Meditation is something that sounds simple on its face – and you only know how untrue this is if you’ve actually tried to pull it off. While meditation seems as easy as sitting down, humming some syllables and suddenly being at one with the universe, there’s way more to it than that. Unfortunately, many fledgling meditators don’t get this memo.
Meditation actually requires a lot of effort, which is in and of itself ironic. This only helps to illustrate the need for meditation in our lives: we’re so consumed by our things, our surroundings and our frustrated feelings that we have to put in a huge amount of work to actually push them to the side and eventually untangle them for good.
But this is only the outcome of meditation if you perform it successfully. Many meditators feel like they achieve an actual state of serenity, but it’s short-lived. They clear their minds for a second, but their mind rebels.
A Modern Example
Have you ever heard that if you stop eating junk food, your body eventually finds the taste of it disgusting after you try it prior to breaking your abstinence? In the early stages of this junk fast, your body craves the stuff, but you’ll eventually find you don’t want it as badly after a while. Eventually, you’ll find it revolting – meditation works in a similar way.
Your mind craves chaos, but letting go of it bit by bit gets your mind used to the idea of operating within clarity. Soon you’ll realize that thinking chaotically doesn’t compute with you at all. If this is the kind of meditative success you want, try out these meditation methods that WILL work for you…if you’re willing to put the effort in, of course.
Walking Meditation
Want to get used to mild exercise and mediation all at once? Many don’t realize that meditation isn’t always about sitting in a hot dark room or on an inflated ball in your study – you can actually walk and interact with the outside world while meditating!
The trick to this practice is training your mind to focus on small details. Find a safe space to walk outside and start at a slow pace. Instead of paying attention to your surroundings (although please be aware of cars and crosswalks), focus on your foot and how it moves, differentiating all of its positions and the sensations it feels. This helps to alleviate stress and hone your senses.
Creating Fresh Perspectives
While perhaps an exercise in mindfulness over meditation, it’s important to understand the gravity of your position in this world – and that’s something many of us take for granted. We all feel like we go through the motions, and meditation helps to clear away that clutter and create each day anew.
Get used to this sensation by participating in this acting exercise. Every day you get up, talk to the people closest to you like you haven’t seen them in a year. Create new experiences from your own perspective if you can’t go out and actually make new things happen to you. We all have a very finite time on this earth, and mediation helps us understand how small we are in the grand scheme of things. Use this exercise to understand that every moment does count.
