Meditation can give you that which nothing else can give you. It introduces you to yourself. From childhood onward, we are taught to examine and understand things in the external world, but nobody teaches us to look within and understand the mind. Unless you learn to know yourself and achieve inner balance, no matter how much you know about the outer world, you will fall short of your goals.
Meditation teaches you to attend to what is taking place within without reacting. I teach my clients that when they are in meditation if something comes up, to be like a fly on the wall, examine the thought but not to react to it. Just remain aware of the process, attend to the thoughts as they arise, notice them, be open to them without reacting and they will pass. When you go through this process you really begin to know who you are.
Meditation teaches you how to deal with things that come up in your daily life. We can spend all day in a mental turmoil. Our mood depends on what comes before us and as a result, our life is like a roller coaster ride. We react before we have fully experienced what we are reacting to. We immediately interpret what we see or hear according to our expectations, fears, prejudices, or resistances.
Meditation gives you freedom from fear. Linda a woman in her late 60’s came to me last year, she had had knee surgery 5 years before and had became so scared to move she just sat in her recliner chair, and was still sitting there when she called me. I did Thai therapy one day a week for 6 weeks and got her ready for yoga class. She was doing really good, had done yoga for 3 months and was really excited she was strong enough to get up off the floor on her own, then she missed two weeks, when she came back to class her knees hurt and she had a hard time in class, she was scared to move. After class I brought to her attention that the two weeks she took off set her back, but the good news was she has been better and we will just get her there again. She called later and said she wasn’t coming to class anymore I said if you stop coming to class you will go back to the way you were before, she said she was almost there. Linda wouldn’t do her meditation at home so when fear arose she didn’t know how to handle it. It was fear that put her in her chair and it was fear that sent her back.You can be your own physician if you learn to examine your emotions through meditation.
Meditation has taught me to fully attend to what is taking place, to attend to my initial reaction without reacting to my reaction: “Oh, look how threatened I feel by that.” we have many fears in our mind and heart that hold us back. All our life we labor under the pressure of these fears. They remain because we have never examined them. They need to be examined, so that we can be fearless. I teach my clients to be open to experiencing their reaction that way it will move through them and allow other spontaneous responses to also come forward, so they can choose the one that is most helpful in that particular situation.
Meditation is very therapeutic, the peace that it brings releases energy. Worry and preoccupation dissipate your strength. Meditation frees the energy that has been bound in your mental discord so that you can apply yourself one pointedly to whatever you decide to do. It also leads to inner balance and stability, it exposes your inner complexes, you immaturities, your unproductive reflexes and habits. Instead of living in these complexes and habits and acting them out, they are brought to your awareness and you can give them your full attention. Only then will they clear.
Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist
and Ayurveda Consultant
These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.
