Through the practice of meditation, you develop what is known as “witnessing awareness. This allows you to observe your thoughts, feelings, and stories with greater objectivity and distance. As opposed to getting pulled into the drama and emotional reactivity. Are you responding or reacting?
Through meditation, you will gradually begin to witness your mental activity. As you do there you may also notice a spontaneous pause in your inner turmoil.
Over time, if you continue to practice meditation on a regular basis, your awareness will deepen. You will begin to notice that some space has been created around difficult emotional states. There is more to who you are than your moods or thoughts. You may also observe that the sensation associated with the negative feelings dissolve altogether.
I like to say that you begin to develop your “noticing muscles.” You may even begin to noice a difference in yourself. You may have a sense that you are beginning to respond as opposed to react to certain situations and events. So, are you responding or reacting?
You may think this is no big deal as you read this but in practice, in the actual experience, you will actually see yourself in action. You will actually be able to pinpoint your response either as it starts, in the middle of it or after it’s over. This is but the beginning of the incredible life-altering benefits of meditation. And, you can see how this would transform you and your way of being, Just this one thing.
Meditation is the foundation of all that I teach at Satsang House because it’s THAT transformative. Once you settle in to a practice of daily meditation, it’s liberating to know that you don’t have to repress what you feel in order to feel inner peace! You simply notice your feelings, emotions and thoughts.
It’s only in what we notice about ourselves that we have the opportunity to shift or change.
In fact, repressing emotions never leads to emotional well-being. Instead, it only adds to the accumulation of emotional toxicity in your body. Of course, it’s not necessary to confront old feelings and repressed emotions if you are not ready to do so. In fact, that is exactly what makes contemplative Buddhist psychotherapy distinct from Western psychology. Buddhist practice begins right where you are, in THIS moment. There’s no need to go back to the past and relive and/or revisit it all unless of course, you want to.
In meditation, you choose your response to whatever you’re experiencing in meditation. You will better be able to realize whether you are responding or reacting.
Just be aware that as you create more stillness and experience the peace that comes by doing so, you will also be making room for old emotions to surface. By not repressing or fixating on emotions and instead just allowing them to surface, they move through and out of the body.
A regular meditation practice allows you to spend more and more time in the silence and peace of pure awareness.
As this sense of spaciousness expands in your daily life, it becomes easy to let go of old patterns of thinking and feeling that create stress.
If you’d like to learn more about the Basics of Meditation, join us HERE for a live class. Or if you’re feeling like you could use additional support on your meditation journey, we’ve got a thriving community here at Satsang House. We would love to have you join us IN-PERSON for an outdoor meditation and connection. You can find additional details HERE.
