WHY MEDITATE?

Whether you are just starting to consider adding regular meditation to your life, or whether you’ve been meditating every day for years, it can be important to understand the significance it has for you. There are many different forms of meditation, but what they all have in common is taking time to shut out the outside world and focusing inward on oneself.

To me, meditation serves two purposes – to get to know yourself better by being more aware of your “spiritual self,” and to let go of energies that you take on throughout your day.

Let’s talk about the first one – getting to know yourself better. We are all spiritual beings, residing in bodies and lives that keep us busy, keep us moving, creating this and that, interacting with others. We have all had the experience of getting so wrapped up in something (whether it’s a project, a relationship, or a job) that we forget to stay in touch with who we are and what our real truths are. We may get caught up in someone else’s priority, temporarily forgetting our own.

When you find a quiet place, close your eyes and turn within, you can start to feel and hear yourself more clearly. Although it sounds cliché, you can start to get in touch with your authentic self – who you really are as spirit. This can develop into a very freeing experience, as you let go of who you think you “should” be and just let yourself “be.” A self appreciation can start to develop and it will carry through to your everyday life.

The other purpose of meditation is to cleanse your “space.” Throughout our day, we take on many energies, whether it’s other people’s ideas of who we should be, or their issues they want us to carry for them, or our own efforts, stresses or emotions. The good news is that we can release and let these things go. Through grounding and other meditation techniques, we can clear our energies and get more in touch with ourselves.

Ó 2004 Jill Miller