Meditation: Letting Go Of Distractions While Living IntoYour Own Desires

Today I am going to speak about the ability to keep up with change, yet doing it on your own terms, because this is indeed a huge part of what self-love and self-respect are all about to my mind.

As we go through life there are many challenges that we need to come through. Some of them seem so devasting at the time such as when I realized that I didn't want to be an elementary school teacher after all. I will never forget that call I had with my parents from the school dorms back in 1983 telling them this - though I did indeed graduate with a double major Elementary Education & Political & Historical Studies) and a concentration in teaching kids with Moderate Special Needs. I graduated cum laude which was a shock to my father given all the learning disabilities I had. He had the largest smile of any parent at graduation that fine May day according to my best friend, Richard given that achievement of mine.

And, now 38 years later we have other challenges to contend with dealing with the endless onslaught of bad news - the ever-tightening of our ability of free movement, etc. This is particularly difficult when one is needing to get back across the world to start a new life, yet again. Though, I am welcoming the new opportunity with open arms. Moving to a land where one need not be concerned with anything but living a full and free life because there isn't any dissension among the peoples of the Dominican Republic regarding all the issues of the rest of the world. They have it under control and want the foreigners to help their economy. What a thought - allowing people to just be...

This morning I was listening to a very educated yogi giving a presentation to some college students in India. She was educating them on the real-life benefits of being able to focus one's attention on that which is important while letting go of any of the outside distractions. In so doing each student was learning how to concentrate their attention on their goals of attaining their college education and then moving on to creating their futures the way they want them. Of course, this is a major benefit for those who meditate every day - that ability to stay calm and never allow the outside events to disturb their inner calm so one could be the director of one's life.

After taking the course in Insight Dialogue which is a form of interpersonal meditation (meditation between two or more people) last summer, I learned how very calming this simple exercise is of just sitting or laying down and concentrating merely on one's breath. Allowing the thoughts to come, acknowledge them, and get back to the focus on the stomach going up and down or the air going in and out of the nose. I realized that those things that used to make me insane - the negative thoughts that I had running in my head about something that didn't come together as quickly as I wanted - maybe I did not receive the phone call on some business I needed, or I got lost getting to a place that I needed to be for an appointment traveling in the buses here in Haifa. These efforts were mandatory to do for our class every day became so beneficial to my mind and to my body as the stress was released from those things that would normally get me very upset. Things that many times were not worth being upset about at all in the greater scheme of things.

The teacher of this Yoga training was asked about depression and those with ADD/ADHD and she said the following about the application of this simple exercise:

Depressed people get that way because of the loss of control over their thinking. Kids with ADD/ADHD have lost control of their thinking and those with ADHD have the ability to sit quietly. In both these situations, they train the young kids to do 5 minutes of meditation every day to help them quiet their minds and their problems disappear. There is no need to medicate these kids as they have the ability to calm themselves and use their minds for those things that are fun and productive for them. This was an interesting notion from my perspective because I never heard of meditation being applied to kids with these issues. However, it does make sense in that when I am doing the hypnotism with my clients they are hyper-attentive to what I am saying and asking them to do as their hypnotist and they are easily able to do it. As Julie Griffin, my first trainer of hypnosis said. "Hypnosis is nothing more than meditation with a purpose." She said that because the brain waves are at the same speed as one in meditation while one is in the hypnotic state.

So, we do have the ability, each and every one of us to slow our brain waves, allow the mind to calm itself down to bring peace, calm, and attention to only those things that matter to us. And, in so doing we are much more able to achieve whatever goal we have set be it a small goal like getting a form filled out, graduating with an advanced degree, or even starting and running one's own business. It is just a matter of loving ourselves enough to make the 5-15 minutes a day available for the practice - best done right before getting up in the morning or right before going to sleep at night as one is naturally in a hypnotic state at these times making it much easier to do.

***If you are a person who is like I was back in the day when my ex-husband was trying to get me to meditate and my mind couldn't do it - perhaps we could have a chat to find out what we can do to help you to let go of those things that are no longer working for you while allowing you to implement those things that do. You may contact me here:

https://dawningvisions.com/contact_suzanne/

I look forward to seeing what we can do to help you to live a much more contented and fulfilled life.