Full Speed Ahead!

From the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night, my mind is constantly telling me what I should be doing, what I should have done yesterday and what I should do next.

My mind never seems to be satisfied with where I am right in the moment. My mind seems to be saying that I need to be running 90 miles an hour all day long and God forbid anyone get in my way.

It's a "Full Speed Ahead" way of living.

This is why meditation is so important for me. If I let my mind run my life...my mind will just run my life amok...meaning it will stress me out to the point that I never just stop, take a breath and focus on what's really important.

All I do is run from one thing that I should be doing to another.

Meditation simplifies my life. It allows me to give up all those things my mind thinks is important by not focusing on any of them for 15-20 minutes a day.

Now I must admit that in the beginning, my mind was running my life so completely that I struggled mightily to meditate. Even when I sat down to meditate, thoughts were still zipping through my mind. I kept hearing messages like, "you shouldn't be sitting here. This is silly. You need to be doing _________."

So I learned why all the books on meditation call it a meditation practice. The more I read about meditation from the people I consider my teachers, the more I learned that no one who hasn't meditated before just sits down and meditates successfully.

It takes time to unravel our identification with our ego mind and to start identifying ourselves with the calm, peaceful presence that shows up in meditation.

My problem was that I was really impatient. I wanted that presence to show up quickly. I felt I needed it to show up quickly.

And so the more I wanted it, the more it seemed to elude me. My mind switched from telling me what I should be doing to "Okay, so where is this peace thing? You've only got 20 minutes. When is it going to show up?"

And so I found that I had to learn first about surrender. I had to learn to surrender all of those thoughts that were happening when I sat down to meditate. I had to learn to surrender to just Being in the moment. I had to let go of all of the thoughts of what I should be doing and just let myself BE right there in that moment.

Along the way, I learned several little "tricks" to help me do that. One of the meditations I learned was the Spiritual Distinction Meditation. And it taught me how to create presence by focusing on my senses.

What that means is that for a few seconds each, I focus on what I can hear...then what I can smell...then what I can taste...and what I can feel.

What I found is that without realizing it...as long as I was focused on all these other things, I was not thinking!

I was not thinking about what I should be doing, should have done yesterday, should be planning for tomorrow. I was just right there in that moment.

And I found that the longer I could just be there in the moment, the more peaceful I was when I opened my eyes and walked away.

I do have people ask me all the time which meditation they should try and I did give my advice on that for awhile. But I have now learned that there is no meditation that is right for everyone.

A lot of my clients and I like guided meditations to get us back on track when we haven't meditated regularly for awhile.

Some of my clients like the Chakra Clearing meditation by Doreen Virtue. Some like the "Getting in the Gap" meditation by Wayne Dyer.

I like the "Yoga for Emotional Flow" meditations by Stephen Cope and the "Self-Healing" meditation by Louise Hay.

But all of those just bring me back to sitting quietly and focusing on my breath...how the air feels coming into my body when I inhale and how it feels going out when I exhale.

It always amazes me how peaceful my day goes if I just take 15 or 20 minutes out of my day and meditate.

 If your life feels like "Full Steam Ahead!" most of the time, give meditation a try.

Maybe try one of these guided meditations I've listed or talk to friends and see what they've tried. Go out on Amazon and read the consumer comments on some of the meditation CD's.

But this year, don't let your mind just run your life all year long. Make a decision to change your life...and your life will change.