When In Doubt, Meditate.

Here’s a guest post by my friend Lisa Marie Selow from Punk Rock Psychic, proposing a down to earth view about Meditation. Lisa is a professional psychic and an original writer who manages her unique site with a refreshing touch of mystery and loads of positive energy. Enjoy:

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My favorite tool for facing life is meditation.  Meditation is simply taking time to quiet your mind.  If you’re new to the concept of meditation, it might sound intimidating or daunting.  The very idea of sitting on a special cushion in an awkward position, chanting “Om” might turn you off.

No worries though, since meditation can be practiced anywhere.  Also, you don’t need to follow any particular religion or spiritual tradition to meditate.  You just need to get comfortable in a chair.  You sit down and shut up, as the Buddhist author Brad Warner says. Close your eyes and just watch your thoughts go by.  Notice that I didn’t say that you had to clear your mind.  Why would you want to stop your thoughts?  Your mind’s job is to think.  You simply observe your thoughts and soon, they will lessen as your mind calms down. Your mind will clear, but it won’t be empty, no worries.

(Side note:  By the way, I don’t recommend using a couch or bed to meditate since you might fall asleep, and sleep is a different state of consciousness than the one in meditation.  Meditation is a more alert state than sleep.  I won’t overwhelm you with the information on brain waves.)

Notice that I didn’t tell you that you needed to meditate for hours per day.  No, just 10-15 minutes per day will do.  Start with 5 minutes though, building up to the 10-15 minutes per day.  If you need to meditate more, just do another 10-15 minute session later in the day.  There is no need to complicate things.

Speaking of complicating things, there are all kinds of ways to meditate.  You can focus on an object, or an idea, or a word in your mind.  You can draw objects like a box mentally.  I could go on and on about all of this. If you want to learn more about these types of methods, I recommend that you study with a qualified teacher.  For now, just try watching your thoughts.

I like to think of this simple form of meditation I describe as a way to download my thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions, and other mental matter and chatter.  Of course, I don’t go into meditation with any goals.  I do my best to sit and be, practicing being the observer.  In my alert consciousness each day, I find that I’m less reactive.  I tend to respond to things more appropriately, whether it is directly to another person or internally with myself.

This post is entitled, “When In Doubt, Meditate” not only because I think of meditation as my one main staple, go-to method of reducing stress and gaining clarity, but also, because doubt is a serious thing that needs to be addressed.

When you doubt yourself or the process of life, it means that you are removing yourself far away from source (you might call it the divine, Universe, God, Goddess, or Higher Power).  Source is within and so, you also cut yourself away from your true self, in a way.

Of course, there is a good type of doubting where you question things such as tyrannical authority, ideas, principles, and reality.  This type of doubting or questioning means that you’re alive, since you’re thinking for yourself.

When you’re really stressed out and life seems to be handing you many challenges, meditation might be the furthest thing from your mind.  Yet, it can be the one thing that helps you to gain perspective, to have clearer thoughts, and to manage emotions and feelings that are overwhelming.

I’ve had times in my life where I wasn’t sure if I could take any more, and at the same time, I wondered, “What else can I do?  I’ve tried everything else!”  In these times, I’ve reminded myself to meditate. It wasn’t always easy, but with practice, I found that I looked forward to my meditation time, even if I didn’t feel that I had time or could find the focus to do it.  Soon, solutions to problems came forth out of the blue.  And, I felt more peaceful, able to sleep at night more peacefully.

It’s very difficult to function 100% effectively in the world if you are tired and stressed out.  Although it might feel like you’re adding one more thing to your busy schedule and full to-do list, I invite you to just try it for 21 days.  See if it helps you.  Write about your experiences in a private journal.

Think of meditating as an experiment.  Let go of expectations.  It takes practice to just be since we’re a world that likes to do, do, do.  You will notice subtle changes such as not wanting to honk your horn at others in traffic.  You might even smile at people for no reason.  These are just a few of the many possible results.  But, remember, we’re not concerned about the “results.”  I just wanted to give you fair warning that things will start to change–in a good way.

Let me know how it goes.  And, enjoy meditating.