Non-Meditation-Meditation Process

 

Paramahansa Yogananda said, “Learn to be calm and you will always be happy.”

People meditate to find this sense of calm, inner peace, and to align with their Higher Self to experience the spark of divinity that is within each of us. Some meditate for the health benefits, including, reduced stress, improved immune system, lower blood pressure, and enhanced sleep.

Yet for many, when they sit down to meditate, the process doesn’t work. This is, at least in part, due to our conditioning of believing that meditation means sitting in lotus position and having no thoughts while chanting ‘Om,’ following our breath, or reciting a mantra.  

Those are fine ways to meditate. I learned in that manner and became certified to teach a mantra-based meditation practice. However, that’s not the only way to meditate, and it’s not the way I meditate these days.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize we are all different, and therefore, it makes sense that the way we get to the calm, peaceful, heart-centered state, will differ from person to person. Based on this, I introduce the “Non-Meditation-Meditation Process.”

Using this process, you simply do whatever feels relaxing to you. This may be cutting your grass, driving a tractor through a field, taking a bubble bath, basking in the sun at the beach, or talking a walk in the woods. For me, it’s sitting in the afternoon shade of an oak tree and stargazing on a clear night. Any activity in which you are fully present can be meditative.

So, instead of forcing yourself to sit in an uncomfortable position and trying to meditate like a yogi, figure out what makes you feel calm and relaxed. Then, take some down time, engage in that activity, and see how you feel.

This customized process takes away the pressure of meditating—since it’s not really ‘meditation’ and because you are customizing the process based on your desires—you can’t do it wrong!

It also resolves the greatest challenge people have with meditation—“I have too many thoughts.” Well, guess what? We all have a lot of thoughts! Research has shown we have between 6,000 to a mind-boggling 70,000 thoughts per day. Even using the low-end number, that’s a lot of thoughts. Based on these statistics, we are bound to have a thought—or a bunch of thoughts—in whatever we are doing, including the Non-Meditation-Meditation process.

If you have a thought during the process, so what? Let your thoughts come and go. Watch a cloud float by or gaze at a twinkling star in the night sky. Eventually, your thoughts will lessen and if it was something important, it’ll be there when you are finished with your Non-Meditation Meditation practice.

“It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

This blog was written by Sedona Hutton, author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction sprinkled with spirituality. 

 

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THE PERFECT LAP is a Reader’s Favorite Finalist for Contemporary Romance. Available as eBook, paperback, and audiobook. Purchase link:  https://amzn.to/2VkXIkv

 

CLOUD WHISPERS: A novel of family and forgiveness with a strong spiritual message: The daughter she gave away. The family she always wanted. The journey to redefine her fate….

Reader Review Excerpt: “A beautifully woven story filled with love, loss, betrayal and renewal. It touches the heart of the reader as life unfolds for Liam and Katie. Peppered throughout the story are spiritual awakenings and life lessons which help to clarify many of the “why’s” in each of our lives. While Cloud Whispers includes passionate love stories, it also feeds your spirt and renews your soul. The gifts from this novel are unforgettable.”

CLOUD WHISPERS was awarded the IPPY Bronze medal winner for visionary fiction, Reader’s Favorite Finalist for visionary fiction, and an Official Selection in the Summer eBook Awards for New Apple Literary. CLOUD WHISPERS purchase link: https://amzn.to/2IZ6DRc.

 

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Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash.