Meditation Helpful or Harmful?

Hello my beautiful friends!

So, meditation is all the rage right now. It seems like everyone is doing it, from 6 to 90 years old and more, alone or in groups - in businesses as well as in schools. And why not, so many benefits, from stress reduction to lowering blood pressure. But what exactly is it? The answer differs from person to person. What do we mean by meditation and how do we do it? Well, as we know, there are all sorts of meditative practices. Some repeating a word, or mantra, over and over again, to distract the mind from thinking, as in transcendental meditation. Some are guided or involve visualization, others, use music or chimes, or other sounds. There’s mindfulness mediation, loving kindness mediation, progressive relaxation - there’s even moving mediation, dance mediation, walking mediation.  Some might research or try a couple of different practices, usually settling on one they like best. find a favorite and believe that their particular ritual or method is the most successful. Yet, what if we leave all these methods and labels behind? For example, what could a solitary individual expect by simply sitting or laying in the silence, eyes closed or open, without any sounds or breathing techniques, instruction or preconceived concept of any kind, without trying to meditate, trying is resistance, just sitting in silence? What would happen?   

Well, obviously nothing around us would change or be different if we did this. So why do it? Mainly, because throughout our lives we’ve been distracted by the sounds and commotion of the outside world and have identified ourselves within that chaos. This is who I am and this is how I behave and react - everything being within the interpretation of what we have diagnosed as us. Yet as we sit in silence, without any intention or method, everything alters and we find truth, the truth of who we are outside of any title or identification or recognition as me. Suddenly there are no rules, no need for rituals or instructions, just peace. And we can’t do it wrong - we can’t make a mistake. Now we are outside of convention or principle and anything that assesses or evaluates our performance. There is such beauty in just being in the silence - that silence that makes all sounds possible. And it’s not something we must achieve. The silence is already there and we will hear its stillness when we stop interrupting its natural state.

Ever notice how we tend to put more importance on thoughts than we do on silence? For instance, whenever we ask ourselves what’s next, how am I doing, am I making the right progress, choices? When we do that, we have defined ourselves as that. I am what I do, that job, that performance, that accomplishment, that thing. However, we should realize that all those things can disappear. They are only things - and we can’t lose something that is not a thing, whether a possession, an object, or a thought - these are things. On the other hand, awareness is not a thing. You can’t see it, you can only know it. We habitually identify each emotion as us. Yet, there’s actually no real need to identify with what is just passing by. If it’s not here to stay, it’s not us.

What we are, can’t really be explained, because the explanation itself is a thing, an abbreviation, compressing something that cannot be shortened or condensed. So there is nothing to give up or become. Awareness is like a beingness, a cognizance. Yet, we can be awareness without necessarily being cognizant of something. As I mentioned in my last video, what holds us back from bringing this into our lives is our habit of believing we are in control and that if not, we should be.

So, even during meditation we are preparing for the next moment and what we should be doing. We’ve been conditioned to be watchful in order to stay safe, always on alert, always waiting for the next moment to discover the serenity we’ve read about or heard about. We meditate to find peace. Yet, how can peace come when one is meditating to get rid of what opposes it? For example, mediating to release fear puts fear at the heart of the practice.

We meditate for so many reasons, because we are afraid, because we are ill or stressed - to heal. We meditate to become calmer, to find enlightenment, to manifest our twin flame. Many of us use mediation as an escape, from pain, from anger, guilt, from life. We hope it will allow us to raise our frequency, to find peace and ultimately to ascend. Yet, think about it, when we meditate for any of those reasons, to escape those stressors, that fear, that illness, that anger. Then those emotions and characteristics that brought us to sit and breathe remain within that practice, that moment.

Most light-workers, or starseeds, as well as humans, incarnated onto planet earth to live out a human life - a life that our soul wishes us to live. Usually at some point within our lives, we find ourselves facing horrific pain and suffering, the loss of loved ones, or the loss of our health, or of our homes. Often, a mediation practice is one of the first coping skills that we reach for and find it helpful in so many ways. And it can be. This can be wonderful for the body and for the mind, using the breath to lift and calm our cells and this can be a temporary life saver.

Yet, as most of us know, it’s these most traumatic and painful moments in life that we most grow from. Using meditation to set up barriers against our suffering to avoid facing our problems, may in the long run stifle our personal growth, which ironically is the reason we came here in the first place. It’s like using a band-aid for a gunshot wound. The real problem is deep within the flesh, like a calm ocean hiding raging currents below. Some of us may have used this denial to avoid taking responsibility for our problems. Then others may believe that maintaining a state positive thinking can hold back the monster, but this too is like throwing a blanket over a dirty couch - the couch is still dirty.

I noticed with my own journey that it was fairly easy to fall into using mediation as a crutch and I soon became fanatical about meditating several hours a day and because I felt much better afterwards, I was able to convince myself that it was the perfect solution to being a starseed on an alien planet. It was a way to hide. Yet, what it really did was to delay my healing. The true healing came only after facing my fears and suffering. Then, instead of shadow work being my enemy, it became my friend. For me, most of the solutions to my anguish came in the middle of many sleepless nights, miserably pacing through the dark house talking to God. Over time, for me, this became the most successful therapy, spewing out my disappointments and pain to the invisible universe and trusting that I was heard. This is when I would feel the benevolence of a friendly universe and could know how deeply I was loved. Everything fit.

Starseeds are far away from home and therefore often feel lonely and out of place, homesick for something familiar to hold onto, something not found here. So many of us spend our lives searching for ways to belong, to find that balance and harmony. That’s why so many turn to things like meditation or yoga, for example.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say here is that mediation and other spiritual practices can be useful and powerful tools, but not as a substitute for facing our emotions and cultivating self-awareness. This is why we came here, to learn about humanity, about relationships, families, and all the positive and negative that goes along with being human, to become kind and wise and loving.

We knew it would be tough, as well as amazing. We didn’t come here to run away. It’s impossible to grow spiritually while our head is in the sand. So all I’m suggesting here is that when we are able to discover ways that help us to find peace, like meditation, for our best experience, it should be accompanied by our emotional shadow work, not as a replacement. A happy peaceful life is a life in balance. Remember, we are not inside the world, the world is inside us.

Love you!