What do we mean by finding your inner self through meditation?
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Well, each of us piece together our lives from each momentary thought and emotion. But we expend a lot of our energy and spend a lot of our time thinking about past events and future aspirations. Very few of us spend anywhere enough time in the present moment.
This is a great mistake because the present is all we really have and until we realise and master our use of the present our lives can falter.
One of the most effective ways we can bring ourselves and our minds back to the present moment is through meditation. We can use this time to focus on our lives as individuals, helping us to realise who we are as an individual and what our true needs and desires are.
Why do we not find our Inner Self?
We often define ourselves by one of the many roles we serve in life. If we are asked we might say we are a husband, dad, sister for example. Many define themselves by their occupation, for instance, they say I’m a nurse or I’m an accountant.
But do our roles really represent what we are and what we feel inside? These roles make up part of who we are but we have deeper layers within us that are part of our inner selves. Unfortunately, through a lack of introspection, the majority of people will never discover who they really are.
Socrates is reported to have said that “an unexamined life is not worth living,” which wass meant to highlight the requirement for self discovery. And this was said at a time when life was much slower than it is now.
Nowadays we spend our lives running from one thing on a to-do list to the next without really thinking about it.
We experience pain and distress as we move out of one unfulfilling relationship to another.
We take actions that puzzle us without really understanding why we behave in that way.
We do all these things whilst being unaware of our true needs and desires and in so doing, we let life pass us by.
But it is likely that at some stage these roles we identify with as being our true selves will no longer bring us satisfaction.
As we will have based so much of our self worth and self esteem on these roles, their loss of importance to us will bring us despair and make us unhappy as we ask the question “is this all there is?”
Finding your inner self through meditation
But luckily for us there is an answer in meditation.
Through meditation we can avoid these distressing feelings by discovering and holding onto our true selves. When we make time to relieve the stresses and tensions of life that cloud our vision, we can reach a level of peace and calm and get in contact with who we really are. With meditation we can gain a higher level of awareness and consciousness.
We need to find the true identity within our own being so that our identity is based on that, and not our notion of our roles and meditation is an extremely useful tool to help us achieve that goal.
Meditation can help us understand and appreciate that our thoughts and feelings do not constitute our being. Actually we are above our thoughts and feelings. We are the one doing the thinking.
Meditation can quit your thinking
As soon as we come to understand that we are not our thoughts, we realise that we have other options and pathways to the sought after state of enlightenment. Meditation is a fantastic tool that can guide you to this sort of entitlement, entitlement that can bring you peace of mind, understanding and joy in your heart and soul.
When you quit your mind chatter, you can achieve an enlightenment that brings with it a deep satisfaction of simply being. Even better, when you use meditation to calm and quieten the mind, you achieve a peaceful understanding of the things that matter in your life.
When you try finding your inner self through meditation you can allow yourself to let other aspects of life go and enjoy the present moment as you feel and truly experience your real emotions.
Meditation Health Benefits
The health benefits of meditation are many and have been extremely well documented. Some benefits are:
- Alleviate and eliminate depression and anxiety
- Lower blood pressure levels And hypertension issues
- Helps build a stronger immune system
- Improved ability to focus, concentrate and remember things
- Reduction of harmful stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
- Slow down the effects of aging
But I think the greatest gift meditation can give to us in return for our practicing it is the feelings of calm and inner peace that we achieve during meditation but which can continue beyond the time we are actually meditating. These feelings of calm serve us extremely well in our everyday lives, and we get all the health benefits listed above.
When we can still our minds it allows us push aside noise and confusion from our external world and reflect on our lives and ourselves in our internal world.
Read about my favourite meditation programme, Zen12, on my blog here.
Meditation helps you to think about the here and now
One of the things you need to be aware of as you start to find your inner and true self with meditation is just how much time and energy you expend each day not in the present moment. Time spent dwelling on things that happened in the past or worrying about what might happen in the future saps our strength for enjoying all that we have in the here and now and causes stress every day. This stress in turn causes ill health and downwardly spiralling moods.
Every one of us is a bundle of nerves that can respond to triggers now that set in motion bad emotions and feelings from past situations. The triggers can be simple things that happen in your daily life now, just a simple event, but because of your associations with the past, it can cause you to feel the same distress, discouragement and pressure that you felt then.
But as you meditate you learn the skill of focussing on the present moment more. When you focus on the present moment, you can shake off the feelings brought on by events of the past and worries about the future. As you practice more, that skill you acquire during meditation will carry into your daily life more and more when you are not meditating. You will be able to notice more that you are worrying about the past or the future and you can switch your thoughts into the now.
This can give great pleasure and peace of mind as you learn to react to life not in your old automatic ways, but in ways based on the understanding of your true self gained during meditation. You will make better choices as you become aware of and understand your true self.
But you have to commit to Meditation!
At this point, many people start to get a bit jittery.
We often don’t like trying new things and we like committing to actions even less, even though we can obtain great benefits from them.
Meditation involves spending time in stillness. In meditation we have to calm the mind and try to cease our thoughts. This isn’t always easy and can often be difficult to achieve on your own.
You might fall asleep during meditation or you may find it really difficult to slow down the thoughts in your mind and you feel you aren’t getting anywhere. This is when you will benefit from some sort of help and instruction.
The best way to get instruction is to find a local class you can join where the instructor will help you.
Getting instructions can help us learn how to meditate properly and personal instructors can give us advice and guide us on our unique and personal problems along the way.
However, travelling to and attending a physical class will take up even more time and may be costly. So you may get the best cost/benefit from an audio package.
My favourite audio package is Zen12. It is a series of 12 audios (using different background music styles) that employ brainwave entrainment to enhance your meditation and bring your mind into the correct state quickly and easily. You can find out more about brainwave entrainment and brain states here.
The idea of zen12 is that you listen to each audio once a day for a month. Each audio only lasts about 12 minutes so the time commitment is small but the benefits are big. After a month you move to the next level which takes you deeper into meditation or gets you there quicker.
I use Zen12 every day and you can read my research on it here.
Click here to see a video explaining finding your inner self through meditation.
People who meditate get great benefits
Those people who make the effort to meditate and stick to it with regular meditation sessions get great benefits from it in terms of enjoying long term health benefits and peace of mind. They can get closer to their true self to discover their needs and desires.
Taking care of your health and wellness in any way you can is important. When you are well, life is easier, your mood stays upbeat and things get you down less. Taking time to take care of yourself is always worthwhile.
Start today with a meditation program such as Zen12 and you will begin finding your inner self through meditation and all the benefits that comes with that.
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