Morning Rituals. Part 1: Meditation

Over the years I noticed a pattern: the times when I feel miserable are the times I stopped meditating.

I have an impression that everybody meditates these days, but it is not true. Not yet. So if meditation seems too “eastern” to you, know, it’s not as much about sitting in a pretzel position, chanting mantras, neither it is about incarnating as a pretzel, as much as it is about LISTENING TO YOURSELF, getting to know yourself.

Morning rituals are:  meditation, exercise, visualization, affirmation, journaling, reading. This post is just about…

Meditation

Going back to the beginnings: When I was a teen, nobody had to tell me, that I need to meditate to feel better. It felt right from the start, the reward was built in… it could be a form of escape too. It changed me. I felt that zen meditation caused the loss of my personality – while in fact I was… losing parts of my ego? Something within was being rebuilt.  But I didn’t realize that until many years later.

In my adult life, being absorbed with many unimportant but urgent things, with people who entered my life, it felt selfish sometimes to make a priority of my own needs. But they were screaming from the inside until I paid attention to them. Now it is simple: taking care of me is a part of self care – it will never be on anybody’s agenda, so it has to be on mine.

I heard Marianne Williamson saying:

“Starting a day without meditation is like leaving your home without taking a shower. The body needs to be cleansed and so does the mind.”

What is the opposite of meditating in the morning? Turning on a TV to hear the news. Checking the email or social media. Even if you are not sensitive to vibrations and energy you likely will feel: this is a lousy way of starting a day. But we do it because it’s a habit.

Though I haven’t had TV in my home for the past 15 years (I truly recommend getting rid of the thing and placing a vase with pink peonies in it’s place.)  I’m guilty of checking social media first things in the morning. When that happens I am still going to do my morning routine. No matter what.

Recently I realized: there is nothing… NOTHING as exciting on the internet as the things that are going on right here, in my mind. The gifts of meditation are easy to be found and hard to give up.

Meditation can lead to upsetting discoveries, we may need to deal with our insecurities and imperfections. It is ok. When we apply self compassion and treat the discoveries as lessons, it can only serve us.

But you may find that most of the time, sitting quietly, doing nothing, concentrating on your breath, will bring you many rewards. In my own practice I discovered:

• Meditation puts in front of me that which is most important to me.
• It magnifies truth.
• It releases any tension.
• Helps me to be more creative (if I set an intention of resolving something, answers come to me in the first minutes)
• Calms me and improves my focus.
• Helps me to be more mindful.
• It creates stillness within me that I want to come back to throughout the day. So I often feel like meditating, even if for few minutes.
• It helps me to simplify my thinking,  helps to let go of “shoulds.”
• It creates a sense of peace in my mind and body.
• It makes me laugh at many irrelevant things. Helps to put things in perspective.
• It helps me to be more positive.
• It probably will help me to live longer (but it will be hard to prove, right…) There are studies done regarding the influence of meditation on the length of telomeres – that are responsible for the longevity of our cells. Telomeres shorten as we age, and meditation helps to lengthen them. You can read more about it on the page of the University of California in Davis.

Do you want to share your experiences? Meet me in the comments below!