You can’t fail at meditation
When starting a meditation practice, it’s not uncommon to feel discouraged afterward because you weren’t able to stop your mind from racing.
It can feel like you did it wrong, or like you somehow failed.
Oftentimes it can feel so frustrating — not only that you weren’t able to get quiet, but even more so, to meet the tumultuous nature of thought in and of itself — that you can get turned off and end up walking away from the practice.
But you can’t fail at meditation! And let me explain why:
There’s no goal in meditation. 🧘
Holistically speaking, meditation is simply an act of being.
Being with everything that arises in complete allowance. That includes the thoughts and stories that pop up.
Now we can get lost in thought many times during a meditation, and that’s okay. It’s when we notice when we’re getting lost in thought — this is the key. 🔑
The key is in the noticing, and that’s all you need to do. The rest will organically unfold as you cultivate your practice of allowing and being present to what is (aka meditating…aka LIVING LIFE).
And the more we commit our attention to noticing the pull of our thoughts, over and over and over again, eventually, the power and pull of the mind weakens in strength because you see what’s really happening.
Our strict identification with our thoughts loosens and begins to dislodge — we begin to see that we’re not our thoughts, we’re the one who witnesses the thoughts happening. So therefore we couldn’t possibly be the thoughts that we’re experiencing.
An awareness awakens and blossoms, the omnipresent observer within steps forward. 👁
I’ve been meditating for years and I still catch myself getting lost in thought from time to time. And what brings me back to the present moment is simply this: I notice, “Hey, that thought sucked me in.” Deep breathe. A palpable shift in awareness takes place in that moment.
And in the snap of a finger, I’ve dissolved back into now: the only place of personal power; the only thing that’s real.
Infinite love,
Rach
I’d love to hear about your experience with meditation.
Can you relate to the feelings of frustration or of “doing it wrong”?
Leave a comment below, let’s connect.