Why Meditate? My Experience With Meditation and How You Can Begin.

I love you.  That is the one expression that sums it all up for me.  I love you.  I feel it every time I read an inspirational quote or look at the sunlight creeping through the blinds or hear a distant breath in a yoga class…hahhhhh I love you  

It is what unites us and what we have in common.  The spark of love in each and every one of us is the same spark that lights up the lovers eyes, the babies first smile, the sun and the moon.  I feel this every time I meditate.  Yes, meditate.  You have heard it a time or two in yoga class or in your local news paper.  Meditation is as old as the ages and yet it is something that we as a society are just starting to embark on at a massive level.  Meditation groups are popping up all over the world to create World Peace and a Higher Level of Conciousness that vibrates on… you guessed it, Love.  The love frequency is one that is radiant and all plentiful.  It is what keeps us striving for that next thing.  That thing we can’t even quite put our finger on.  Often times that thing becomes masked with accomplishment, addiction, and fear.  What are we chasing really?  Have you ever thought that the thing you were chasing would make you feel inextricably whole or complete only to find that once you accomplished it you felt ok but it wasn’t enough, sometimes it made you feel even worse.  Why is that?  How is that possible?  But is so, so you move on to the next thing.  Or perhaps you failed to accomplish that which you desired the most?  You felt defeated, lesser than, unmotivated to move through it, and so you reached for something that made sense in that moment, a snack, the bar, a companion, only to feel guilty about it after.

That unrelenting reaching for has driven me to a point of questioning.  What is the point, I would say?  What is the point the this life thing?   I had used up my addiction and failed to love another human being properly in my teens and early twenties, and then in my mid twenties I was addicted to accomplishment.  I thought if I were perfect then I would happy.  I spent the first half of my life in a place of self-abuse and ultimately feeling defeated, to spend the later years trying to make up for lost time to also feel some what defeated.

That is when I found meditation.  It started as a suggestion from a group of friends in 2008.  Meditation and prayer are the answer to your problems.  Well, I had been praying my whole life to some far off God that supposedly judged everything I ever did.  I prayed for mercy on my soul and I prayed in times of need.  I rarely ever prayed to be open to learning about why we are here, or for someone else, or to listen for loving guidance.  I definitely never did a prayer of gratitude for that which I had in my life at that moment, which is always bountiful.  But like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I felt defeated.   I was willing to listen to suggestions if it meant peace of mind and serenity.  I learned how to pray differently.  I started to pray for others, make gratitude lists, and pray for something bigger than me to guide me.  I view the Universe as being bigger than me (Pretty easy, right) and I feel that it is a magical Co-Creator of incredibly possibility.  The God I once had started to evolve into something greater.  It started to be everything.  It was me, it was you, it was the sun, moon, sky, mountains, good, and the bad.  It is that for me today.  I was told that praying is only part of the equation.  Praying is to speak to God, but to meditate is to listen.  Listening was not one of my strong suits.  I spent a lot of time in self pity, of busy-ness, of distraction, but not in listening.  But, again, I felt defeated, so I was willing to give it shot.  It started with a few minutes a day.  I would go on youtube and find a beginners guided meditation video, plug in my head phones, sit still, close my eyes, and listen.  I felt different immediately.  Truly, I did.  A seed of serenity started to become nourished by this speaking to and listening exchange.  I was having a conversation of the mind, body, and Spirit.  It was a revelation.  It took discipline.  There were days I did not feel like meditating.  Prayer was easy to rush through on those days, but meditating meant I had to sit still.  I did it though, even if it was for only a minute, because I thirsted for that serenity.  I needed it like one needs water in a desert.  Something bigger than me beckoned.

It has been over 4 years now, and I still have this Mind, Body, Spirit conversation.  I pray and I meditate on a daily  basis.  It has developed, it has changed, it has GROWN significantly over the years and my God is always revealing more to me all of the time.  Just when I feel like I have learned the current lesson (I feel as though we are always in a state of learning here) I am shown that I know nothing because my God has gotten even bigger.  That lesson that I thought I learned has an underlying current of truth that I just started to tap, so I must go deeper.  Over the years, I have discovered that beyond the seated mediation, there are many ways to meditate.  Yoga for instance, is a moving or still meditation.  We are uniting or yolking the mind, body, and Spirit with the attention the breath and body.  We leave the studio or place of practice feeling as though something has shifted within us, because we have created time for it to shift.  That is what meditation is for me, it creating time by giving time to still the mind.  There are walking meditations in Buddhism where you walk very slowly, perhaps in a grassy field, and pay attention to every shift the foot and earth make together, in unison.  The awareness goes from sensation to sensations very slowly as though it were the only thing that were in existence.  You leave walking meditation feeling a sense of peace because again, the mind, the body, the Spirit have been united through this attention to the presence.  One of my favorite spots to meditate is in a warm salt bath with lavender.  I listen to a chakra tuning meditation while rested in the warm water, close my eyes, and use my Ujjayi breath for about 15 minutes.  Every morning before I step out of bed, I create space of about 30 minutes before I need to get ready for my first class or event of the day if I have any so that I can plug in Theta binural beats (Theta waves are the brain waves Tibetan Monks go into in deep meditation) and do a laying down mediation.  No matter what, I create the space.  I believe that the attention to the space is what matters.  The Universe notices when you’ve practiced, no matter how long the practice is.  It is just the fact that we are taking the time to listen to that calm, gentle Guidance.

Create space in your life to Listen for You. When you take care of you, you take care of the World.  Just sit back, relax, and watch where your journey with meditation guides You.

What are some of your favorite ways you like to meditate?  If you would like a guided meditation with Alana Roach Yoga, please email me at AlanaRoachYoga@Gmail.com.

Love always,

Alana Roach

E-RYT, LD, Reiki, Wellness Coach and Writer

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AlanaRoachYoga@Gmail.com