I have been running my own Personal Development Seminars since 1996. A few years ago one of my best friends participated in the Seminar after which he asked me “How long have you been running Meditation Workshops?” My answer was that I had never viewed meditation as the key part of the seminar – that I see meditation as a tool. On that two days, I had a participant who had meditated for the previous twenty three years. He explained to me that he might as well have been “scratching his backside” for those minutes each morning because he hadn’t appreciated the connection between his meditation and the rough and tumble, annoyance and pain of normal daily life. He got his twenty minutes tranquillity each morning – but all the good it did him!
As I say, meditation is simply a tool – and, like a hammer, you can use it for its proper purpose or you can wallop yourself with it! Meditation is simply a means to an end and it will not make any difference to your life unless you are sure in your head why you’re meditating and what you really want from your life as a result of your meditation. In other words, meditation is a key for unlocking your innate potential and achieving your innermost dreams. Meditation disciplines an otherwise completely undisciplined mind. If you don’t understand this just run your eye over seven decades of research in the field of psychology which confirm that the normal mind is out of control. Meditation gives you back control of your mind and, as a result, control of your life.
With this in mind, perhaps you will begin to see meditation in its wider context. It’s not an end in itself. Before you ever sit down to meditate ask yourself what your key objectives are. I’m not talking about the normal crass nonsense that self help gurus talk about – I’m not talking about top-end cars, Caribbean beaches, fancy condos and speedboats. My concern is what really matters to you – and only you can answer that question. But, if you don’t address these issues first, your daily existence will continue to be just as confused after your meditation as it was beforehand.
Establish why you want to meditate. With your objectives in mind, meditation is transformed and transforming. Through clearing your cluttered mind, through tuning out the noise in your head, meditation frees you up to attend to what’s important and come to your senses (all five of them!). It will enable you pay attention to the reality of the here and now – and it’s what you actually do in each moment of your life that determine where you are going in life.
