As I get older (and hopefully wiser) in my life I am more able to step back and observe the impact that certain situations have upon me in my life.
For example, under significant stress, I get quiet, more serious, tend toward behavior that is more damaging to myself such as over-eating, negative self-talk, and eating the wrong foods.
It’s very consistent too – when you begin to really look at why your behavior changes at times, why you may have bad habits chances are you can trace it back to certain situations where you react in a self-defeatist way.
This is very hard to do when you’re young, don’t have enough experience behind you, feel almost immortal and don’t like to admit that you have any flaws, but you do begin the process of realization when you get older.
Bottom line is that we all have situations in our lives that change our emotional state resulting in certain negative behaviors that we would rather control.
For me, my realization came as a result of meditation.
When I sat down to write "Beyond Greatness: How Average People Achieve Extraordinary Motivation, Health and Happiness" – my methods of succeeding with meditation played a very big part in both discovering secrets of high achievers as well as communicating my own experiences and stories.
I remember starting meditation and going through the frustration of not being able to focus…"I’ll never be able to relax I said to myself"
It caused me to stop meditating for weeks at a time, but each time I would try again wishing for a miraculous breakthrough where I would suddenly enter this world of complete and utter detachment from society.
Then, I read information on meditation that suggested it was OK to recognize your thoughts and not enter the complete state of tranquility everyone expects when they first start out…that just sitting back and letting your thoughts play through your mind like movies was OK – just try and NOT judge them letting them flow just as a floating stick moving down a fast-flowing river.
For me, that’s where I suddenly was able to let go and achieve the results that I had tried for so long to get from my meditation sessions. Not only was I able to enter into the blissful state of meditation at will, but I learned a valuable lesson of detachment from thoughts, fears, frustrations and outside situations in my life allowing me to better control feelings of sadness, anger and frustration.
It was amazing…suddenly the two 20-minute sessions of meditation bacame the most important 20-minutes in my life not only because of the 20-minutes to myself but because of how it allowed me to deal with all of life’s challenges and surprises.
In a way…by giving up control for the 20-minute sessions allowed me to gain control over the other 23h-40 minutes of my day.
How about you…what changes have you found meditation, yoga or relaxation has brought to your life?
Or, are you still struggling to "GET" meditation?
Leave your comments and share your insights with us.
Jeff
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