Despite everything I may have said in the past, I am now learning to meditate

Not so long ago, there was a time when I would have rolled my eyes at anyone who said that they meditated. It just wasn’t for me, and I would probably have ridiculed anyone who suggested I should try it.

But I have learned a very useful lesson – to not judge something without experiencing it for myself. And it’s funny how times change, because I have now committed to meditate as part of my daily practice these days. How did that happen?

I am no expert, and I don’t spend any huge amount of time in meditation. I am at the stage where I am just exploring and learning about the benefits it can bring to me. In more senses that one, I am practising meditation. I am learning how to do it (and practice makes perfect!) and I am actively meditating in a practical way. I am learning, by doing it.
It makes me smile that I should now be doing this, because I can hear my 18 year-old self saying, “WTF are you up to, Winny? You have turned into a carrot-munching hippy!”

It’s not the first, and it certainly won’t be the last time my younger self would raise objections to what I am doing these days!

So, how did it happen that a scornful, down-to-earth bloke has come to this state of new age spiritual awareness? The world mischievously conspired against me earlier this year, so that I was forced to give meditation a go as part of a mastermind progamme I am on – The Good Life Project.

I was fairly sceptical about it when I started, but I was committed to at least participating in the personal experiment. I am always pretty open to trying anything at least once, and when I am taking part in something, I make the best of what I’m doing. These days, I feel compelled to say yes to things that challenge me, even when I would not voluntarily have chosen to do them….like meditation.

As I prepared to take part, I could hear my teenage self guffaw and I felt a twinge of apprehension. Once I realised that I didn’t have to shave my head, chant and live in a Buddhist monastery (as my teenage self had expected), it all seemed quite easy.

The time that this has come into my life was right as well. Meditation has come into my awareness at a good time for me, because I have been too successful with making my life enjoyable and stimulating, and filling my life with thought and activity.

Pretty much every conversation that I have these days is incredible and exciting! The downside to this is that my mind is always full of ideas to think over and things to process. I could literally go for days and even weeks without sleeping properly. I could be sitting in the same room as my family but I was somewhere else in my mind – incapable of being fully present or holding a meaningful conversation because I was too busy thinking. I was spending far too much time in my own head.

Over time, this takes its toll on my body and on those around me. This is the dark side of building an incredible life – the part that people don’t often talk about.

I am sure I am not alone in thinking like that. In a world that’s getting faster and faster, when we’re inundated by the ever-increasing information that bombards us, something has to give. Unless we do something about it.

I have to look at my personal situation very objectively, as there is no point in me attempting to change the world for the better if I ruin my own world in the process. I asked myself the following questions and I wonder if you could ask yourself them?

• Are you striving to win?
• Are you losing out in other ways?
• What can you do to create more balance and calm in your life?

Countless people have destroyed themselves in the pursuit of a personal goal or a cause – and you and I could really do without being one of them!

For me, meditation is helping me to turn the tide on an exhausting, restless world. It allows me to be my own still, small point, while the world revolves and spins around me. I don’t have to say, “Stop the world, I want to get off!” because I can clear my head. I have found a solution.

Thanks to learning how to control my mind, I sleep much much better than I have in the past. Although I have always been good at switching on my thinking, but now, thanks to the new skills I am mastering, I am learning how to switch my mind off when I need to. This really helps me when my life begins to accelerate. I no longer feel that I need to work my way through every thought and problem, analysing or finding solutions, innovating or adapting ideas. there is a time and a place for all that.

I am learning to mentally leave things alone now. I am by no means completely there, because life keeps changing and things move on. That’s life. The one consistent thing is change. As time passes, new challenges occur in the future, and my life algorithm needs to continually change and adapt, too, to meet my needs.

If you have a noisy, active mind for whatever reason, it is important to learn how to quieten your mind. Perhaps meditation can be explored as a way of you dealing with that problem. If it works for me, it may well work for you.

It was a really big surprise for me, that in trying out something I would previously have avoided, I have found something key to truly helping me live a better life. Without this discovery, my life would be much harder than it is today. I am pretty grateful for that accidental lesson!

So from now on:

• I commit to trying out new things in the pursuit of personal discovery.
• I commit to searching for the unexpected.
• I commit to ignoring assumptions I may have made in the past, and opening my (quiet) mind.

Those are my own personal commitments. But this is also about you, and creating your best possible life.

• What are your commitments to creating calm in your life?
• What improvements do you commit to making for your personal development?
• What steps are you going to take now?

I’ve shared my intentions. I’d love to know yours.

Marc

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then contact me and let’s talk! Drop me an email at getintouch@marcwinn.com.

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