Most of us have heard of meditation being a great tool for quieting our thoughts. But did you know it is actually one of the most powerful tools for mental health and well-being? Read on to discover ways meditation can change your life for the better!
A Brief Background on Meditation
Meditation is of prehistoric origin, and has been practiced in numerous religious traditions and beliefs. Some of the earliest records come from the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta, where it is featured within the Vedas – the earliest sacred literature of India, dating back to 1500 BCE (amazing, right?!). Here it is defined as a focal part of the path towards enlightenment and self-realisation.
Meditation in Modern Times
Meditation has since spread throughout many different cultures, where it has transformed into other forms and become a popular practice amongst not only those seeking spiritual enlightenment, but also non-religious individuals and groups. To put it simply, meditation is about training your mind to reach an altered state of consciousness. It’s about synchronising your mind and body in the present moment. New to meditation? Check out these easy meditation tips for beginners. No matter what your beliefs, the benefits of meditation are tremendous!
Read on and discover ways that meditation can change your thoughts, your focus and your life.
Ways Meditation Can Change Your Life
1. Balancing your thoughts and emotions
This is one of the most profound benefits of meditation! During meditation, you are awake, but your mind goes on a journey somewhere else, deep into your subconscious. By allowing your subconscious thoughts to come in, you start to notice thoughts and feelings that you weren’t even aware of! This allows you to process your emotions by looking at deep-rooted issues (some which have been buried at the core). Being able to recognise these is the first vital step in transforming them. You’ll start to identify emotional triggers and reactions. If you haven’t already, you soon will discover that meditation is a very powerful tool for self reflection and healing – sometimes healing you weren’t even aware you needed.
We are often held back by deep-rooted belief systems made up of our own thoughts and feelings, particularly those about ourselves. How many times have you let an opportunity slip by because of the voice in your head telling you you’d never make it; that you weren’t good enough? Ultimately, you want to transform these negative thoughts into positive thinking, giving you the courage and the energy to go after your dreams and desires. What you think about, you bring about. Meditation is one of, if not the most effective tool for reconditioning your thoughts, attitudes and beliefs. So tap into those subconscious thoughts! You might be quite shocked by what comes through (I know I was!). The most important words you will ever hear are not those of others, but the words you say to yourself. Pay attention to the tone. Do you treat yourself kindly as you would others?
2. Accessing the Wisdom of your Subconscious Mind
Your subconscious mind is extremely powerful, and since it makes up 90% of your brain, this really is no surprise! Your subconscious mind is home to your intuition and instincts.
Intuition: “The knowledge from within; instinctive knowledge or feeling without the use of rational processes”
The Oxford English Dictionary
We’ve all experienced it. The feeling of inner knowing (the ‘gut feeling’) you have about something, yet you have no idea how or why. The only thing you do know is that these inclinations always turn out to be correct. This is because your subconscious mind misses nothing. By delving into this part of your brain, you are stimulating communication between the subconscious and the conscious. The subconscious is much smarter, yet most of us don’t even acknowledge that it exists.
When you get that sudden flash of insight – that feeling you get or that decision you make without actually thinking – it is not an irrational impulse. It has come from your subconscious. It is important to listen to and trust this part of yourself.
The Western world has conditioned us to ignore that inner voice, and instead follow external signals. With the increasingly digital world we live in, this is now more profound than ever before.
From a young age, we’re programmed to follow a certain path in life. Our minds are fed by adverts, school, and society’s expectations. We’re even told what toys to play with; what colours to like; what to wear; what we should aspire to be when we grow up. Imagine if we could all filter out that noise from our conscious minds, and question that programming by these external sources out of our control. EOC Institute have highlighted numerous studies on the magnitude of intuition.
3. Discover your true self and find your true path
What’s really important to YOU? What makes YOU tick? What is YOUR purpose? You hold the key to your own success, and the only real measure of success is happiness.
Happiness is not the ideology that society has fed us: get good grades, go to university, graduate, get that high-earning career. Buy a car, a house, get married, have kids. Just make sure that all the while you buy stuff. Lots of stuff. You need to earn lots of money and buy that new widescreen TV because it is 0.5 inches bigger than the one you already have. You need a new iPhone every year because it tells the rest of the world that you’re classy and in with the latest gadgets and trends. You’ll also need nice stuff for your house. Nice stuff to wear. Because that’s what’s important in life, right? When you’re at the end of your life you’ll look back and say ‘Wow, I’m so glad I bought that Ferrari and got that well-paid, highly respected job that funded it’.
Through the practice of meditation, you silence the mind, and in that present moment you experience the death of the ego. In Eastern philosophy, the ego is defined as an illusion of the self, that should be dissolved. It falsely roots our desires in seeking approval and recognition. This can be in obvious as well as subtle ways, but ultimately, identifying ourselves with our ego is one of the core seeds of unhappiness and feelings of unfulfillment. It can be difficult to know what to do when you hit a crossroads in life, but ego can mislead us into making choices that aren’t in alignment with our highest good.
If you learn to bridge the gap between the subconscious and the conscious, you can begin to tap into the vast powers of your subconscious mind. You will explore your true self – the part of you which is pure and unfiltered by your conscious mind and external world. This is the key to acknowledging your true desires, finding your true path and sense of purpose. Remember: your conscious mind only makes up 10% of your brain – there is so much more of you just waiting to be found. If you can bridge the gap, you will start to discover a whole stream of unknown possibilities and ways meditation can change your life.
