Peace Through Meditation

If you are on your own, try to manage distractions before you begin. Many people suggest not eating before you begin meditating. If you eat, your body will begin digestion. You’ll feel the presence of food and think about it. If you have a pressing email, write out a draft to get the thoughts removed from your mind. You can send it when you’re through meditating. “If you’re really struggling,” says Ardagh, “ask a friend or a group of friends to hold you accountable and to support you.” Sometimes just knowing that someone else knows what you’re trying to accomplish can be motivating enough to keep you sitting still for a few minutes.

Embracing Meditation

Meditation teaches you to be kind to yourself regardless of what feelings come up. You learn to embrace all of your emotions, including frustration, anger, boredom or distraction. These feelings are invitations to be tender, gentle and compassionate toward yourself.

Knowing how to deal with feelings can help you through the challenging situations that inevitably arise in life. Imagine coming back from your honeymoon, opening a letter and discovering that due to identity theft, your entire life savings is gone and that the purchase of your dream house has fallen through. This happened to Paul Silverman of New York. “I took a deep breath and quickly tried to center myself,” he says. “I knew not to even react to the problems until I was centered and grounded. A simple breath practice stopped me from over-reacting and gave me a sense of perspective.”

Like learning any new skill, learning to find your breath and your center become intuitive over time. Ardagh shares a simple technique to connect to the quiet, grounded part of you: “In the midst of what you are doing, just stop. Stop your movement. Stop what you are thinking about. Sit back in the saddle [and] pay attention to this moment.”

Changing the words we use to describe our experience can be important. The key is not about “overcoming” challenging thoughts or emotions,. It’s about welcoming and allowing whatever arises to be. If you find yourself getting upset or concerned, relax, take a breath and remind yourself that nothing about meditating is dangerous or harmful. It’s a benign practice. You may be having a difficult time right now, but that’s okay.

“Meditation is probably the most intrinsically fulfilling thing you can do,” says Ardagh. “In a hectic world, meditation is something that connects you back to yourself. You can call it an activity, but really it’s more accurate to call it a disposition, a way of being in the moment, which brings you back to yourself.”

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