I’ve heard it a thousand times. “I don’t have time to meditate.” Blah blah.
It’s a lie.
I know, because I was one of those people who said it.
Think I don’t understand your busy life? The rat race?
I do. I’ve lived it.
I’ve chased my tail plenty around to-do lists, dishes, homework, errands, business obligations, creative projects, financial stress, and the endless “family matters.” I’ve multi-tasked myself into oblivion all in the name of having so very much to do.
“I don’t have time to meditate... really, I don’t.”
I was, for a long while, a very occasional meditator, but no where near close to going steady with the practice. With any shred of “free time” that I had available in my very busy life, I much preferred to be walking, running, sweating, dancing, singing, practicing yoga asana, making art, or studying sutra. “Movement is my meditation,” or “art is my practice” or “studying is better than nothing,” I’d say with zeal and clarity and some perceived authority from my 20 years of yoga, thus politely excusing myself from the more arduous task of just sitting quiet. I had at times relished mantra initiations, but this, too was not quite the same as just... sitting... quiet.
Then, a crisis took my family to hell and back... then onward to healing and love beyond our wildest dreams.
Meditation suddenly manifested as a life-raft out of the molten chaos. It quickly became as staple as air or water.
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No one ever told me about all the magic that comes from meditation... probably because it’s really hard to describe. Still, we can have fun trying...
As a daily practice, meditation will sometimes be full of epiphanies, insights, and tranquil bliss. Other days, it feels like treading through the mud of my mind: treacherous, irritating, or worst of all, banal. But magic happens with a steady daily practice... Just as we reach a much different vantage point on a mountain when we climb for a mile every day - and not just "when we feel like it."
I began to reach deeper and deeper places of stillness inside myself. More than ever before, I savored just being, as a gourmet.
Wow! We get to BE... in these bodies... and explore our Selves. The universe is indeed opulent in her generosity...
Don’t take my word for it, because you can only know this from experience:
With steady and long-term practice, one’s life begins to revolve around the meditation practice, instead of one’s meditation practice revolving around one’s life... life circumstances, that is.
I began to feel more harmoniously attuned to the whole. I began to feel my soul’s purpose manifesting in the world with more grace and ease and synchronicity than ever before.
Yes, Universe, put me to work!
Yet, meditation literally rocked my world. All things that were motivated by fear, attachment, or ego began to fall away like sand through my finger tips. Meditation destroyed everything in my life that was stale, low-frequency, or not aligned with my current purpose.
Meditation took out the trash.
At first, my life-make over felt violent. Yet, my meditation continued, as my heart demanded.
Meditation was an earthquake under the existing order of my life, but something more beautiful than I could have ever imagined began to emerge from the ashes.
Then... my relationships deepened, many new fruitful opportunities arose, I completed a book, and felt more creatively fulfilled than ever. My life had begun a deeper process of purification, refinement, and focus that is no doubt continuing and deepening to this day.
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At first, you might think: “Oh I could be getting so much done with these extra 10 or 20 or 30 minutes in the morning!” Blah blah.
You will certainly being moving faster without meditation, but certainly not better!
If you are moving faster sans meditation, you will likely be stubbing your toes and tripping over yourself and making poor decisions or needing to go back to square one again and again in regards to expressing your life’s purpose, both metaphorically and literally. I speak from experience here.
Meditation is where you might get your million-dollar idea, or the realization that you don’t need a million dollars in the first place. Or both.
Meditation gives you what you need. Meditation flowers slowly. And there is no substitute for just sitting quiet and straight every morning for a set amount of time.
Infinite thanks to my beautiful husband who meditates with me every morning. Together, we are synergy, wherever we are in the world.
Gratitude to Scott Burgess of Our Lady Stardust Photography, who captured my meditation in black sand. You are a joy to co-create with!
