Meditation Is Just A Tool

The number of people turning to meditation is skyrocketing. And with so many reported gains it’s no surprise. Meditation alters your brain to improve your memory, makes you feel more grateful, reduces stress, helps with depression, improves sleep, improves concentration, increases focus, raises self-esteem, encourages kindness and compassion, reduces anger, helps with decision making, fosters creativity, and many more benefits are proven. In a nutshell, meditation has been shown to make you feel happier. And isn't that what we all are chasing as human beings, day in day out?

One might say that meditation is learning to work with the mind. Or better yet, taking charge of your mind. It was first developed in India, a very long time ago. Meditation is seen as the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religious activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed. It's about training your attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

So it's a good thing that meditation is getting popular. We start to realise that taking care of our inside is just as important as taking care of how we look on the outside. I always love to use the comparison with brushing your teeth. Do you skip brushing your teeth regularly? No, because you know how important it is in order to be and stay healthy. Same thing with your inner health and how relevant meditation is, you want to be mentally clear and in an emotionally calm and stable state.

But here's the key message of this article: don't make meditation a goal on it's own. It's not about how you meditate, it's about discovering how you get into your meditative state. Meditation is just like the word sport. It doesn't say much. Sport can be swimming, running, dancing, or what so ever. It's not about what sport you do but the fact that you practice one that suits you. So discover what meditation is for you. What helps you to feel mentally clear and in an emotionally calm and stable state? It doesn't have to be sitting down, closing your eyes and completely quieting your mind.

For many years meditation has been to me - without labeling it as meditation by the way - running. I didn't run to stay in shape, I was hooked on running because of the clarity of mind it gave me, feeling as close I can be with myself, intune with my body and connected with everything around me, grounded, powerful and most importantly - it got me easily into my most creative state. I didn't only control my mind more and more each time I go for a run, but even better, I get a peace of mind - I like to call it mindlessness.

Since 2016 I have become more aware of how I get into my meditative flow. Starting with consciously running but also watching closely what happens when I get into my meditative state. I learned how to get there consciously. At some point without actually having to go for a run. And every time I get there faster and deeper. What was happening actually felt more and more like tuning into me, myself. Now it is something I do so often during a day, at some point it became unconsciously and till now where it has become almost my natural state of being. And don't get me wrong, I don't feel like a monk all the time. On the contrary! I feel a bigger and bigger discomfort when I'm not intuned, when I am not aligned with myself when I am not in "my meditative state". Those moments are still happening but they are becoming more and more unbearable each time they happen. I really feel lost and I want to get to my natural state as soon as possible, powerfully connected with me - what I call self dialogue.

So my message to you is: become more aware how you get into your meditative flow. How does getting out of your head feel like to you? How does tuning into yourself feel like? Enjoy this process. Do it more often, even during your work day, when you're doing your groceries and you're standing in line to pay. This is how it becomes - slowly but surely - something you do more and more on a daily basis. Until you start doing it unconsciously. Until it becomes your natural state of being. But get ready for a life with more contrast. The contrast with when you are not aligned gets bigger. You may feel more strongly how bad it feels when you're not your natural self. And this is what it means to live the best version of you. It's not a perfect life, but a life truly lived.

What does meditating mean to you? What's your meditation practice? Leave me a message in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you.

- W.