What is Meditation?
Meditation has been used by many cultures as a spiritual practice for thousands of years. But what is meditation exactly?
​It’s often experienced as a journey from outer awareness in the world to inner awareness.  You settle in and focus on what is in the present, setting aside thoughts of the past or the future. Slower and intentional breathing typically helps to relax the body and quiet the mind.

As you experience a deep state of rest, your mind begins to feel open and spacious. Your body can enter into its natural state of healing itself releasing any stress and toxins. This can set you on a path for greater health and happiness in your life.

There are many ways to enter into meditation. You may choose to focus on a spiritual text, verse, or image.  Or you may choose to be in silence.

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Whatever form of meditation you choose, as your body and mind calms down and your awareness turns inward, you may find that you enter into the space or gap that exists between the thoughts. It may appear as silence, but it’s a silence filled with infinite possibilities.

It’s there that you connect with your Divine Self – in the space between your thoughts.

And as you come out of your meditation into the outer world once again, you bring with you a drop of that experience  – of who you really are and the infinite possibilities that exist.

By repeating this journey regularly, you strengthen this sacred connection and you’ll experience that you can bring this silence and sense of possibility into your daily activities, even in the midst of noise and chaos. You more clearly see your divine path and what choices are best for you.

After establishing a regular practice of meditation, you may experience you begin to have a higher spiritual awareness beyond your usual daily thoughts.  You more deeply discover the highest aspect of yourself, connected in unity with the universe – a feeling of oneness and perfection.

At times, you may gain insight into parts of your life, but that’s typically not an intention for meditation. Meditation is to cultivate a state of to silence where you can listen for what may arise out of this silence.
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You may wonder, What are you listening for?  And who is actually speaking?

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In the silence, you may hear your inner voice, your eternal voice, that speaks to you out of the wisdom of your eternal spirit, your essence.  As you listen, you experience your interconnectedness to all and challenges that you have in life begin to dissolve, bringing a deep sense of peace and harmony along with understanding and compassion. This opens the door to experience higher states of consciousness.

The true value of meditation is this spiritual awakening it brings.
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Why not start today?  Here are 3 easy steps to bring meditation into your daily life.

1.      Schedule it.  We all tend to lead full lives with busy schedules.  So, to be sure to find the time to meditate, schedule it.  Put it on your schedule for a block of time and commit to it like you would an appointment at your dentist’s office or a meeting at work.

2.     Start small. You’ll be more successful if you start with just a few minutes. Then after you’ve been successful in this, slowly increase your time. 

3.    Be open to what arises. Your experience will vary from day to day and over time.  Don’t consider it a failure if one day you seem to be distracted or struggling more than others.  You’ve been present to the moment and what arises in that space, so you’ve succeeded!

“Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.”                   Saint Francis de Sales

Check out the many resources available to support you in your spiritual practice in my Free Healing Library here.