Meditation means clearing your Mind/not Thinking
One of the most common Meditation Myths ‘out there’ is that meditation is about ‘clearing the mind’ or ‘not thinking’.
A common phrase goes something like, “I couldn’t meditate because I can’t stop thinking, my mind never stops.”
This idea makes it sound like if you were to have a thought while meditation you would be ‘failing at meditation’.
If you are a part of the human race your mind thinks.
It is involuntary like the function of other organs.
Trying to consciously control the activity of thinking is akin to trying to consciously control the function of your liver.
This Meditation Myth puts people off before they’ve even had a chance to find out that they’re not required to ‘not think’.
Thought actually has a place in meditation.
When we meditate we have what’s called a focus range which simply means what we are focusing on. A focus range will involve 1 or more Sensory Experiences.
We categorise thought as a kind of Sensory Experience.
Thoughts you hear in your mind (self talk) we think of as a kind of Hear (Hear In)
Thoughts you see in your mind (mental images) we think of as kind of See (See In)
We use the 3 attention skills of mindfulness to work with these experiences as with any other.
We show you exactly how in any of our Courses.
Myth 2 – Meditation takes a lot of time
It can if you want…
If you want to experience the benefits of a mindfulness practice then the actual time investment is very small.
10 minutes a day of Formal Practice and you’ll see real results.
Formal Practice is:
- a minimum of 10 minutes in length
- a practice where you’re giving your full focus to a technique
This can be done in stillness OR in motion.
Practice in motion could include being on the treadmill at the gym or while you’re out walking. You can piggy back your Formal Practice on the back of another activity so it’s even less of a time investment taken out of your busy day.
You can easily add to your daily practice time by doing a variety of different kinds of Informal Practice. The Unified Mindfulness System has a unique approach to practise in daily life using informal practices.
Making Mindfulness practice part of your everyday life takes being mindful ‘off the cushion’ and potentially into every moment of your day. Not only does this increase your practice time but it also builds your skills and grows the benefits of your practice too.
Our 8 Week Live Online Course unpacks this approach in detail.
Myth 3 – Meditation is all about ‘being chill’
There’s an expression floating around ‘out there’ which is misleading in a variety of ways.
‘Being Zen’. It’s worked its way into popular culture and manages to appear in marketing campaigns, contemporary language, memes and more. It links the idea of meditation (Zen in particular) to being really calm and relaxed (chill). I’m taking Zen out of this discussion for the moment except to say that this idea of Zen is all kinds of misleading.
Practising Mindfulness Meditation does help reduce stress and support you becoming a calmer person.
Mindfulness is much more than just this.
Mindful Awareness combines calmness and alertness because the skills behind it contribute to both of these qualities in various ways. This combination of relaxed but focused alertness is an optimum state of present-centredness.
Mindful awareness doesn’t necessarily look like ‘chilling out’ because you can be mindful and be mid-anything. You could be mindful (meaning bringing the 3 core skills of mindfulness to your experience) while driving a truck, running a marathon, skiing, sky-diving or playing a concert.
With practice being mindful becomes the way you walk around in the world. When that happens your experience of even the most ordinary activity is heightened and made new again. The attention skills of mindfulness grow with practice and the sensory experience of life which was perhaps largely unconscious previously becomes both fascinating and enjoyable.
The work we do developing these skills, learning techniques and strategies impacts our wellbeing and happiness by:
- reducing suffering
- elevating fulfillment
- helping us to know ourselves deeply
- become skillful in our actions
- connecting to others through a spirit of service.
With expert coaching you can use mindfulness to deliberately support your own goals in each of these areas. Having support like this accelerates your growth. A good mindfulness coach will be focused on your experience and your goals and will be able to help give you the techniques, tools, strategies and more to support you. They are there to show you ‘How it works, Why it Matters and What to Do.’
Conclusion
It’s important that we take a look at these myths because they put people off a practice that could otherwise have been a source of empowerment and wellbeing in their lives.
At Aussie Meditation we are about Mindfulness education that is grounded in research and which is clear, precise and effective. Mindfulness is a wonderful tool to support wellbeing and happiness. With a system that has as much to offer as Unified Mindfulness there’s always techniques and more to meet you where you’re at in your life and interests.
Stay tuned for Common Meditation Myths Part Two…