Sometimes the most frequently referenced quotes and lines that are by now cheesy, are the most true, such as the journey being the destination. When we become so focused on our goal, we can lose sight of what’s happening on the path to get there. And with meditation, there is no goal, so that can make the whole thing kind of tricky.
I remember when I first started to meditate when I was still in my late teens, and thinking ‘yes, fantastic, I’ll do this for a little while and all my problems with be solved!!’. The joke was clearly on me.
I was reminded of this as I had a younger student ask me in NYC when they learnt Integrated Meditation with me when they would ‘see results’. It’s a good question that I am asked all the time, and know well that query for myself. I also know how challenging it can be to see our own results as well, as we are living with them, calibrating to them every day, stabilising our more expanded state of consciousness. There’s no fat-to-skinny story, and you can’t share your ‘clear mind’ on Instagram. But there is joy, lightness, happiness for no reason. There is an increase in emotional resilience and generosity and creativity. We feel better physically. But it takes time, and we have to keep meditating, and over time to become aware of this.
How we approach our practice is also really important. We can meditate every day with the worst attitude and use being a meditator as another ego trip, announcing to everyone ‘we meditate’, go into shame spirals for missing a sitting, and still be rude. It’s not a silver bullet for not being a bit of an asshole.
So I teach our students over our course to be kind to themselves, do the best they can and to extrapolate their experience of meditation into their daily life. To be proud of any time spent meditating rather than focusing on the time when we ‘should’ have been meditating. And we keep students inspired through our online education program, our meditation talks and I hope, through these letters.
If you would like to learn how to be a brilliant meditator, come learn Integrated Meditation with Emily or I. It’s going to involve learning the technique of meditation in person, as well as understanding yourself and having support from a community and ongoing advice and inspiration from us. We would love to have you and to see you making last changing, not apply band-aids.
Details of Integrated Meditation can be found HERE.
Sent with love,
Jac