I’m not perfect. I am a perfectionist, but I’m not perfect. So I want to let you in on some of my secrets regarding meditation, in the hopes that you will find encouragement, and stick with it through the challenges.
My meditation practice was sporadic until a few months ago. I talked about meditation, and I would do it some mornings…if I felt like it. And sometimes at night, before I went to bed, I might meditate. Maybe. And I would sort of meditate when I sat down to write a new guided meditation. But it wasn’t until someone I met at a course said to me, “You’ve got to treat it like diarrhea. If you had an appointment to meet the president, and you had diarrhea, you’d take care of that first.” She was speaking of yoga for herself, but I took it to heart for meditation. Now, every morning, it’s the first thing I do. Every. Morning.
I sometimes fall asleep while I am meditating. It depends on how much sleep I’ve been getting, and how rested I am. Some days, the alarm goes off, and I just want to go back to sleep. But I am treating it as the most important thing, so I sit up, and put on my headphones, and begin my meditation. And then I wake up a half hour or 45 minutes later… 🙂
I use brainwave entrainment music to help me meditate. When I used to meditate with nothing, after about 15 or 20 minutes, my mind would start acting like a young child in a car: “Are we there yet?” I couldn’t resist opening my eyes to look at the clock and see how long I’d been sitting there. Now, with the music, I know the pieces are each one hour long. If the music is still going, I’m not done yet. And if the music has changed, it’s time to get up (for those mornings when I fall asleep…) Here’s the music I use.
I can’t always quiet my mind. Some mornings, it is easy. A few deep breaths, ground, connect, and voila…bliss! Other mornings, my mind is quite the chatterbox. No matter how many times I remind myself to just be here now, or ground, or focus on my breath, my mind goes chasing off after some thought or idea, and it just won’t be still. Some days I just have to stick it out and know that tomorrow will be better.
I hope that helps encourage you in your meditation practice. If there is anything else you struggle with, leave a comment and let me know. I’ve probably experienced it too!
Blessings,
Mary