I often hear, "I don't have time to meditate." In our society where time equals money, this statement is hard to dispute. The new movie "In Time" takes this concept to the extreme. Time has become the currency. A cup of coffee costs four minutes of one's life.
The very fact that time is precious is the reason we should meditate. I have found that taking time to meditate gives me time -- the same way that exercising takes energy but ultimately helps one have more energy.
#1: We See The Big Picture
When we close our eyes and focus inside, we are able to see get an overview, a broader perspective of our lives. We step away from the minutiae and see the broad-brush strokes that make up our days. Meditation gives us the opportunity to see what is really important. Try this exercise: Imagine a day in which you were very over-scheduled. You felt overwhelmed. (I hope this isn't every day!) Now let your mind float over the activities without trying to judge them. Which stand out as important and/or meaningful? Which could you have done without? Perhaps there were some phone calls you didn't really have to make or a lunch date that could have been postponed.
When we're overwhelmed we have less energy to focus on the important tasks. Sometimes we end up rushing things that need more attention. We may even make mistakes that cost us more time.
Meditation can help you sort out what is important, help you prioritize so that your time is spent where you really want it and not on activities that are less important to you.
#2: Our Perception of Time Is Expanded
When we are busy and engaged, time flies. When we are bored or not where we want to be, time drags. Of course, time doesn't change, it is merely our experience of it that changes. During peak performances athletes describe being in "the zone." This phenomenon also occurs in traumatic events. Time seems to expand, slow down. I stumbled this last spring while playing tennis, going up and back to hit an overhead. The fall that took my head to the concrete probably took a split second, but I had time to think at least a dozen thoughts, including "Is this how my life is going to end?" I had time to break the fall with my hip so my head only bounced off the court causing a moderate concussion. This sensation of time slowing can also happen in meditation. By focusing on our internal sensations, or our breath, our brain waves shift to a slower rhythm allowing the sense of time to expand.
When time seems to slow down, we feel we have time for whatever we want. Our bodies and minds relax and stress is reduced. Not stressing means more time!
#3: We Focus On The Present Moment
Our thoughts, our feelings and our actions happen in the present moment. So why are we so focused on the past and the future? Consider how often you anticipate what is going to happen or worry about something that might happen. Conversely,
how much do you dwell on the past? Obsess about how you should have done something or said something differently. Or how so-and-so did you wrong?
This past or future focus can be a huge drain on our energy and our time. Being in the present moment gives us the chance to channel all our energy on what we're doing, on whom we're with. Meditation can teach you this kind of focus and concentration. One of the things that I've noticed is that I am more efficient, less distracted. The pay off is more time for what's important to me.
There's also a big bonus to keeping your attention in the present moment: Your memory improves. What I've experienced -- granted after many years of a regular meditation practice -- is that I retrieve information more quickly, forget things less often and find misplaced items more easily. All of this translates into more time.
My life is extremely full. Often I'm asked, "How do you do all of it?" My answer is simple. "I meditate."
For more than 20 years, Susan Morales, M.S.W. has explored human behavior through her work as a psychotherapist, and as a student/practitioner of meditation. In addition to using meditation as a device to help clients with issues of anxiety and depression, she offers classes and retreats to women in substance abuse recovery. She developed Be Who You Love Meditation as a method to teach people how to find greater depth of satisfaction in their lives. She blogs on meditation for annarbor.com and Red Room, and was on the editorial board for "The Voice of Social Workers: Poets and Writers," a journal recently published by the Michigan chapter of NASW.
I can identify with what you're saying. I experienced a delightful twist on time when years ago I seemed to be unable to meditate for more than 15 minutes at a time. The harder I tried to meditate
longer, the harder it was to do. One morning I decided to not try at all. When I opened my eyes an
hour had gone by, an hour that seemed like 20 minutes.
An interesting observation for me was that time is a lot more fluid than I had previously thought.
There is no haste or rush for me. Christ Consciousness will come now or then.
Yes, it is joyful in deep meditation, but in all that I have learned from my Great Master Yogananda is to bring Meditation back to earth to live here as there. Living here and there is my journey
There is no other. Drinking a beer instead of meditating would bring scolding from this Great Master, but he should not have taught me so wel.
His cross was to teach the quickest path to resurrection, samadhi, nirvana. Mine is to reach that in my time.
And I am, here and now
http://24x7meditation.blogspot.com/
1) Energizing exercise to perfect the movement energy within and without
2) Hong Sau (saw) watching the breath with Pranayama perfecting concentration to have 1 ponted thought control
3) Using the power of energy and concentration to meditate on OM (Holy Ghost)
The color and lights are not painful they are JOY and BLISS
it is the awareness upon which every last thing is dependant. we are this awareness. we always have been and always will be. it is only ignorance of the mind that seems to obfuscate this.
But here I am intellectualizing it instead of Being it. Sharing the being Spirit into gross words speaks for itself. But practice makes perfect but to share you conversations and experience in this lower form vibration is impossible in that true light. But that even gross vibration reflect the ONE SPIRIT you say we are. I call GOD or Universal Consciousness. The binding of the individual soul to the whole once again
In exchange, here are some meditations that you can use with your clients if you wish. http://1ness4u.wordpress.com/meditation/
Thank you for your work.
Stress left me some time ago Spritiually. Yes the body can be stressed, I have a heart problem. For 30 years I let this stress disappear. Today it will probably be my physical demise. I have no heart to be 20 again. I have reach all that I seek physically this time around
For me the tools are energizing, concentration and meditation. I have thought of Kryia but that seems to be a rush for my realization
It is so hard to explain it, but the overall experience lasted for about 24 hrs. past the meditation. It also was the event that precipitated my emotional healing from great anxiety and fear. After that experience, I no longer had the same view of things and I've never been the same.
Namaste. Om shanti, shanti, shanti
Then I was enlighten that bringing back to earth that energy consciousness was as much of my overall enlightenment as the meditation itself.
Why time is not meaningful. Giving up material desires, emotions, sense pleasures for Spiritual one simply does not happen. Unless you let it.