Try this now: Breathe in and open. As you reach the top of the in-breath, feel into your natural friendliness. As you breathe out, let go of any tension or stress. Feel the moment of peace. Mindfulness meditation leads to a peace and ease that is you can’t disturb, no matter what life brings. DR. LESLIE ELLESTAD
Meditation will not turn you into a zombie. You will not become dull with no ambition or drive. If anything meditation makes you more focused. We are constantly doing things automatically tremendously influenced by our conditioning from our parents and society. We do things and are not aware that we are doing them. We are captivated by multiple experiences and have no focus. How many times have you driven from point A to B and when you arrived at your destination you said: “Who was driving?” You ate a meal and wondered what it tasted like. Meditation in creating awareness of the present moment with acceptance actually makes you more focused, less reactive and more productive! It is being used by schools, pro sports teams and military units to enhance performance.
I have never been a faith based person. However there was something about meditation that created a faith that what I was doing was beneficial. This was a practice that has been around for thousands of years. I could not imagine that if it wasn’t helpful that it would continue to be so popular. The other key component of faith was observing personal change in myself from mediation that says this works!
– Phil Blustein
The breath is a great object to start to practice meditation. It is an external object that we don’t intentionally create when we are open to its natural movement. It is always present and available. No one breath is the same as another breath. Every inhalation and exhalation comes to an end. We don’t tend to personalize a breath and call it our own. In examining the breath we are able to see the true nature of reality. It is always changing and impermanent. Can we also develop the same self-less awareness of the breath for every other object that comes in to our awareness?
– Phil Blustein