Let me begin with full disclosure: I'm a meditation addict. I do it daily, and I do it because I love it. But like many people, I began meditating not because I expected to like it, or even for the sake of spiritual growth. I started meditating because I hoped it would help me feel better. I was looking for a way to short circuit the unbroken mentalogue that played through my mind day and night, to chill out the energy of a busy and stressful life as a New York journalist, and to find a way past the subtle feeling of low-grade suffering that seemed to be part of my inner feeling state. Meditation was just beginning to get some press as a life-transforming strategy. I went for it.
For the first year I sat, my mind never once—never once—got quiet. Even so, I quickly discovered that the practice activated some center of stillness and contentment that carried over into the rest of the day. When things got rough in my world, when doors were slamming and work mates challenging my ideas, I found out that if I could sit for three or four minutes in silence, solutions would arise and emotions cool down. Meditation seemed to activate some mysterious alchemical process that went far beyond what I actually did on the mat.
(MORE) Source: Patheos
0 comments:
Post a Comment