Why You Need to Meditate (It’s Not What You Think)
Meditation is not what you think it is.
If you take it up to become more peaceful, you may be disappointed at first.
Meditation is much more fundamental.
I remember the first time I ever tried to really meditate.
That is, sit down with the intention of meditating. I discovered my mind buzzing with thoughts like an angry beehive.
I had a shocking realization that, throughout my life, my mind had been filled with these scattered, disjointed, random thoughts whizzing through at 90 miles per hour.
And I had never realized it.
That is, I'd been living in the reality these thoughts had created, but I hadn't actually noticed the thoughts in and of themselves.
I hadn't considered the source of the reality my mind was believing.
Here is an analogy: when you are sitting in a movie theatre, engrossed in the movie, there are times when you have no awareness you are in a theatre. You are "in" the reality presented to you, feeling the feelings of the characters: anxious, elated, sad.
At some point, you remember you are in a movie theatre. You look around at the people eating popcorn, entranced by the story rolling forward.
Mindfulness meditation offers moments of realization you are in the movie theatre your own mind is concocting.
This is a very powerful thing.
Becoming aware of the movie we are creating for ourselves gives us the power to change the channel if we want.
Or create a different movie.
Or simply disengage from the story completely and just be with the phenomena of life dancing all around us.
It is the first step to freedom from the tyranny of the mind.
And developing mental mastery.
You might think meditation is about becoming calm and peaceful.