’s our absence of thoughts that allows us to create room for God. It’s hard to listen to God when there is always loud, external stimulation present. My goal was to silence my ego enough to eliminate my thoughts and listen to God’s. Because I was guilty of the non-stop lifestyle that I mentioned earlier, I wanted to develop the habit of being able to listen to myself and to God. I realized that because I was always doing something, listening to something or saying something (even if it was prayer), I was never just being or listening. I was always doing.
Could my prayers be better if I slowed down long enough to listen for answers?
Would I be able to better deal with all that was going on in my world if I deliberately asked God to be with me in specially carved time for silence and co-creation?
Could I use meditation to really focus on words of scripture to understand the true meaning of words that I professed to be the foundation of my faith?
I mentioned students, executives and financial planners as real examples of people who are living with fear – fear of not getting the first job, fear of not getting a new job, fear of losing people’s hard earned retirement savings. I’d recommend meditating on components of scripture such as the following verse: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.”
What could the meditation be for each of us to eliminate fear from our lives? “Dear God, fill me with your love and eliminate my fear” or “God, I love you and trust you”.
If you’re experiencing fear in any aspect of your life, you can begin meditating this instant by simply doing the following:
- Go someplace that is quiet – office, bedroom, conference room, car, etc.
- Either lay down or sit comfortably in a chair with good posture
- Close your eyes and take several slow, deep breaths while allowing yourself to focus on your breath
- Once you’ve slowed yourself down and relaxed, simply repeat the phrase or mantra of choice such as “God, I love you and trust you”.
- Repeat your prayer or mantra slowly several times for at least five minutes
- Over time, you’ll become comfortable meditating for longer periods of time.
A close friend of mine recently told me that she felt guilty taking the time to meditate. I am convinced that it’s our absence of time caring for ourselves and divorcing ourselves from God that has caused many of our physical, mental and spiritual problems.
Our fullness and completeness comes from our relationship with God. The emptiness that we feel inside us and in our lives is created by the space where God is supposed to reside. When we allow God’s words to infiltrate our minds and his Spirit to reside in our souls, we begin to develop trust in God and ourselves. We are filled with love for God, love for ourselves and love for others. The love that fills our minds and souls pushes out the fear that used to occupy that space.
Allocating time to meditate on a daily basis is an investment in your mental, physical and spiritual health.
Meditation allows us to become comfortable enough with ourselves to slow down, focus and listen to our own thoughts on a daily basis. If you have the desire to incorporate spirituality into your meditation, this will become part of your daily practice to improve your relationship with God and proceed toward enlightenment. Meditating is a practice that complements prayer, reading of scripture, serving others and group worship.
Making time to listen and co-create is yet another way of inviting God into your life each and every day.
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