The Real Reason to Meditate

Ah, vacation week…

Every two years, 19 of my closest family members and I head up to the mountains for a week away. Tonight I’m writing this as the young moms compare notes, and others play bridge or cribbage. Soon the kids will come charging down the stairs ready to play the latest game – this year, Sleeping Queens.

Though it’s only the end of the first full day, most of us have already been through the full range of emotions only family can bring out in you – excitement, affection, frustration, annoyance, hurt, contentment, and love.

It’s exhausting just thinking about all the tears, arguments, and upset feelings yet to come this week. But by Friday, we’ll pack up all the memories and be thankful for the time together.

Then we’ll drive home and continue to play out the same dynamics in a different context using different triggers.

Instead of a sister, it’ll be a friend who said a mean thing. Instead of a mom, it’ll be a boss who had a strange tone.

Because no matter what size your container, you still have the same responses and reactions.

It’s the human condition. Or, more accurately, it’s the conditioning you’ve allowed yourself to have.

My meditation students and I talk about this all the time…

The reason we sit in a specific meditation practice each day is not because meditating requires it. The state of meditation is available to you at any time – even now. Because meditation isn’t a technique, it’s a knowingness.

It’s being aware of your true nature – your inherent oneness with all that is, while simultaneously being separate.

But if you can access a meditative state in any moment, why bother to sit and practice?

Simple – because most of us are too scattered to realize our truth in any given moment.

We are too carried away by our thoughts; too caught up in the drama of our emotions. We believe in our body’s ever-changing field of aches and pains, and get attached to the choices that make up our personalities.

We’re too involved in our story to witness its unfolding.

But when you sit in meditation, you shrink your zone of awareness. It becomes just you, your thoughts, and your emotions.

Then you have a petry dish perfectly sized to explore, with yourself as the sole experiment.

With daily practice – you sit through all of your emotions:

• The silent tears of alienation
• The jittery impatience of excitement
• The heart-bursting expansion of love and appreciation

And you realize there is something else going on here.

There are ever-changing moods, endless mental chatter, and continual signals from your body that demand your attention.

But you are beyond all that.

To experience them – you must be a stillness untouched by the impressionable waves on the surface.

These waves may seem like you who you are – your highs and lows, preferences and opinions, but they aren’t you.

You are eternal, deep, and unchanging.

You are the quiet calm beyond the fluctuations; the stillness that knows it’s love.

This is why you sit and meditate – to explore you. To get to know you. The REAL you.

You sit to practice seeing the symptoms of your life go by, knowing they are not your story.

And through this practice – through your awareness – you are gifted the benefits that knowingness brings: peace, calm, and contentment.

You are shown your true self and able to hear your own voice. You are guided to live your best life – not just one quilted together from your reactions to others.

This is why you meditate: to be you.

So, if meditating’s been on your to-do list, make time this week. Sit for 5 or 10 minutes a day – not to prioritize an arcane technique. But to prioritize you.

Because they only person who can be your best is you.

Be free. Be brave. Be YOU!

Love,
Alexis

p.s. Need help learning how to meditate? In my new program, Chill Out – Intro to Meditation, you’ll learn step-by-step how to create a practice that works for you.

For six weeks, you’ll receive a new guided meditation each week to help you go deeper, so that you can feel calmer, more focused, and more like you.

Each practice is specifically chosen to give you the maximum benefit of the practice with minimal effort.

Plus, Chill Out – Intro to Meditation is all online, so you start today and learn at your own pace in the comfort of your home or office. Learn more HERE.