5 myths about meditation

If you think meditation means simply emptying your mind, think again. Let’s dispell some of the most common meditation myths!

Would you like to meditate but you’re not sure if you’ll be able to do it? Are you afraid you’re too restless, unfocused or simply not the ‘floaty’ kind? Do you feel you need to be more balanced, skilled or at ease with yourself before you can sit in a perfect lotus pose for half an hour?

Time to bust some myths about meditation!

Myth 1. You can only meditate when you’re calm

You don’t need to feel calm to meditate. All you need to do is sit down and observe whatever is there.

Perhaps you feel terribly restless. Perhaps you feel tense. Perhaps you feel like breaking something. Or perhaps you feel happy and bubbly. All perfect!

Meditation is about learning to be with all this jumpy stuff, not to avoid or fix it.

Myth 2. Meditating is about having no thoughts

Having no thoughts is a myth. You cannot control your thinking… (try it for a moment).

But you can learn not to invest in your thinking so much. By focusing on the experience of this moment, you simply stop feeding your thoughts: you can’t concentrate on both at the same time… The more you practise this, the easier it gets to leave your thoughts alone.

Myth 3. Meditation is about controlling your emotions

Meditation is about getting to know your emotions, not about controlling them.

Control is fear: fearing your own depth, your deep feelings.

In true meditation, you open up to how things are, not how you want them to be! So every emotion is more than welcome to surface.

In true meditation, you open up to how things are, not how you want them to be!

Myth 4. You have to sit crossed-legged to meditate properly

Not true. Lotus pose or sitting crossed-legged is not required for meditation, unless you believe in the ‘pure’, traditional practices. To me, meditation is not so much about form, it is about awareness.

You can meditate in a chair just as effectively if that works for you.

Myth 5. Meditation is difficult

It is only difficult if you have the wrong expectations. Like having to experience a deep inner stillness or a spiritual revelation. Let that go. Meditation is really about learning to embrace your messy, human nature…it is about getting to know yourself. You don’t need to change yourself to find out who you are!

Learn to meditate…

Become an EkhartYoga member and follow our Meditation for Beginners programme. In this set of classes, Esther Teule will gently guide you into a basic meditation practice.

 

Text: Esther Teule
Soure: Ekhartyoga.com.
Image: leninscape/Pixabay