MASTER YOUR MIND = MASTER YOURSELF
Today's society is production-focused, fast-paced, and immediate-oriented. This is not the path to a steady, quiet mind, presence, inner peace, or spiritual awakening. When our mind stays hyper-focused and hyper-stimulated until we sleep, we feel stressed, tense, and fidgety. We are uncomfortable when alone, struggle to relax, can't get restful sleep, and tend to feel exhausted and overwhelmed often. We more easily slip into knee-jerk reactions. We experience chronic anxiety, and perhaps depression too. We have more mental static or noise, making it harder to focus and complete things.
Keeping ourselves occupied 24/7 (except when trying to sleep) may be a sign that we are avoiding something inside. Perhaps we don't want to face the truth, or we are resisting change, or we are avoiding our deepest feelings. It is also a sign that our sympathetic nervous system (the one that bolts us into action) is stuck in overdrive and our parasympathetic nervous system (the one that calms us down) is stuck in "underdrive."
Keeping ourselves occupied 24/7 (except when trying to sleep) may be a sign that we are avoiding something inside. Perhaps we don't want to face the truth, or we are resisting change, or we are avoiding our deepest feelings. It is also a sign that our sympathetic nervous system (the one that bolts us into action) is stuck in overdrive and our parasympathetic nervous system (the one that calms us down) is stuck in "underdrive."
Living in mental-emotional overdrive keeps us from connecting to our core self, which makes it difficult to access our truth, power, and purpose. This is a setup for ongoing struggle and suffering, for exhaustion, for feeling deflated, defeated, or lost—like we're spinning our wheels, doing our best, and yet keep finding ourselves at the bottom of the mountain.
That's where a mindfulness practice such as meditation comes in. If we don't build in a way to regularly connect with the deepest part of ourselves, and with the larger sacred experience we are having as human beings on this planet, we lose sight of the most significant, true, and powerful parts of our existence. It's through rebuilding a connection with our true selves that we rise above the conditioned fears, struggles, and closures that throw us out of balance and into painful reactions. It's by strengthening this internal connection that we find lasting inner fulfillment, peace, and happiness.
You may think, "Meditation doesn't work for me. I can't sit still, I don't have time, my mind
is too busy" or whatever. That's RIGHT—most of us can't sit still, don't have time, and have a mind that is just too busy. As I said, we live in a society that perpetuates mental-emotional over-stimulation and nervous system overload. That's the problem!
You may think, "Meditation doesn't work for me. I can't sit still, I don't have time, my mind
is too busy" or whatever. That's RIGHT—most of us can't sit still, don't have time, and have a mind that is just too busy. As I said, we live in a society that perpetuates mental-emotional over-stimulation and nervous system overload. That's the problem!
Yet we can change this.
Most people I coach through a mindfulness practice struggle to stick with it, especially by the third week. Heck, I understand; I was once there myself. There's always an excuse for why we can't do it. This is exactly why people don't get it. They give in to their conditioned self, give up, and fall off the meditation wagon way too soon to experience its powerful benefits.
Many people also think that yoga or mediation have to be a big ordeal. They think they need special gear or a big space. Not true. For some, special gear or a designated space can be helpful. But I've spent years practicing in sweatpants and a t-shirt, on a strip of carpet between my bed and my desk in my bedroom. No expensive gear, no special space; just me in my bedroom. And I got all the same benefits.
A life-changing mindfulness or meditation practice can be very simple. For instance, it can be as simple as doing something you always do, differently—say, using the opposite hand, or driving a different route. It can also be sitting in a chair in silent stillness for 3 minutes, or in easy pose with your hands resting on the knees in gyan mudra and chanting the universal sound of Om aloud, once per breath, for 3 minutes. The sound of Om is a great choice since it contains the frequency of the soul, the self within, the ultimate reality, the entirety of the universe, truth, the divine, the supreme spirit, the cosmic principles and knowledge.
Most people I coach through a mindfulness practice struggle to stick with it, especially by the third week. Heck, I understand; I was once there myself. There's always an excuse for why we can't do it. This is exactly why people don't get it. They give in to their conditioned self, give up, and fall off the meditation wagon way too soon to experience its powerful benefits.
Many people also think that yoga or mediation have to be a big ordeal. They think they need special gear or a big space. Not true. For some, special gear or a designated space can be helpful. But I've spent years practicing in sweatpants and a t-shirt, on a strip of carpet between my bed and my desk in my bedroom. No expensive gear, no special space; just me in my bedroom. And I got all the same benefits.
A life-changing mindfulness or meditation practice can be very simple. For instance, it can be as simple as doing something you always do, differently—say, using the opposite hand, or driving a different route. It can also be sitting in a chair in silent stillness for 3 minutes, or in easy pose with your hands resting on the knees in gyan mudra and chanting the universal sound of Om aloud, once per breath, for 3 minutes. The sound of Om is a great choice since it contains the frequency of the soul, the self within, the ultimate reality, the entirety of the universe, truth, the divine, the supreme spirit, the cosmic principles and knowledge.
Yogic science say it takes 40 days of meditation to embody new experiences or increased capacities, 90 days of meditation to clear our subconscious and build new habits, and 120 days of meditation to realize that awareness in our daily lives. So do your best to take on a mindfulness practice for 40 days or more without missing one single day and see what arises. Then you can decide for yourself.
As you move into a daily mindfulness or meditative practice, you'll quickly notice a strong desire to stop! Initially, your thoughts will be amplified, and the chatter can be frustrating. This is the voice of your conditioned self (i.e., ego mind or pain body) wanting to lure you back into old, comfortable, default habits. The problem with these habits is that they keep you stuck where you don't want to be. Of course, you can go back if you want to, but know that little in your life will change for the better if you do.
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Here—try this sample meditation for powerful energy:
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Yoga and meditation are a regular practice of mine. I'd taken many yoga classes, but I took my first kundalini yoga class in January of 2000, just over a year into my healing journey from a high-impact, head-on collision...and never looked back. I know from experience the incredible healing difference this practice makes on all levels of being, how it brings clarity, confidence, and peace inside, and settles me into my truth and core self. I know it is essential to living a life of joy and powerful purpose because today I see it reflected in my life every day.
This was not the case before. Before, I had a tendency toward negative thinking and depression. Everything felt like a struggle. Finding happiness was a problem to solve. So, I did what society told me would lead to happiness, played by the rules, and ignored my inner voice. I wanted to feel safe, accepted, loved, and happy. Only I wasn't.
In the process of ignoring myself, I pushed against my truth and felt miserably unhappy inside. Eventually I crashed, quite literally. The outer circumstances of my life shifted and in a matter of months, I lost everything I'd worked so hard to build—all those things I thought would "make me happy." At the time, I described my life as written on a piece of paper that was shredded into bits and thrown into the air. I had no idea if, or where, those pieces of my life might land. And I had no idea where my life was going or what to do with it.
That was a painful and unsettling time in my journey, and I slipped into a deep depression. I came to call this dark state my "manhole," and in a weird way, I got comfortable there. It was easy to give in to it. I didn't have to DO anything while down there. I could just hide in the dark with my pain, from others who might see it.
But that was not living and I was still breathing so...Eventually I got lonely and bored in my manhole. And tired of feeling depressed. I realized there was life happening despite my resistance, and that it was up to me to connect with it, because no one was going to come and save me.
In the process of ignoring myself, I pushed against my truth and felt miserably unhappy inside. Eventually I crashed, quite literally. The outer circumstances of my life shifted and in a matter of months, I lost everything I'd worked so hard to build—all those things I thought would "make me happy." At the time, I described my life as written on a piece of paper that was shredded into bits and thrown into the air. I had no idea if, or where, those pieces of my life might land. And I had no idea where my life was going or what to do with it.
That was a painful and unsettling time in my journey, and I slipped into a deep depression. I came to call this dark state my "manhole," and in a weird way, I got comfortable there. It was easy to give in to it. I didn't have to DO anything while down there. I could just hide in the dark with my pain, from others who might see it.
But that was not living and I was still breathing so...Eventually I got lonely and bored in my manhole. And tired of feeling depressed. I realized there was life happening despite my resistance, and that it was up to me to connect with it, because no one was going to come and save me.
I knew there was a path to real happiness because outside of my manhole, I'd seen genuinely happy people. And I decided I wanted what they had. I wanted that happiness, fulfillment, and sovereignty for myself. I wanted to live and be happy.
And I wanted to do it without prescriptions. So I sought the right help and dug myself out of my manhole. Yoga and meditation became one critical part of my journey at that time, and have remained so. Today I am genuinely happy, despite any circumstances. And I've maintained my happiness for decades without prescriptions or self-medicating. It takes devotion, and I'm proud of myself for the radical positive changes I've made in my life. I want to help others achieve this, too.
The thing is, there are many pathways to fulfillment and happiness. If what you've tried so far hasn't worked, try something different. You have many options. Never give up! Sometimes all it takes for you to have that powerful breakthrough is a new approach. If you want guidance on exactly what to do, book a coaching session and let's talk.