Episode Transcript
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and today we are going to be talking about meditation and why do I resist meditating? the thumbnail said, body still mind crazy. So we're going to talk about a couple of aspects of that and see if we can get some insight. Before we do that, please take a moment and like share and subscribe. When you do that, it enables us to get this content out to many other people. And also please share with your if you think they would benefit from this. podcast. So today we're going to talk about meditation. Wow. Many people have tried meditation, right? And how many of us have been able to be consistent with it? It requires that you sit still and it may require that you have a mantra and it may require certain music and it may require body positions and things like that. If you've been watching the episodes of this podcast so far, you've noticed that I haven't even been using the word meditation and I haven't been calling it that at all. I've been saying just look at your mind or observe the mind and so forth. Meditation basically is observing the mind, but with, with an aim in mind, you know, but we're going to talk about the actual practice of meditation today, which includes sitting still. physically and maybe relaxing the body, maybe focusing on one thing or another, one idea or another. And why is it that we have such a problem with doing meditation? So we have to talk about the mind. So when we're talking about meditation, we are dealing with the mind and in Raja Yoga meditation, the meditation that I practice, we aren't really focused too much on the body. So there may be a lot of meditation out there that focus on breathing, maybe a consecutive relaxation of different parts of the body. Uh, maybe part of Hatha yoga or transcendental meditation where It's not really focused on the body so much, but you're using a mantra. Mantra is a word that's supposed to, when you use it, it's supposed to help you create this experience within, in your meditation when you use the word. So there's a lot of methods out there. But the first part of meditation, the practice of meditation is about relaxing the body. Now, many of us already not only have a mind that's jumping around, but also have a body that's jumping around, right? It's in my nervous system. Speak for myself, the mind. Maybe doesn't want to calm down, but even when I'm trying to sit still, I don't even want to sit still, or I find it difficult to sit still. Maybe I'm fidgeting, or maybe the mind is making, is going from one thought to the next, and then I'm getting frustrated or getting bored or feelings while I'm trying to sit still in meditation. As I'm saying, as I'm sharing this, that's the answer to the question, you know, why is it that we resist meditating? Well, who wants to feel bored and uncomfortable and fidgety and like nobody wants to feel that way, right? So today I want to talk about why, why we should still try to meditate, even if there's feelings of boredom, even if there's feelings of fidgeting, even if the mind is going crazy. I say crazy, meaning that it's going from one thought to the next and one emotion to the next. And maybe I can't control it or. Maybe I'm getting thoughts like this isn't for me and you know, I'm failing and I can't do this and I don't know how people can get something out of this. What I'm going to suggest, we're going to talk about, meditation practice. And I'm going to talk through it step by step. We're going to talk through it and I'm going to do a little mini meditation with you and we're going to practice. Okay. But through the reason why I mentioned all those other things in the beginning is because those are the distractions, the things that happen when you've been all, uh, active and stimulated. And now all of a sudden you're saying, okay, now sit down and be quiet and let the mind be quiet. Okay. It's not going to happen, right? So I'm telling the truth about that so that we know that that's probably going to happen, but it shouldn't stop us from meditating or from getting into a practice of meditation. One of the very first episodes we had was about the daily routine of spirituality and early morning meditation is the foundation of spiritual practice. I'm going to say, first thing in the morning when you wake up, meditate. minutes. You know, we talked about that more in that episode of the daily spiritual routine, but in this case, we're going to talk about the actual meditation. So I'm going to find a place in my home where I'm going to meditate. Now, one of the, one of the things that is very helpful with us when we start to try to meditate is to. Look at our attitude towards meditation, and I'm going to suggest that we take on an attitude of self care. So meditation is self care. It's mind care, care of the mind and my heart, right? It's care of the mind and heart. First thing I'm going to do, find a space where you can, this is my meditation space, just a clean little chair and so forth. Sit down, put on a, what we call a commentary or a guided meditation, and then just close your eyes or keep them open and just follow along. The good thing about meditation in the beginning, especially if you use guided meditations, is that you don't have to think, you don't have to do anything. You just have to follow along, which sometimes is easier than others. If I'm fidgeting, if I'm uncomfortable, physically, if the room is hot or cold, if I'm, if it's too late and I didn't meditate or if I'm tired, I'm falling asleep. There's all kinds of things that can be happening while we're trying to meditate. And if you talk to any experienced meditator, they will tell you that that's what happens. And you got to like, you have to try to keep going through that stage. It's a stage. It's a stage of. Irritability, it's a stage of boredom. It's a stage of wondering why I should do this or not. It's a stage of trying to get your body to sit still. It's a stage of trying to find time and discipline myself to do it. It said the thing, the, the thumbnail said body still mind crazy. So after I get past that stage of, okay, I'm definitely in the mode of self care. I'm going to try to do this and I sit still and I'm not falling asleep and I'm okay. Okay. And let's say I get past the physical part and now the mind is going crazy and now I'm watching the mind. And when I say the mind is going crazy, I mean I can't concentrate. When I say that, when I say we can't concentrate. I'd like you to hear that sentence and have no judgment whatsoever. We can't concentrate, okay? We have to face what it is we're dealing with here. We're dealing with a nervous system that's overloaded, mental patterns and emotions and feelings that have been running amok for decades. Who knows how long, right? And now I'm trying to do something different. And what are my expectations? Oh, I'm going to have this blissful silence experience. The first time I sit down. Well, that's not going to happen, but I would venture to say that many of you who are listening here have been able to be determined and get through something in your life when it wasn't easy at first, like maybe school or. physical training, health training, a diet or exercise or anything like that, that requires consistent effort. And I would say that meditation requires consistent effort. And also it requires a nonjudgmental attitude, self care attitude, and an understanding attitude. So I'm hoping that if any of you are trying, to start meditating. You'll remember, Dr. Anne said, don't judge. Dr. Anne said, it's okay. Just keep, keep doing it. I find that daily practice is, is the best because anything you do every day is going to have a cumulative effect, right? I did mention in one of the earlier episodes that after practicing meditation for a couple of weeks, I found that anger left me right away. So there are benefits and results that happen. They're subtle but powerful, and you will get results. So let's go into the actual practice of meditation and we'll practice together. So. Sitting in the chair, sit still. You want to sit up because you don't want to fall asleep, right? And we're going to make, we're going to do this in about three minutes. So it's going to be very short. So see if we can focus for just a couple of minutes and we'll just go through the process. So I'm sitting still, the body is comfortable and balanced and relaxed. And now I'm going to put on a commentary or we call it a guided meditation. And I'm going to do the guided meditation with us right now. And it's only going to be a minute or two. But we're going to do a Raja yoga meditation. Raj means highest and yoga means union. So the idea is that spiritually I'm going to connect with my spiritual nature. That's what we're going to be doing. So sitting quietly, you can close your eyes if you like, or you can look at me, look in my eyes or look at right here in this part of my face and sitting quietly and just take a couple of deep breaths. Inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale. And as we do this, notice if there is some thinking that's trying to grab your attention, maybe thinking negative thinking or complaining or something like that. If it is, take another deep breath and exhale and let those thoughts kind of wash away for a minute. Keep looking at my face or close your eyes. And now I want you to pay attention to the center of your forehead. So this area right here in the center of my forehead, between the eyes. Just imagine that there's a little star there, like a sparkling star. And you could, some of you may know that this is like the third eye or, you know, it may sound familiar to you, but what we're doing is we're focusing the mind in the center of the forehead. So we're giving a visualization and imagine there's a little sparkling star there. Like a little point of light, sparkling. Just watch the point of light for a minute. And as you continue to breathe, and as you're watching the sparkling star, let any thoughts or feelings or physical sensations just pass. It's okay if they're there. The thought comes, the thought goes. Feeling comes, the feeling goes. Just watch that star. Look at the star and relax the body. Right here in the center of the forehead, a little point of light. Watch it twinkling and sparkling. Look at the star and relax the body. Now say to yourself, I am that star. I am a spiritual being inside this body. I am the sparkling star, the living consciousness. I am sparkling, silently, quietly, the body is relaxing, and I'm watching the star. Take a few more deep breaths, and gently, gently come back to your normal waking awareness. That was a little tiny taste of what's available with meditation, and I'm going to say Raja Yoga meditation because the fundamental principle of Raja Yoga meditation is that I am a soul, I am the spiritual being. And the body is the body, but I'm the spiritual being and my nature is peace. So I'm detaching from my normal awareness. I'm making myself aware of myself as a soul, as a peaceful, sparkling star being, and then the body is relaxing. Now for me, I've been practicing this for some time. So even in a minute or two, I can feel the body beginning to relax and I can feel the peace beginning to come over me. It didn't happen right away. And I'm going to say it again. If you out there want to try meditation, I would suggest Create an attitude for yourself that it's self care, just like brushing your teeth, just like taking care of your bills or taking, washing your clothes or taking care of your kids or your job or anything else. These are things that you do every day because it's part of your life. It's supporting yourself and you're doing it regularly, reliably, responsibly, right? So I would say daily practice first 15, 20 minutes. in the description, in the YouTube description, and also in the podcast descriptions, there are some links to the release your wings meditations. There's many minutes, there's hundreds of them in there, and they all have different topics. And they're about five to 10 minutes each. So they're very short, they're very easy to follow. And I just gave like one little principle, but they, They go a little bit longer so you can follow them. But I just for this episode, I just wanted to give a taste of what meditation is. When you're sitting down for the first time when you meditate and your mind is going crazy and your body's fidgeting and whatever, tell yourself, I'm still meditating because my attitude is I'm going to sit here. Dr. Ann said that there's going to be this and that and it's okay. Let it come. Let it go. Let it come, let it go. I'm sitting here and for 15 and 20 minutes, if you sat there, you won. And I'm going to tell you, it won't take long to have a breakthrough. It won't take long, but you'll have to get through that little period of discomfort. The mind has never been disciplined before. The body has never had to sit still like that before. with an internal focus. Maybe we had to sit still for school or something like that, but sitting still with an internal focus is different. So have patience, give yourself a chance, use the release your wings. And it's why do we resist meditation? We resist meditation because we're not used to looking at ourselves. We're not used to being with ourselves in this way. We're very externally focused. So meditation is about turning our attention within and learning about myself, learning what's going on in there, learning how to create an environment for it to transform and be more peaceful and loving and happy. Right. So that's what meditation is all about. So I'm going to leave it there for now. I hope that you got something to look at, even if it's just that being able to face the resistance at first and all the other fidgeting and things that happen at first and understand that that's part of the process. You can get through it just like anything new. And we will be talking about meditation, you know, on and on throughout the, these episodes. So keep listening. And remember attitude of self care and daily practice. So I'll leave it there. So remember our slogan for the podcast is heal, empower, and serve. And again, serving means when I transform everyone around me benefits, take care till next time.
