Mediation, for me, is the OG of all healing modalities. It offers impressive benefits physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I have suggested meditation to more people than I can count because the benefits are so incredibly life-changing. If you were to pick only one practice from this book, this is the one I would wish for you to choose.  I don’t know of anything more effective in increasing feelings of love and peacefulness, while allowing painfully stuck things to pass from us. The benefits have been scientifically proven and documented. (Look up Dr Joe Dispenza, who is a leader in the research and development of meditation practices.) 

As we have discussed before, the vibration of the thoughts and feelings we are having profoundly affects our cells, metabolic rate and mood. Meditation offers a proven way to increase your vibrational set point. And it is so easy. There’s nothing complex about it. It might sound daunting, but it isn’t. So let’s just do it, shall we? It is worth the effort!

Meditation is nothing more than a practice in focus. You may have heard that the goal is to stop thinking. That will become an intermittent by-product of singular focus without the struggle of trying to “stop” thinking. My goal is to release repetitive thoughts by fully focusing on one thing with my mind. Whether it is soft meditation music, the hum of a fan, the singing of crickets, or your own body’s breathing rhythm. You may find that focusing on breathing is easier as you can notice the sound and follow the movement of your chest with your mind. If the dual focus points help you, use this method. It really is a “personal” skill. So let your own experimentation be your guide. You will find what works best for you. 

As you find your focus point(s) you will notice your mind attempting to wander off into thinking land. It is ok. Try not to have any reaction to it. This is natural and expected. It would be like if you begin lifting heavy weights and you notice in less than 100 reps your arms are beginning to burn. That is normal, right? You wouldn’t be mad at your muscles if you weren’t able to do 100 heavy reps on day one, would you? No, of course not. You would understand that it will take time for the muscles in your arm to adjust to this amount of ask. So, allow your singular focus “muscles” to develop slowly as well. When your mind wanders, and it will, just gently, kindly bring it back to your point of focus. Deep breath in and relax further. Let every distraction take you deeper in, focusing further and again. 

I find that for me, I will pick a note in soft music and “ride” that note with my mind until another one takes its place, and then ride that one, and so on. Any distracting noises that I hear, I use them to ride deeper in. I used to say, when I was learning, deeper, deeper still, as a way to direct my focus, and eventually, I noticed things outside less and less. 

Once your mind is quieter, the next thing that will come, are  emotions. You will start to feel them surfacing without influence. When emotions come up just observe them, release them and then refocus fully again. You may very well get movie or pictures in your mind correlating to the emotion. Try not to get pulled by the mind into thinking over situations. Release the thinking and refocus fully on the emotion. You may find that helpful as a way of gently releasing them. Never try to suppress or stuff them down. Let your body feel the sensation without dialogue from the mind. When that feeling dissipates, return to your point of chosen focus again. 

One of my favorite quotes from Eckart Tolle is that “thinking is pain,” which I have found to be very true. As simple as this concept is, that if you are thinking negatively about yourself, the reason that it doesn’t feel good is that the judgment simply isn’t true. And you know that they aren’t true because they feel bad when you think of them. They feel bad because the Divine disagrees with them and they lower the flow of loving energy to and through you. So stopping the negative chatter about yourself in this practice and releasing them because they are lies is very helpful.

For example on emotions that will surface. So, say anger is coming up. I will just state in my mind, “Anger,” and without any response to that anger, observe it, feel it, and breathe into it. When it releases, take a deep breath. Then refocus. Sometimes, one will just relentlessly keep coming back. I will say to it “I see you”. “I feel you”. And feel it fully until it releases.

Your initial goal in meditation is just to train your mind to focus with less narration and more peacefulness. It doesn’t matter how many times you refocus. The small spaces are enough to build the “muscles” of focus during meditation. And by small I mean only a few seconds at a time between refocus efforts. Start with short, 5-10 minute meditations and increase as you can.

Every single meditation is good. No matter what. Some are more good – some are less good. That is perfectly normal. After all, it is a “practice.” Allow yourself time to find your rhythm. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Set aside a consistent time in which to practice daily. I like to first thing as it helps set the tone for my day in a peaceful place.  But I have done it at Noon, Midnight, 4pm, 4am. I  often use short practices to balance my mind and emotional state as I move through the day. As you meditate regularly, you will find yourself less reactive, more balanced (especially in the presence of conflict), and more aware of negative chatter in your head. You will be catching your mind wandering off, emotions coming and saying to them. I see you, I feel you, and breathing into them instead of stuffing them down for later. When this starts happening, congratulate yourself. You are on your way to loving yourself and healing your whole life.

Let’s take a deeper look at what meditation in essence is. In a similar way that water is for the body and makes up more than 70% of it. Meditation is water for the soul. Meditation opens you more fully with your Source and aligns you with that loving energy. The energy that makes you up, moves you, and supports you in life. This is the best explanation for what meditation is for you spiritually. Its most profound purpose is to refill your being from the well of energetic water. The true gift of meditation is that on purpose and with intention, it can open the “valve” for the flow of loving energy from the Divine to enter your being more powerfully. And as we learned earlier it is our thoughts that generate the emotions that together shut down the flow. Sort of a turning down of the valve, or faucet of the flow that is always coming to you.

The more you open your being to the flow of this immeasureable loving energy, the more you return to the knowing that you are good, loved, and perfect. The Divine sees no imperfections in you and supports the growth and expansion of your being in every way. We are all loved and supported endlessly by our Divine Source. Meditation is worth it on every level of your life. I promise you.

Once your meditation practice finds a rhythm, the next step is picking an intention when you sit to meditate. It can be loving yourself more, loving your body more, loving your life more, loving your spouse (or our spouse’s mother) more – just kidding! LOL. If these suggestions seem too big, then make it simpler. Pick something less personal, like loving the sunlight, the singing of a bird, or your dog or cat. Focus on the loving and appreciating something, and your whole body’s vibration will rise. When you refocus each time, remind yourself by stating your focus as a word, in our case, love. And focus again. Repeat it each time your mind wanders away. When you start to feel tingling sensations in your body, excitement, shivers, lightheadedness, or even fullness of heart, or any general sensation of well-being, these are amazing indicators! So know that you’re making fantastic progress and ready to increase the duration of your practice. 

Once you have started to find a more loving point of awareness easily, you will be more sensitive to the moments that you are knocked out of it. When you become irritated, take a break for yourself. Do some “Emotional Bubbling” which I taught in an earlier segment. Start to show yourself that you love yourself enough to care about your emotional balance. That you know you are worthy of the moments of pause it will take to do it even if it means excusing yourself to the restroom for 3 or 4 minutes. I know there are some days in this life when you may need to visit the powder room 3, 4, or 5 times. Don’t hesitate, it’s ok! Again, show yourself that your feelings matter. Show yourself that you love you enough to do it. And you can do it! You CAN love you! You are worthy of this meager amount of time, there’s no question. And, as you make this a priority, you will find more balance. Since it is a “practice” you will get better and better at it and it will require less and less time to feel through the emotion and then rebalance.

Let’s dive into why it is worth it for your physical body. In recent years, mediation has been studied scientifically. We now know with certainty that regular meditation practice up-regulates the immune system by as much as 50%.That is like putting twice as many armies at the border in a Risk game. Or having twice as many Wild Cards in a game of UNO.

Your chances of survival instantly doubles. You can look at this research for yourself by looking up Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work, and I encourage you to do so. Because a 50% increase just in terms of your immune system is incredible and one of countless upgraded systems that have been measured. Even the microbiome in your gut is improved in real-time.  And this is huge for your good feeling hormone production as many of them such as serotonin, begin there. And truly feeling better is worth it, because when you feel good life just go es smoother on all counts! Better feels better! And we all want that. 

So start today. You are worth the effort. Love yourself enough to try. And remember you can’t do it wrong unless you don’t try. Every meditation is good a step closer to opening the valve more fully.