Too Busy Talking to Listen?
When you hear the word ‘meditation’, do you think something like, ‘might suit some
people, but sounds like a waste of time to me?’ You’d be in there with the majority who
are ‘sort of’ interested but don’t really know how valuable it is when you make it a part of
your everyday routine.
When Steve heard the suggestion that he would benefit from meditation, his response
was that he really didn’t have time for that ‘love, dove, peace, brown rice, tree hugging
kind of stuff.’ A Mensa candidate and proud alpha-male, Steve’s a rugby player – no
meditation, thank you very much. So the subject was shelved.
A coaching session later, he mentions that he runs for 90 minutes every morning. Asked
what he does while running, he replies that he thinks about work and other activities.
Hearing an explanation of meditation, he agrees to set aside 10 minutes of his run to
listening – not thinking, just listening.
So, how would meditation benefit you? One way to explain it is through the ant hill
analogy. Let’s say you are one ant in a very large ant hill. You think for yourself and
have your own consciousness. When necessary, ants seem to think and act intelligently,
en masse, at amazing speed for mutual benefit. Should you, one ant, choose to access
the combined consciousness of the whole ant colony, then you are that much sharper
because of it – you have an edge.
There’s a huge amount of knowledge, collective intelligence and information available to
us via the mass consciousness of humanity. Many people access that through meditation
– you can too.
Would you allow that you are a perfect electro-magnetic, transmitting and receiving
device? When you are talking or thinking, you are constantly transmitting information -
much like a CB radio, you can’t hear at the same time as you are talking. Meditation is
like clicking the button and saying – ‘Over?’
Is meditation something you can do? Yes, easily – in fact, you enter a mild meditative
state whenever you become absorbed in some task to the exclusion of everything else,
be it surfing, sewing or showering. But performed routinely, you receive greater benefit
by deliberately accessing the vast intelligence of the world around you. A more
traditional explanation might be that prayer is talking to God – meditation is when God
talks to you.
Here’s one simple way to meditate:-
- Find a place where you can sit quietly and not be disturbed for 10-20 minutes.
- Instruct yourself to close your eyes, relax, and breathe in through your left nostril then out the right nostril 10 times, slowly and gently. Then reverse nostrils by breathing through the right and out through the left 10 times.
- Finally, reverse nostrils on each alternate breath 10 times. As you do so, just listen.
That’s all – listen. When finished, return to normal awareness.
This is only one of a great many ways to meditate. Check it out for yourself and see
what style is the best fit for you and your lifestyle.
When asked about his daily run incorporating 10 minutes of ‘listening’ time, Steve smiled
and reported he’d run faster and further than normal, surprisingly - also that he felt
particularly calm and clear-headed afterward – he’s decided to do that every day, thank
you very much.
Like many things, meditation is something that you ‘get’ only when you do it.
Meanwhile, there’s an infinite source of intelligence surrounding you, just waiting for you
to open your ears.
“The purpose of meditation is to bring us back to ourselves. As we become healthier,
happier and realise greater self-awareness, the other benefits of meditation begin to
follow naturally -- improved mental functioning, greater intuition as well as greater
access to unconscious resources and abilities.” -- M. Clarkson
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