I’ve heard a number of people recently say they “can’t” meditate – they try but they can’t empty their mind; they can’t stop thinking about all the things they have to do; it’s just too difficult.

When my interest in meditation first piqued I took myself off to a Buddhist meditation centre for the day… hoping to learn about meditation.  Although it was an enjoyable day and I met some interesting people (always a bonus), I found the day consisted of a number of meditations interspersed with teachings, but disappointingly for me, there were no teachings about meditation itself.  Consequently I spent most of the day thinking…  “is this right?”; “how do I stop these thoughts?”; “what am I supposed to be doing?”; “what’s the purpose of meditation?” 

Shortly after that I found Eliza and David Harrison at Iuna Meditation who run their courses from The Meditation Centre in Dent – a beautiful space which Eliza was instrumental in the creation of.  Iuna’s “Introduction to Meditation” gave me just what I needed – to learn about meditation and to practice and of course to meet some more interesting people.  (The people were significant – I had recently realised that I connect deeply with people when I share a learning experience with them and so was keen to create more opportunities for myself to learn in groups, of which this was one.)

So, back to the meditation… several things stayed with me from the “Introduction to Meditation” day and probably the biggest one, which I share with people who tell me they “can’t meditate”, is “thoughts are to meditation as dreams are to life”.  I found this incredibly helpful as previously I had thought meditation was about eradicating thought.  Perhaps in a purist sense eradicating thought is what we aim to achieve in meditation, but that is so far away from where we’re at in Western society it is almost impossible to achieve, so it is necessary to take a more pragmatic approach…

Eliza and David’s teaching says that meditation is not about eradicating thought, it is to focus solely on one thing –your breath, a mantra, a question, etc. and that when thoughts arise, as they inevitably do, when we become aware of those thoughts we should accept them without judgement and bring ourselves gently and ‘effortlessly’ back to our focus.  So, thinking back to the thoughts that were going through my head as I tried to meditate at the Buddhist meditation centre…

With regards to the question of “what’s the purpose of meditation?” Eliza and David have much to share and I would prefer you heard it from them (click here) than me – as I said I’m just a novice!

For me though, I guess there are 2 purposes – the first is what is happening when I am in the process of meditation (removing limiting beliefs, getting rid of negativity, unlearning, connecting to core, energising, etc.) and the second is what happens as a result of regular meditation, i.e. the benefits which help me deal with my every day challenges.  Below are some examples of the benefits I’ve noticed recently…

Challenge 1: over the past 12 months I’ve continually pushed myself out of my comfort zone in order to grow and develop in new areas
My meditation has helped me… take on new challenges calmly, more confidently and with less fear

Challenge 2: redundancy just before Christmas
My meditation has helped me… remain positive and keep my stress levels low

Challenge 3: not knowing where next in terms of job/career
My meditation has helped me… ask my heart (as opposed to my head) where next & what action I need to take and trust that that action will reveal opportunities.  Also, I think it’s ‘opened’ me up so that when the opportunities do arise I’m much more likely to see them and explore them – see the ‘An Afternoon in wellies’ blog I recently wrote for The Bivouac about one such opportunity!

Challenge 4: to continually improve my coaching practice
My meditation has helped me… access my intuition and have the courage to act on that intuition, e.g. feeding back to a coaching client what my intuition is telling me about what’s going on for them

Challenge 5: how I measure my impact
My meditation has helped me… connect with my purpose through asking my heart – see my Measuring the Crater blog

So, now I’m wondering…

• How has this changed your thinking on meditation?
• What benefits might you experience from meditation?
• When are you going to start to find out? 

And if your “I can’t” has now changed to “I can’t find time”, I would encourage you to find it & if you can’t find 20 minutes, start with 5, and when you start to experience the benefits you’ll find more time. 

Of course you may start to meditate and not really notice the benefits & so stop and that’s when you’ll really see the benefits it was bringing, which may just be what you need to meditate more regularly

I’d love to hear your perspectives on meditation, either through your comments on the blog or tweets to @ThePensiveCoach