Ever feel frustrated while meditating? You're not the only one.
I hear this question often and I won't lie, it's my favourite one to be asked.
To explain it, I use the analogy that meditating is like putting a magnifying glass up to your mind - it shows us what is going on up there that we may not be aware of and sometimes this insight is not pleasant.
Our minds work in a complex way where we often ignore our patterns of thinking. When we start to worry or feel sad sometimes, we are paying more attention to the physical symptoms instead of what is creating the these uncomfortable feelings. We tend to focus on the physical symptoms like racing heart, nausea, shaking or tight chest and often ignore that this uncomfortable state is caused by our thoughts; we're only thinking about how we can make these feelings go away.
When we meditate our thoughts become conscious - we start thinking of all the house repairs that need to be fixed or the bills that need to be paid that we don't have the money for, or a meeting the following day that our boss has asked to have with us and we're unsure why, and it all starts to feel very uncomfortable. So here we are, sitting alone with our thoughts, trying to not focus on them but all we can do is focus on them and judging ourselves because we can't even meditate "right". And then the symptoms start up and then we start to panic because we're having negative thoughts and feelings yet we're told that meditating is supposed to be relaxing. Hah.
So when I hear "meditating doesn't work for me", it's all about uncovering the why and it's likely because for so long you have been avoiding your thoughts that are causing you discomfort. You may be the master of avoiding your thoughts and have ninja-like thought avoiding skills, but believe me, that skill doesn't serve you.
When we meditate absolutely things come up as our minds are conditioned to wander- we start thinking things that are uncomfortable that cause us some discomfort, but it's what we do with those thoughts that is going to change our experience and essentially our well-being. It's about turning the mind: accepting that our thoughts are not the truth, not judging ourselves for having worrying thoughts or getting down on ourselves because our mind wandered away - it's about being open to what our experience may be during the meditation.
Developing this new way of thinking transcends into our daily life; we learn that we don't have to hide from our thoughts or react as explosively as we once have but instead living with intention and acceptance and even a little more happiness.
~ with light and love,
Erin
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