Meditate Your Way to Success
Meditate your way into a successful life. Sound ridiculous? It would have to me too years ago. If you’re sitting there scoffing at me, I won’t be offended. You must be a little bit curious though, or you wouldn’t have clicked on this article. Is it possible? Yes, it is.
Now, there are a lot of programs out there that offer their specialized courses and meditation techniques and, of course, they come with a price. I’m willing to share what I know without asking a penny. I would honestly feel guilty asking payment for something so obvious and natural. It’d be like selling the air we breathe. So follow along and I’ll share what I know about changing your life.
What is Meditation?
The most basic, no-nonsense definition of meditation is simply the mental discipline of “quieting” a babbling mind. To broaden the definition takes us into various types of meditational practices, but to keep it simple it's the practice of detaching and directing awareness inwardly to reach a state from which you benefit. The practice can lead you as far down the transcendental rabbit hole as you decide you want to go. That choice is up to you. Eastern masters such as Sri Ramana Maharishi, are believed to have gone beyond the origins of existence, experiencing such a depth there isn't even awareness of their bodies. But that's an extreme and does take a lot of practice and time to achieve. For our purposes we don't need to go quite so far.
Science Meets Mysticism
Meditation as a practice has been in use a long time and is associated with spiritual, mental and physical benefits. It can be found to practiced in many of the world's religions as it is believed to clear a direct line of communication with God. In the 1960s, science became interested in the benefits and started studying the role meditation played. Neurological studies have repeatedly proven that it literally changes the brain and the body. To date, over 1,000 papers have been published outlining the findings so there’s obviously something to it.
More recently, the field of quantum physics has found itself involved too. The current scientific paradigm that everything is made of matter, right down to its most elementary components, and that all causes arise from the interactions of these particles is now changing. The field of quantum physics is also finding a reverse view to be true. Rather than cause being a result of matter, matter can also be the result of cause. In reality, it appears that both viewpoints are valid. This strongly suggests thought has just as much bearing on reality as matter does. Kind of blows the mind, doesn’t it? It definitely puts a new twist on the concept of self responsibility.
Thoughts and Reality
So if we consider that our thoughts also affect and can go so far as to create reality, why do we tend to feel like such victims of life? The truth is, as hard as it is to swallow, we decide quite literally to be victims.
I can hear what you’re thinking. No one wants to be a victim, why would they choose to be? It’s simply a habit of thinking and this habit is formed over a lifetime. Have you met many pessimistic preschoolers? Probably not many, if any. They haven’t learned the ugly art of negative thought habits yet. You know the habit I’m talking about. Those mental recordings we play back to ourselves almost daily. Thoughts like:
“I’ll never succeed.”
“Today is going to be such a bad day.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“This too shall fail.”
“I’m going to make a fool of myself.”
Have you ever gone to the mailbox dreading to find an unexpected bill or some bit of bad news that you are sure is going to derail your financial plans only to open the mailbox and find exactly that?
Have you ever left to run an errand thinking the worst thing that could happen to you would be a fender bender and found yourself in the middle of one?
How about cutting vegetables for dinner and reminding yourself that a nasty cut would be a horrible thing only to end up slicing your thumb?
I think you get the drift. We all do it. The sad part is we do it and don’t realize it. All that negative self talk does is create a reality that’s everything you’re expecting it to be, and not the reality you really want.
Smell the paradox? Let me open a window. On one hand I’m telling you the negative thoughts are creating a reality, then I’m telling you the hopes and dreams aren’t doing much at all. Let me tell you why. Those negative thoughts are so deeply ingrained in your subconscious they have become the measuring stick by which you are judging all experiences, both present and future. The hopes and dreams end up being only things that are being measured. They're desires you don’t really take seriously. You really expect them to crumble instead of becoming realized. You want them, yes, but the subconscious certainty is that everything is going to go belly up so that's the situation that's created.
Two Meditation Videos (Music Only)
The First Step to a Better Reality
This leads me to where I was going when I started this article. The first step to changing those destructive thought patterns to constructive thoughts is through the practice of meditation. As we defined it earlier, meditation is the practice of quieting our out-of-control thoughts and directing our awareness inward to achieve a calm and peaceful state. For the sake of this article, the peace and tranquility are the gravy.
If you’re unfamiliar with or new to meditation, you’re either thinking I’m out of my mind (which ironically is really where we want to go) or telling me you’ve tried it and it’s impossible. I am here to emphatically tell you that it's absolutely 100% possible. It just takes practice and the patience and desire to stick to it. What you are doing by practicing meditation is diverting your awareness from watching the constant stream of thoughts flooding through your mind (especially those negative ones) into awareness itself which basically doesn't have any thoughts at all. You learn to let the mind run like a television in another room. You can dimly hear it babbling away but you’re not watching it. It has no importance to you. The more you practice this the easier it gets.
You’re probably drumming your fingers at this point wanting to know exactly how to meditate. I’ve found there are as many ways to meditate as you can think up. If you find you zone out while listening to music, then that’s a good place to start. Ever space off while doing the dishes or just watching the clouds roll by? Guess what? You’re meditating. Remember, we’re trying to keep this as simple as possible and all we want to achieve is shoving your rambling thoughts into another room and shutting the door. If you already practice a special form of meditation and it works, stick to it. Doesn’t matter how you get it done, you just want to get it done. Find what works best for you.
If you don't currently meditate and want to find a technique to follow, there are many. Some use visualization or breathing, some use posture like yoga. Check the internet or your local bookstore if you feel you need to find a specific technique, but basically all you're trying to achieve for the purpose of this article is to disassociate yourself from your thoughts, or as they say "quiet the mind."
Meditate Yourself Into Success
Ah, now we get to the meat of the matter. Once you have learned to shift your awareness away from all the negative remarks, thoughts and fears of your mind you will find a clean sheet of paper just waiting for you to write your success story on. How do you do this? I’ll tell you.
As you stare expectantly at this pristine sheet of paper (really see it in your mind), begin writing a story about yourself as a character in the life you dream about. Don’t hold anything back. Be as extravagant as you want to be and don’t leave a single detail out. Do you dream of being a famous painter or singer so filthy rich you own your own island? Go for it! Write your story. As you write it, believe in it and believe in it absolutely. Make the “you” character so real and so vibrant that you find yourself emulating him or her. Write a piece of this story every day and commune with the doppelganger you dream to be.
Most importantly, ask this character questions about how they achieved their successes in life—and LISTEN to what they tell you. They will answer you. You may initially hear it as that “little voice in your head” but don’t discount it. It'll tell you exactly what you need to know. At first, what you hear may seem unrelated or unimportant and you want to disregard it as your mind playing tricks. DON’T!! Write it down on a piece of paper and tape to your mirror, refrigerator or computer screen. Look at it every day. I’ll tell you why.
If you practice this, and you commit to making this new story as real as you possibly can you are actually putting into the motion the causes that will create your new reality. There are many people out there who have done this and they’re quite successful. Steve Jobs didn’t get where he did by sitting on his butt wallowing in negative thoughts. Neither did Bill Gates. Whether you personally like these fellows or not is irrelevant. They are successful. They may not have followed this method, but they achieved what they wanted to because they believed they COULD. One day you'll glance at that piece of paper and know exactly what it means towards your own success.
Sound nuts? It did to me too until I got completely fed up with my old life. I was so disenchanted, and depressed. I had no hope. I literally didn’t want to face that version of myself one more day. I was so vehement in that thought that I opened a door to change. That was the day I was surfing the internet in an attempt to avoid facing my own misery and ran into an article on a similar concept. I read the title and laughed. I turned up my nose. But I kept reading. I read about the lives it changed. I found a shred of hope and decided I had nothing to lose. I tried it and it changed everything for me. ME! The consummate victim of all those negative thoughts! No one was as stunned and shocked at the results than I was and still am.
I haven’t reached the goals of financial independence and success of the new character I created YET because I'm still writing the beginning part of that new book of my life. However, every day I am watching the me I want to be emerge and my life begin change and flow in that direction effortlessly. Every day I sit and talk with her and commune in her world which is becoming my world. Interestingly in this new world there are no negative thoughts, only joy and passion to be and create.
So in summation, it’s as simple and easy as that. Shut off the negative thoughts and brain babble and create the reality you really want by believing it already exists. I’m excited and hope you try it. Like me, you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. When you do achieve that success I hope you come back here and leave a comment. I’d love to share your story.
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