Meditation block #4: it doesn’t work

Meditation doesn’t work. 

I mean, you’re right. 

I remember the early days when I had computer issues (not laptop, because most of us had desktops in those days) and I’d call the help desk. They always started with the most basic questions: Is it plugged in? Is it turned on?

Ask any significant other who can’t get sex that night: the ‘other’ isn’t turned on. For sex anyway.  

When you pitch someone, how you approach them will determine whether or not the person you’re pitching will get turned on enough to say yes. 

Yet too often, meditation is approached with an attitude of:

• I should do it. I’m so stressed. My doctor says I should do it. (ugh, sounds like work)
• How long do I have to do it? {Look at watch} I don’t have much time. 
• I can’t get my mind to stay still. I can’t sit still. It’s not my cup of tea. 

There’s an expectation of Meditation to always be on, and to work, even with those attitudes. 

There’s an expectation of Meditation to deliver peace, patience, love, clarity, kindness. That’s a tall order! And yet, Meditation is willing to take the first step, to be encouraging, and deliver some of it early on. 

When you use Meditation to hide from something, like Emotion, it might get turned on a little bit. It feels needed, but it won’t ever be sustained. Try that with a partner, you’ll see. It starts to feel like a soft addiction, a co-dependency, or a rebound. 

If you wait for a cavity - or worse… the need for a root canal - to start brushing your teeth, and even then, only when you feel up to it, you’ll realize that that doesn’t work either. You’re better off creating a twice daily routine around it and pre-empt those problems. But this one’s obvious, right?

If you’re looking for a better life where you feel more in control of it, you might try loving on Meditation, just a little bit. Put some regularity into it, feed it a little, with a little enthusiasm. Like you would a date. Like you would a relationship that you want to maintain in good standing. 

The payoff is huge. It’s titillating. You’ll conquer time and space. Calm will become a part of you rather than continually finding yourself desperately seeking a quick fix meditation or a shot of vodka to regulate you when your insides are discombobulated. You’ll experience an ease that comes with the trust in yourself that grows, your decisions will start to feel right, and the world will feel a little less scary. 

There will always be something to overcome. Because life. 

Being exhausted, not having enough time, feeling like life has gotten away from you, and not feeling in control are things to overcome. 

Or you can overcome having to get up in the morning to meditate daily with a little bit more enthusiasm. It will take care of the other stuff if you let it. Because meditation changes the flow of prana and mind, and that changes everything else. 

I promise,
Savitree

Miss the rest of the Series? 

Click the links below to read more about the meditation blocks.

Meditation block 1: The best most effective meditation ever

Meditation block 2: Why writers and runners meditate 

Meditation block 3: It’s boring