Meditation Can Change Your Life

If you don't yet have a regular meditation practice but do experience issues with your mind regularly, I want to share something with you.

The mind's job is to be alert to the life around you. When there is a lot happening in the external world, it is quite likely that this manifests itself as mental fluctuations or instability in your inner world. Meaning you feel restless or the mind feels unclear or busy - perhaps you can identify this as anxiety or depression or just instability in the mind. 

Now here comes the good news: you do not have to settle for this.

Your most natural state of being is one of peace and equanimity. 

I know from my own experience that this can sound like a bold statement or possibly even a little bit distant to your current state of being. We are creatures of habit and it’s easy and quite common to get used to living out of balance - we get so used to our un-optimal state of being that we just learn to accept it as part of us.

However, I also know from my own experience that it’s 100% possible to resolve all mind clutter (anxiety, depression, mental instability) and replace it with peace and clarity. 

Commitment and consistency is the key

In a world where commitment is not so sexy, here comes the bad news: to break any pattern of imbalance we need to create new habits that support balance, and habits are only created through repetition. This means that we really need to commit to work for our peace and ease of mind. 

There are no quick fixes and no short cuts, the work needs to be regular and frequent, and even though it might (and hopefully will) take new shapes over time, you will need to continue this work for the rest of your life. 

The mind work I am referring to is meditation. And when I say meditation, I mean actually sitting down with a tall spine and doing nothing else but resting your mind into your chosen object of meditation. Not walking and meditating, not cooking and meditating, not doing anything else but simply being still and witnessing all that is arising into your awareness in this unique moment. 

The peace and quiet is already there

Meditation in its simplest form is a seated practice of stillness and observation. The idea is not to get rid of thoughts, or to stop thinking, but rather develop a new type of relationship with our minds. There is no such thing as failure in meditation - once you remember this you are one step closer to peace and ease of mind.

What happens first, we come to see that since we can observe our thoughts, we are not one with them. We will understand that oftentimes our thoughts are just stories repeating themselves and not necessarily relevant to reality at all. To be able to detach from your thoughts and witness these stories from an objective, neutral point of view is already very empowering and freeing.

This is how we start to build self-awareness, and eventually come to see that there is not only space in between us and our thoughts but also space in between the thoughts, and this space is one of peace and quiet. 

Identification with thoughts and stories of the mind start to fade away and we begin to identify ourselves with pure awareness instead. This doesn’t only feel nice when we are meditating but also affects our future - from clarity and equilibrium we make choices that support our highest good AND the highest good of the world around us. 

Three stages of meditation

There are many paths to meditation, and you can read more about different type of meditation from this article. 

Yogic model offers three practical steps, what actually happens in the process of meditation: 

Dharana, meaning single pointed concentration is the first step. In this stage you simply rest your mind into one object you’ve chosen for your practice, for example breath rising and falling through the channels of your nostrils. The practice of dharana can go on for years, and already gives us great benefits building focus and concentration.

When the mind is single pointed enough, we can enter the second stage of meditation called dhyana. In dhyana the awareness is already relaxed into one unbroken stream, and we start to become more and more absorbed into our object of meditation. In practical example, this is the moment you’ve perhaps experienced when you have focused your mind into your breath and for a moment, you’ve felt like being one with the breath. 

At this phase of your meditation practice, it is important to choose the object of meditation carefully - you can read more about different types of objects such as breath and mantra here. 

The final, highest stage of meditation is called samadhi or liberation. At this point, the subject and object of meditation merge into one. Again, perhaps you have experienced a split second or two in your practice where there is no longer nothing to observe and no one observing, no longer you being this or that - you simply are. You are the existence itself. 

This can certainly sound otherworldly but if you think of it, you have most likely already touched this space when you’ve immersed yourself into doing something you love - being in Nature, spending time with your pet or friend, making love - for a small moment all mental activity seems to disappear, the awareness of you doing something is gone, and what is left is a deep sense of you being one with the present moment.

Samadhi is oftentimes described as bliss itself, but more than that is a state of clear perception, a place where we can see ourselves and the world around us as they truly are. The more we spend time in this space, the more aligned choices we start to make, and the more we grow toward the highest, brightest, bravest and most beautiful expressions of ourselves.

Sounds pretty damn delicious, right?!

I have personally experienced, and keep on experiencing, the life changing benefits of daily meditation practice.

In about 4 years, the way I see myself, the way I relate to life, and the way I approach my dreams and build my life toward something more authentic and more meaningful have all shifted radically.

If you are looking for more peace, more clarity, more trust and more joy in your life, I can wholeheartedly recommend turning in and committing to a daily meditation. I humbly bow my head to my teachers and the traditional teachings of yoga for introducing me to this life changing practice.

If you feel like you need support, I would be honoured to help you get started and/or offer guidance on your way to your highest self and higher quality life with meditation - please reach out through this form or e-mail me directly at amira@amirazaghdoudi.com.