Meditation is a concept that is easy to complicate but it is actually quite simple. Meditation is about getting in to a “flow state”. Doing something where you become intensely present. Suddenly you are not focused on what happened earlier today or what you have to do tomorrow. You become aware of this moment and acutely aware of your own emotional/energetic state.
You might be surprised to learn that children are naturally experts at meditation. They don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to go to a seminar to have a spiritual guru tell them how to get in touch with their Soul – they have far fewer distractions than adults and are naturally drawn toward meditative activities – like getting lost in their imagination playing with their toys, scribbling in coloring books, or just riding their bike on the Oso Creek Trail in Mission Viejo, CA. The essence of meditation is intense focus, and as soon as a child is old enough to independently do these activities – they learn the art of meditation – as if it is and always has been engrained into their Human Program.
During my sound baths common feedback that I get from participants is that they felt like they were pulled into an alternate dimension – a dream state outside of reality where all of their emotions are magnified. What I have come to understand is that they simply became intensely present and meditative during the sound bath. To take that a step further, your Consciousness is a level of intelligence that cannot be conceptualized using words, but you can use your Consciousness to process and resolve those intense energies (positive or negative) that you become aware of during meditative activities. The more intensely focused you are during those activities, the better.
The best way that I can describe a successful meditation session is getting completely lost in whatever the activity is. Some people successfully meditate by sitting upright and closing their eyes, but I find that meditation can be done while doing any activity that requires a great deal of focus.
I have a yoga routine that I regularly do, and if I find myself getting lost in intense thoughts and emotional upheavals, then that is actually a successful session because I pulled my awareness out of sequential time, and instead focused on whatever energy I needed to process in that moment. I have had the same result going for a bike ride or just focusing on my breathing. Many people report being in a meditative flow state while doing work that they enjoy doing as well.
Of course, there are meditation sessions where I feel bliss and “at One” with all of Creation, but something that I have learned as I’ve gotten better at meditation is that being a Human isn’t about feeling amazing all the time. Some of us have so much repressed energy dragging ourselves and our vibrations down – that for meditation to be as productive as it needs to be for exponential spiritual gains – discomfort is actually a sign that the meditation practice is working.
Getting started with meditation if you have no experience is actually quite easy. Simply try to focus on any activity where you could enter a flow state (sound bath, go for a walk, go for a bike ride, breath in and out slowly and listen to your breath, etc) and gauge how difficult it is for you to stay focused on that activity. Pay attention to how quickly the chatter in your mind escalates to the point where you are interupting your meditation session to instinctively distract yourself from The Now (checking your phone, remembering you need to worry about some thing, etc.)
As long as you are making a Conscious effort to do a meditative activity on a daily or weekly basis, you will find that (especially in the beginning) you will make exponential gains with your ability to focus and thus – feel and process your emotions. You may become aware of how uncomfortable emotions that used to push you to pull our your smart phone or find some other distraction – now motivate you to do a more healthy meditative activity. You will know that these activities are working as you become generally more calm and aware of how you feel. Every person is different so there is no right or wrong way to do this.
So to summarize – Meditation is about doing an activity where you become intensely present in the moment.
When you reach a flow state where you are intensely present – you begin to feel a wide array of emotions and hear various trains of thought that you were not able to hear before. Because you become aware of those emotions or thoughts, your Consciousness (or Soul) is then able to process and resolve them on your behalf.
The next time that you do the same meditative activity, you find that this process is even more productive and most importantly – allows you to experience a higher quality of life outside of that meditative activity.
Alternate Dimension Orange County 