peace that my meditation teachings and practices had on their lives. Even the students that told me that they could never learn to meditate have had success implementing my meditation practices into their life. The success of these doubtful students, and many others, is easily attributable to my determination to break down the aspects of meditation in simple and practical steps.
Today, most people are consumed by the stresses of contemporary life and are looking to reduce those stresses. Some reduce stress through alcohol, smoking, exercise, eating and yet each of those does not feed the need for a quiet mind or for greater inner peace. Meditation is one of the easiest ways to reduce stress, yet it is also one of the most difficult practices to incorporate into our hectic and busy lives, which are overly burdened by a multitude of responsibilities that include families, friends, careers and education to name a few. Applying the techniques shared in this book will allow meditation into your life similar to the way in which I and many of my students have been able to incorporate meditation into their lives. In all its simplicity and practicality, the book and its meditation teachings, reflect the personal experience of myself, and thousands of students of mine and their shift in consciousness from constantly chaotic to calm. In taking the time to follow the meditation techniques in this book, the possibility for less stress and more balanced life is easily created. These meditation techniques are so effective—embodying peace of mind, balance and happiness—that it’s possible to put some of them into practice while you’re reading this book, in two minutes or less. Moreover, with these meditation teachings and techniques, “simplicity simply accomplishes results” and you will find these will take you through to the first steps or more deeply into the next steps in your meditation practice.
The Myth of Meditation
“Think of meditation as a log you throw on to the fire of the soul. If you feed the fire, you feed the soul. You connect to the source and you create inner peace.”
~Sheevaun Moran
Can I really meditate without having a completely quiet mind? Can I really meditate without sitting in a twisted position? Can I meditate and not feel it’s cultish? Do I have to stare at a wall to meditate? Can I meditate every so often? Don’t I need a teacher to start?
Imagine laying in the hospital with the doctor telling you that your blood is poisoned and that you have to stay there for several weeks. He said that blood poisoning is lethal and that you could die if something in your life didn’t change.
Well that’s exactly what happened to me. The body and brain would only take so much abuse. I had been stressing it out, not feeding it good food, not caring if I stayed
out late, not taking care of how much sleep, not interested in the fact that 16 hour days had a price.
I had been told to learn to meditate and I had been told to get more rest. I had also been told that I needed to eat better and drink more water. Like so many others I tried that for a few days and went back to an intense travel schedule and other bad habits.
First, surgery to correct a misdiagnosis and again back to my hectic schedule. That’s when the body rebelled and I landed in the hospital.
Let me take you back to where and how I went from a quiet rural country girl to becoming a meditation teacher.
Now, imagine sitting in front of a creek staring at the water wondering where the day had passed without notice of time or place. Watch as the water dances and plays around the rocks and as it ebbs and flows along the creek side. Listen as the water makes gurgling sounds and slight tapping and droplet noises. Feel your shoulders relax and just stare at the moving water.
As a young girl and into my adult life, I often found myself sitting before my favorite creek watching the water flow against the banks of the earth and over rocks. Little did I know, I was experiencing a form of meditation, also known as prolonged awareness, and I had been doing it most of my life.
Far removed from this image of the creek and the experience of prolonged awareness, I had formed a different image and belief of what meditation was about and how difficult it was. I associated meditation with the image of Hindu yogis in strange robes, Buddhist yogis with orange robes and yellow hats, priests and nuns walking around without ever speaking, and the white robed Hare Krishna people from the airport (those who practice meditation and concentration and loud chanting). I imagined yogis sitting in a lotus posture (a twisted position), using strange hand gestures (mudras) and alternately chanting unintelligible sounds or mantras (commonly repeated thoughts) and the need for complete quiet and stillness. It seemed that most of these meditating people were sequestered away from the world high on a mountaintop in the freezing climate with little or no contact with the outside world. I also thought that I’d need to stare at a wall for hours on end to succeed at meditation. I, like most people, had and judged these images of meditation and yet knew that it would help me. These are only some of the mainstream myths and misconceptions of meditation.
Even the word meditation conjures up many different images for each of us. Many people think of things that are weird or unfamiliar and unaccepted. Some religious practices think that meditation is against their rules and against their God. Meditation can also seem scary because it creates huge expectations, the weight and fear of impossibility. The most common thread that the word meditation brings up is the need for a completely quiet mind. Then there’s the thought that if one meditates then they are going to be subject to the whim of a fanatic or other unscrupulous persons, especially if one is meditating in a group. So much so that people who have never practiced meditation regularly believe that it’s a cult practice, where one loses all control.
To add to our own imaging and possible confusion of meditation, there are so many meditation books and CDs; many major health and wellness magazines with articles on meditation; many fitness facilities teaching meditation that claim in order to meditate effectively, an individual must sit still in a twisted position for a long period of time, completely quiet the mind and invest a lot of money per week in classes to practice meditation in a studio with a large class of other students.
What are your myths and misconceptions about meditation?
These are many of the myths of meditation:
it’s too boring and I’m too busy,
a twisted sitting position,
chanting strange words is required,
the need to discard your own beliefs,
succumb to the whim of others,
must wear strange clothes,
giving up the pleasures of life,
staring at a blank wall,
unless you meditate for an hour a day then it’s not meditating,
that only people who do yoga do meditation,
that it will take years to do meditation right,
lying down is meditating – this is actually resting or sleeping,
I have to be spiritual to meditate,
I’ll be enlightened when I meditate,
I’ll give up all my friends who don’t meditate,
a completely quiet mind is required to meditate,
