We are divine beings of pure light and majestic luminescence.
This is what the Buddhists, Hindus, and other spiritual teachers have been telling us all this time. We have joyful light deep within us and we can fill the world with love.
But not all of us have come to grips with our inner divinity. It’s not the lack of faith per se, but the little mistakes we make trying to get it that prevent us from seeing our true nature.
Meditation is the tool we can use to connect with this inner divinity. But most of us do not really know how to properly meditate.
Even this sentence is paradoxical as it implies that meditation needs to be done a certain way, and the truth is meditation is just done.
There’s no right or wrong way to meditation, just like laughter. However, there are mistakes we all do that make it something it isn’t, and prevent us from experiencing it.
This may sound so simple, yet so complex because of the way our minds have been conditioned to think.
For years, our brains have been trained to focus on the intricacies of life and to chase after external things that bring immediate rewards.
Meditation doesn’t work that way.
In the practice of meditation, we often miss the truth behind it. There are certain things that block your way to experiencing its true benefits.
Find out what these blocks are and get rid of them to experience true meditation and the real benefits it gives.
Stop Doing These 5 Mistakes During Meditation To Unleash Its True Potential:
1. You’re concentrating too much.
Meditation needs concentration but not too much nor too little.
Too much concentration leads to being too tight and putting on too much effort, which can lead you away to the natural state of your being.
Too little concentration leads you to a dreamy state where you become dull and are likely to fall asleep.
Somewhere in the middle is the goal.
And it needs a lot of practice to achieve this state. Nevertheless, never give up on your first, second, or tenth try.
If you persist in your practice, you will soon arrive in what the yoga teachers call, the state of effortless concentration. It’s in this place that you’re able to find perfect stillness.
But before arriving here, you need to face the challenges of letting go of the need to manipulate, control, or suppress any object that blocks you into awareness.
2. You’re expecting too much.
Meditation brings amazing benefits, which you need not cling to.
When sitting on your mat, just allow everything to flow without having any goals or expectations.
If you meditate for the sake of relieving your mind of tensions, you’re likely to miss the point.
Meditation is not about adding something to your life or deducting something away from it.
Meditation is all about the BEINGness of things. It’s timeless and, therefore, has nothing to do with your past nor of your future.
The great Tibetan Buddhist master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche states that “meditation transcends efforts, practice, aims, goals, and the duality of liberation and non liberation…”
It’s perfect as it is, so there’s no need for you to correct anything that may come into your awareness.
Stay clear of the past or the future and focus only on the eternal here and now.
3. You’re controlling too much.
This is where you need to be more aware of your ego, it constantly tries to control and manipulate your meditation practice.
Its intentions are for its own benefit masked as if they are for yours. The ego craves control and it’s scared of change.
True meditation demands you to let go of the illusion of control and let things change and flow as they happen.
This is why the ego tries to take the wheel.
You don’t have to control your breath, energy, or thoughts because meditation is all about being who you truly are.
You only need to let go and be genuinely present.
You’re not out to master a technique but to learn to let go.
When you breathe, allow it to be, whether it’s a short breath or a long one. When thoughts arise, let them.
Just observe as your body does the breathing. Be a silent witness and allow yourself to fully experience a liberating freedom of BEINGness.
4. You’re making pretensions.
As meditation is all about BEINGness, you’re missing the point when you believe you’re highly spiritual for having a meditation practice.
Whatever name or label you give to yourself, or to this journey, it doesn’t mean a thing to the state of your being.
You practice meditation not to have a new identity or to become someone special. You do it for the sake of doing it.
An authentic state of meditation has nothing to do with the knowledge of meditation. It’s not even for the benefits, they are just a bonus, a gift, a reward.
It’s like laughing. You are not laughing for its benefits, but for the sake of laughing. The benefits of laughing come as a reward.
Meditation is a state of being that is as natural as eating or breathing, and a form of non attachment that’s not affected even when you pretend to love everyone.
Being in a meditative state is being your authentic self without the need for pretensions.
5. You’re not trusting your real self enough.
Your real self is pure, wise and all fulfilling.
When you fail to trust this, you will imagine yourself in a distorted version, other than who you truly are, someone who fits your preconceived description of your ideal self.
This belief leads you to seek something more, to be something better.
It makes you believe that you are not enough to be yourself and get satisfaction in life, or like you don’t deserve happiness, freedom and love.
It hinders you to rest in the blissful state of meditation.
Awakening to your real self requires you to stop seeking the things that you think will make you whole and realize that, in fact, you were whole all along.
And to realize this you only need to look inward, where the true silence resides. You need to remove all the doubts that prevent you from seeing your wholeness.
Give yourself permission to be happy, free and to express love. Doing this boosts the confidence you have in yourself.
Your nature is all good. Trust it, your divine self is waiting to emerge and shine.
