Meditation is a way to reconnect with your body and your inner mind. When I go through my daily routines giving a lot of consciousness focus to specific things for long periods of time, I’m not aware of the signals my body and inner mind are sending me. You could use the analogy of driving a car; you notice that the car is slowing down, but you don’t put in the effort to find out why this is happening. Then you push the gas pedal further down and everything is back to normal. Now, this will not last in the long run, and meditation is a way to pause and figure out what is really going on.
Sometimes when I finish my meditation I get overwhelmed by tiredness. Then I know I have been pushing to hard lately. At other times I just feel rested and peaceful, and new ideas surface to my awareness. Often I go “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that before?… It is so obvious.”
Other things I have noticed after meditating is that my blood pressure falls. It can get so bad after many days of hard work at the office that I can actually hear my heart beat in my ears even when I am apparently relaxing. When I’m done meditating I notice that something is missing – my heartbeat. But fortunately its still there just much more relaxed. Scary. Headaches are also fought with meditation, they often just disappear. When I have a nasty annoying tick near my eye I know I have been working to hard and meditation is usually the only way to fight it. For me meditation acts like a way to raise my awareness. I did a 30 day trial of daily meditation but half way through it I stopped. Things which I had been refusing to acknowledge for many years began to surface and I was swept of my feet. I wanted to change and starting to meditate was helping me do this. The scary part was not the meditation itself but realizing how blind I had chosen to be when looking at certain areas of my life. It was like many subtle signs present in my life just started growing, because I used meditation to quiet my mind. Now I know that the truth has always been there and I found a way to notice it by letting my inner mind come to play.
I prefer to meditate as close to the peak of my stress level as possible and that is best done when I come home from work. Find a place where you can be alone for 30 minutes and tell people that you would like some quiet time. Use earplugs to silence background noise that you can’t really do anything about. Find a comfortable chair that rests your upper back too. Loosen any tight clothes to give a good blood circulation. Set a timer or mobile phone alarm to 20 minutes.
Now close your eyes. Listen to your breathing. Notice your thoughts. What are you thinking about? In the beginning there will probably be a lot of different thoughts competing with each other. Just notice a thought, be aware of it and meet it with an inner “Okay…” Then move on to the next thought eager to grab you attention and “okay” it too. Then go through all your thoughts like this until they have all been silenced. Notice your breathing when there is no eager thoughts waiting, in order to keep you in the present moment. Do this until the timer sounds. Slowly open your eyes and notice how you feel.
Use these feelings to find out what you have been neglecting to do or what it is that you have overdone. Create more balance in your life by adapting your daily routines according to this new clarity. Maybe you need to follow through on a new idea that comes to mind that can take you forward. Perhaps move focus to other parts of your life that needs attention. Keep an open mind about whatever surfaces and enjoy the peace.
