2 Tips To Benefit Your Meditation Practice

The other day Kate and I were driving up to a local restaurant for a bite to eat and as always we get into these incredible discussions. We often joke about how we should record them for the show. They’re so much fun.

As we were sitting there waiting for our food. we could overhear the conversation of the couple next to us and we both looked at each other and thought….BORRRRRIIINNNG.

It’s so much fun being in a relationship where you’re both on the same journey and both excited about life and where you’re going.

During our conversation Kate was asking me about how my meditation is going. Since we got back from the Dayton Medical Center I’ve been pretty good at keeping up with my daily meditation. I learned a lot from Joel Perez

I’ve been doing it for about 15 to 20 minutes per day.

A lot of people in our immediate circle of friends would immediately hear the word meditation and think we’ve gone off the deep end. Which is strange because meditation is simply defined as: “to engage in contemplation or reflection”.

So for some reason contemplating or reflecting on something is strange?

When I meditate I’m simply focuse on breathing and allowing my thoughts to come in and go out. When we are in that sleepy state right before we actually fall asleep, we’re in a meditative state.

What’s so New Age about not thinking and simply focusing on your breath?

I don’t get it.

For those that are interested in how Christianity talks about meditation I reference this: Psalms chapter 4: 4 says, “When you are in your beds, search your hearts and be silent.” David desired in Psalms 104: 34, that his “meditations be pleasing to the Lord.”

Allegedly the Bible mentions meditation around 48 times.

Personally I find meditation extremely helpful in my daily life so I don’t see anything “wrong” with it at all.

Kate was asking how I stop thinking and how it has helped me in my daily life. So I thought I’d explain a little about that here.

How Meditation Has Helped Me

It’s interesting because it doesn’t seem like anything is really going on when you’re sitting down and meditating. I mean all you’re doing is just sitting there right?

That’s what it feels like. You feel like all you’re doing is sitting there doing nothing when you could actually be doing something “productive” with your time. You sit and think about all the people you have to email and tasks that need your attention.

I’m convinced this is the time when meditation is needed the most.

But in any event every single time time a thought happens to come in, it’s most of the time something I consider to be stress. I have a trick that works for that I’ll talk about below.

But how is meditation helping me you ask?

Well when I have a thought during meditation I realize that that thought isn’t me. I don’t have to get involved with that thought. If I think deeply about it, I can spend time worrying about whatever consequences arise as a result of not acting on that thought.

Meditation helps to create a little bit of a space between our thoughts and our spirit or soul. I realize I am not my thoughts and I can almost stand back from my thoughts objectively and realize that they’re not me and as a result of that, not engage with it.

It’s as if the thought is beckoning me to play with it, to entertain it if you will. When I realize I don’t have to play “its” game, I can let it go and get back to focusing on my breath and clearing my mind.

This helps in regular life because (as with anything you practice it becomes habit) when I’m going through the motions of life unconsciously and I react to something, I can almost immediately tell myself I don’t have to get attached to the drama.

I don’t have to identify myself with the drama, or opinion that I’m trying to defend. As a result of doing regular meditation I have the awareness in the moment to take a breath, remind myself I am not my thoughts and the situation is just drama and walk away.

I don’t have to get involved in that and waste my energy on whatever drama is before me.

What I Do When I Get A Stressful Thought That Comes Through

Just know that when you’re meditating, you’re going to think. It’s human. That’s the job of the mind, to think. Don’t think you have to be some kind of master that doesn’t think when they meditate.

As I said before lots of thoughts come through when I meditate. One tip is to keep a pad of paper next to you so you can write down any important thoughts you don’t want to forget. I don’t do this simply because if something comes into my mind during meditation and it’s actually really important, it’ll come up later. This helps me to fully engage in the practice. If God wants me to attend to something, I’ll get the message more than once. But many people like to keep a pad and paper near by.

Another tip is to breathe nice and deep into your chest then your diaphragm then stomach as deep as you can. As you exhale you simply just let it go. Trust me I do a lot of this when I sit down to meditate.

In the future I’ll write more articles on meditation because I believe it’s the most healthy thing you can do. I place it above getting a good sleep, doing rebounding, sitting in the sauna or even getting on a regular green juicing program.

Meditation I believe is the number one thing you can do for your health above everything else. That’s a pretty bold statement because we all know how diet and detoxification is.

So there you have it.

Stay tuned for more articles coming soon about my experiences with meditation.

What about you. What are your experiences with meditation? What tips do you use and what practices do you employ? How often do you do it and what benefits have you enjoyed?

Please comment below or continue the discussion in our forum!