{"id":3248,"date":"2012-07-27T12:01:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T16:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?p=3248"},"modified":"2012-06-12T23:03:12","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T03:03:12","slug":"the-struggle-to-meditate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/07\/the-struggle-to-meditate.html","title":{"rendered":"The Struggle to Meditate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In last my post for my Law of Attraction in Action Series, Meditation<\/strong><\/a>, I recommended trying to meditate in order to clear your mind for positive manifesting. While I recommended it, I admitted that I\u2019m not good at meditating. It\u2019s hard for me to quiet my mind and sit still for long. When I read Eat, Pray, Love<\/em>, I totally related to the part where the author stressed over having to do long meditations every day. It felt painful just to read about it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve given meditation a half-hearted try over the years and related to how difficult it can be to just sit still and clear your mind. The only thing that ever worked for me was doing deep breathing while staring at a lit candle. That always left me feeling relaxed, though I couldn\u2019t do it for long. Only in the last two years have I made a real effort to do meditate.\u00a0 I began by listening to a 15-minute meditation on the Getting Into the Vortex meditation CD when I can, first thing in the morning, which I wrote about Law of Attraction in Action: Staying in the Joy<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 My mind does wander but I also get some of my best ideas during those times.<\/p>\n

I try to keep any thoughts that come up positive. When I\u2019m done, I always feel calm and it sets a good tone for my day. I only meditated to that CD until a few months ago, when a friend invited me to go to a mediation class. I decided to try it but warned her I might not be able to sit through it. I was stressed that day. The leader told us to relax. I expected music to come on but there was none. I expected him to talk us through it but he only spoke very occasionally. What I mainly heard was silence and in that silence, my mind got quiet.<\/p>\n

I sat and breathed with a clear mind for the fist time in my life. When it was done, I was shocked that over a half hour had passed. And I felt wonderful! Stress gone. An overwhelming feeling of peace ruled me. Then I went home, slept well that night but forgot about the mediation the next day. Last week my friend asked me to go to the class again. There was a different leader. Before we began, she advised that if thoughts come into our heads we shouldn\u2019t give them any attention. Ha ha I thought, how do you do that I wondered. Blessedly, she told us.<\/p>\n

The leader said it\u2019s normal for thoughts to pop up and it\u2019s up to us to acknowledge them and give them power. I\u2019d never thought about it that way. She explained that when a thought comes into your head, you can choose to think about it or make it pass. As I began the silent meditation, my mind began thinking of things. But instead of finishing the thoughts, this time I just said a silent \u201cno\u201d when they began. To my surprise, they left. As I did the meditation, I felt more powerful, knowing that I\u2019d been able to keep the silence in my head going. Once again I left in a completely serene state.<\/p>\n

I asked why there\u2019s no music or words to keep us on track. The answer was simple. Since the perfect state of meditation is the absence of thoughts, and a focus on nothing, music and talking is still something you notice that distracts you from thinking nothing. Since that night I\u2019ve actually tried silent meditation at home and was able to do it. I say \u201cno\u201d to thoughts and it gets easier to keep them at bay. I still don\u2019t like sitting still for long and fifteen minutes is my max time to do it on my own, but I do feel good after.<\/p>\n

I advise trying to do it, even if only occasionally. Abraham, though Esther Hicks, says fifteen minutes a day is enough. Even five minutes is better than none. I don\u2019t do it every day. I like to meditate first thing in the morning so it depends on how rushed I am. But I do make time for it whenever possible. Try it!
\n***************<\/p>\n

Take the 31 Days of Self-Love Challenge<\/strong><\/a>–a pledge to do something loving for yourself for the next 31 days–and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways<\/a><\/strong> for free at http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com<\/a><\/strong>. Read my 31 Days of Self-Love Posts from 2012 HERE<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Please leave comments under my posts so we can stay connected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In last my post for my Law of Attraction in Action Series, Meditation, I recommended trying to meditate in order to clear your mind for positive manifesting. While I recommended it, I admitted that I\u2019m not good at meditating. It\u2019s hard for me to quiet my mind and sit still for long. When I read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14,2,15],"tags":[418],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-of-attraction-in-action","category-positive-mental-attitude","category-self-empowerment-confidence","category-self-love-acceptance","tag-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Struggle to Meditate - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/07\/the-struggle-to-meditate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Struggle to Meditate - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In last my post for my Law of Attraction in Action Series, Meditation, I recommended trying to meditate in order to clear your mind for positive manifesting. 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Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3248"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3253,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions\/3253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}