Meditation

When attempting to meditate, do you have problems clearing your mind of thoughts? Often those thoughts keep on coming back, and you seem destined for failure no matter how hard you try. The good news is that this is a very common challenge encountered by anyone starting meditation. It is not a sign of failure that you are having difficulties making your mind clear, quiet or supposedly blank. Even those who have practised meditation for many years may at times have problems. The most important thing is to keep persevering, and if necessary try different approaches or techniques, until you find one which works for you.

While quietening your mind is an important goal for any meditation, realise that each of us will achieve different degrees of success. For some people attaining the ultimate goal of full quietness of mind may not be possible, but that does not mean you cannot meditate.

The first and foremost thing to realise is that your very efforts to clear or quieten the mind can often be the cause. Your mind becomes filled with the distractions of the very same ideas you are making an effort to clear. If this is the case or you have a very rowdy mind, then you should shift your efforts to achieving a small area of calmness.

The second obstacle most people face is that they try to erase or eliminate their thoughts. The ability to quell or eliminate thoughts is very difficult to achieve for most of us. So the best approach for success is instead to push your thoughts aside or to the background, thereby diminishing their presence. With time and effort, you can build the skills to be observant of your thoughts, acknowledge them if necessary and push them aside. Then as you push more of these thoughts away, you can establish a small beachhead of quietness in your mind. Be happy with this achievement, as it is an important milestone. As you practice more, you will find that you can expand the quietness outwards, pushing your thoughts farther aside and into the background.

A very useful technique which can be utilised to help with meditation or even mindfulness is called Ekagrata, which simply means focused thought. Applying Ekagrata enables you to focus on one thing, such as your breath, repeating a mantra, or mindfully shifting your attention to a specific thought. As a master of your mind, you are not thinking of everything at the same time, you are being purposeful and focusing on one thing at a time. If stray thoughts enter your mind, you acknowledge them and push them aside to achieve that focus of mind which is Ekagrata. Become the master of your mind with Ekagrata, so that you may learn to clear your mind.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

There have been numerous books, films, texts and beliefs which have pertained to some ostensibly mystical power of the Force. Some have revealed that the Force is an energy field created by all living things, which binds the galaxy together. While others have indicated that the Force is within us, so what is this Force and where is it?

The truth of the matter is that we as humans only comprehend a tiny part of the cosmic equation of life, and that there are undoubtedly many aspects to what is loosely referred to as the Force. If you approach the question with an open mind, one which challenges and learns from true knowledge, you might discover that both and all are the Force as it exists on many different levels.

The living energies which exist within all of us is your Life Force. You may well relate to your Life Force energy as an inner awareness, your true essence, your spirit, or your soul, to identify but a few. Some might see this concept as elusive, obscure, intangible and frequently a secret which is concealed within religious beliefs. Though there is an overall acknowledgement from all quarters that we as humans contain an energy which is something not yet empirically identified. This energy is your very own Life Force, part of a much greater whole, yet it is unique and distinctly assigned to you. As such, you are part of the Force and the Force is within you as your Life Force.

The Universal Force is present throughout the universe. Open your mind, even if just for a short moment, to broaden your consciousness outside of the boundaries of time and space. It is an energy which is throughout all of the atoms and particles; in addition to existing throughout all galaxies of the cosmos, transcending and within all the trillions upon trillions of stars and planets within the universe. The Universal Force is within all time and space, it is this force which surrounds us and permeates us. It is the Universal Force that binds the galaxy together and preserves the structure of the Universe as we know it. Without the Universal Force, all matter would decline into an uncontrolled state of entropy.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

A common feeling that you may experience when starting to meditate is that of being anxious or nervous. First up, do not worry, as many people experience the same feelings when they do meditation, especially when starting or if they have had a gap or lapse in doing meditation.

When you first start meditation, you may feel uncomfortably awkward or out of kilter in some undefined way. This can be especially true if you lead a busy life, or there are lots of things which typically occur around you. These feelings are completely expected and a natural sensation as your mind has been used to the normal hustle and bustle of everyday life. The change of pace when you begin meditation can trigger feelings of anxiety or nervousness to name just a few.

If you do feel uneasy when practising meditation, then be aware it is your mind which is generating these sensations. It can be common for your mind to generate a FOMO (fear of missing out) as it attempts to re-establish its control over your life and your way of thinking.

There are several different ways to address your anxiousness when meditating. One obvious, but often overlooked method is to simply tell yourself that you are not anxious and it is just in your mind. Another effective way to help you feel less anxious is to simply lower your gaze to a spot on the floor or ground before you, rather than closing your eyes. Some other breathing techniques, such as Breathe with Purpose or Life-Force Meditation can assist you to become more comfortable when you start out meditating through the use of specially structured activities.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Nowadays it is very easy to lose the battle with Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Medium, Pinterest, Tumblr, and various other apps taking hold of your life. Even though you may well have reduced your screen time with digital well-being tools, you might have noticed that your attention span has decreased, or that you become seemingly quickly bored by a topic and feel the need to swipe onto the newest fad. Consider for a moment that it is your mind which is winning the battle, and continues to draw you back to scrolling and swiping through Social Media.

If though, you wish to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your brilliance and dark sides, then you need to discover some quiet time in your life. Discovering some quiet time means more than closing the app or turning off your smartphone, it is about really bringing some renewed focus to your way of thinking. Truly quietening your mind can be extremely beneficial for your well-being and quality of life. Choose a technique such as meditation, mindfulness or the more advanced practices such as cognition that can help you to boost your attention span and at the same time provide you with ways to assist in quietening your mind.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

The utmost goal for anyone undertaking meditation is to realise a tranquillity of the mind. However, the majority of us have noisy minds and attaining this preeminent state of a quietness of mind is seriously difficult to achieve. Yet having a noisy mind, does not mean that you cannot meditate, it merely means that you need to take a different approach in which you discover how to become the master of your mind.

If you have a noisy mind, trying to achieve silence of your mind may be tough to achieve. Frequently your very own efforts to quieten the mind will restock your mind with the noise of thoughts comparable to those which you are attempting to remove. Your mind might seemingly inject thoughts such as “I can’t stop thinking” or “I do not know if I am doing this right” feeding the increasing levels of noise as your mind tries to persevere control. This can reveal just how much attention most of us pay to our mind, listening to every single thought which it raises every day.

While you may not have the ability to achieve a quietness of mind at the outset, it is very important that you must not give up. You just need to discover an alternative means to focus your mind. Some people find success in creating a space in between their thoughts of their noisy minds. While others can discover success by learning to become the observer of their thoughts, as if they were being played out on a movie screen. Others may find that listening to a gong or similar tone can assist by the sound becoming the focus of the mind away from the endless stream of thoughts. In all of these ways to accomplish meditation success, the key, whether apparent or not has been on achieving some focus for your mind. The distinction being, that as you come to be that master, you can learn to focus your mind, thereby banishing the noise of your thoughts to the background. So even though your mind is not quiet, you can achieve meditation with focus. Then overtime, you will find that as you repeatedly take control of your mind and focus on meditation, these other thoughts will drift further into the background, so you may attain success.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

The living vitalities which exist in all living things, manifest as your Life Force . While a lot has been blogged about the innate power source of the human mechanism, you may still consider that this is a mystery or a secret. You may well relate to your Life Force energy as an inner awareness, your genuine soul or spirit, to label but a small few. Some may see this idea of a separate indwelling power as mystical, strange, obscure or even intangible. The opportunity to work with your Life Force energies is not a secret nor an enigma but it is possible through the advanced meditation skills of Cognition (a real calmness of mind) and Ekagrata (focused thoughts).

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

We all want to reconnect to the spiritual or inner aspects of ourselves, but how often does the ritual supplant the actual endeavours? If you undertake meditation in the hope of enlightenment or knowledge, precisely how much time, and with whom you meditate, ought to not be the driving imperative or the reason for doing meditation. When the apparent aesthetics or actions become more important than our true experience and connection with the inner self, then ritual predominates and prevails over the spiritual discipline. It is then that the connection to your true self is lost and you lose your way.

What is more important in reconnecting to your spirituality is that your meditation or spiritual practice has really enabled you to reach within to your inner self. The greatest achievement is in comprehending how your spiritual practice has allowed you to change your heart and transform your thoughts and feelings into those of kindness and humility. Always make every effort to reconnect to your inner self through meditation or in your spiritual efforts as this can enable growth and bring to light a genuine and authentic awakening.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Stop and discover how to command your mind, instead of your mind, emotions and feelings being the commander of your life. Tapping into the energies of your inner light or Life Force through cognition can aid you to shift away from the patterns of your passive intellect. Doing so permits you to liberate your thinking as you release your way of thinking from your mental and emotional limitations and the associated reactions of the lower consciousness.

Using these skills of meditation or cognition in everyday life can enable you to shift your cognitive and mental wavelengths to become calm, well balanced and in control rather than the reactions of your lower consciousness being the master of your life and destiny.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾