Meditate and Become New

SONY DSC“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

The Universe is knocking on my door with a message – MEDITATE.  Meditation appeals to me; has for a long time.  Back in my teens my mom and I took a meditation class at church.  Since then I tried on many variations; transcendental, new age, simple mindfulness.  The free 21 day meditation series offered by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey are wonderful.  I know the benefits.  So why does something so marvelous get thrown out the window when life gets busy?  That’s when it would benefit me the most.  OK!  Today I will listen to the Universe.

In his book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Dr. Joe Dispenza outlines why meditation is beneficial physiologically.  There are reams of evidence on how it helps the brain – takes the chaos out those brain waves.  Meditation gets me off the whack-a-doodle treadmill (aka manic beta waves) to a peaceful chill of acceptance (coherent alpha, theta energy).  It helps align thoughts and feelings – my husband said I seem to be much happier these days (woot-woot)!

One of Dispenza’s definitions of meditation is “Becoming Familiar with Self.” 

“…if you want to become happy, the first step is to stop being unhappy—that is, stop thinking the thoughts that make you unhappy; and stop feeling the emotions of pain, sorrow, and bitterness.” 

The same goes for the desire to be wealthy – “decide to stop doing the things that make you poor.”  Want to be healthy? “..stop living an unhealthy lifestyle.”  — You’d think it was a no brainer – the want to; not so much.  And the HOW?  Oh boy.  Step one:  “You have to make the decision to stop being the old you, to such a degree that you make room for a new personality—thinking, acting and doing.” 

I know this … I read Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now four times straight for 7 months (no obsessive compulsive here!); read Practicing the Power of Now “daily reader” and when A New Earth came out – read it too; yep twice.  “Watch the thinker.”  I know this – I know I’m not the crazy woman who can’t/ won’t let a thought go, that has the same imaginary conversation for three days!  No!  I’m the consciousness watching all that foolishness.  When I pull myself up to the consciousness level I find that my whirly-gig brain calms down, quiets – goes peaceful.  I must decide – and watch.

“To ‘know thyself’ is to meditate.”crystal

Dispenza encourages us to take this idea a step further and “become familiar with a new self.”  We just need to ask: “What is a greater expression of myself that I would like to be?” 

“If you can maintain that modified state of mind and body, independent of the external environment and the body’s emotional needs and greater than time, something should show up differently in your world.  That’s quantum law.”

Maintaining a “modified state of mind and body” –- much easier to do when the mind is allowed to quiet even for 15 minutes a day.  Meditation takes practice – and I’m nowhere near ready to go whole hog.  Baby steps.  I can do 15 minutes, 20 minutes.  It’s a place to start.

Honestly, everything starts with a decision.  Gotta want to first – no change possible without it!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥notorious

 

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