I have heard many people say, " I can't meditate," " I can't clear my mind," or " I don't know what to focus on!" This is a misconception that often inhibits people from even trying meditation. The fact is that meditation is about "awareness," and you can do it even while you are walking and moving around. If that practice is incorporated when sitting to meditate, the experience is much easier to attain.
While we all have different belief systems when it comes to religion and spirituality, what most of us can agree with is that there is a life-force energy within us. This energy that keeps the body moving thinking and doing is referred to as the soul, light, chi, the spirit, atma, or subconscious. When this force leaves the body, we are considered deceased and no longer need the body. What science has taught us is that this energy cannot be destroyed, and where it goes after it leaves the body, well... that's another segment!
The energy that we speak of, that I will call soul, sits right behind the eyes, in the form of a subtle energy of light. When we meditate we turn our attention inward into this area. You will feel an energy there, it will feel like the energy that is taking in everything around you and where you also generate your output. The soul is energy, and in its natural state the soul is peace, love, truth, purity and joy. While in meditation, we focus on this point and remind ourselves that I AM A SOUL, I can connect with this feeling of peace that is me and take a moment just to enjoy this feeling. The natural awareness of peace resides in every one of us. We have simply forgotten. The distractions of everyday life and circumstances tend to pull us away from this remembrance.
Our conditioning since childhood and subsequent external stimuli has created our thought and behavior patterns. We cannot change the past or the external stimuli, so if you wish to emerge from your original joy and be more at peace, you have to choose to change YOUR thoughts. YOU create your thoughts. Positive and peaceful thoughts based on pure thinking will create these experiences. Your perception will change and everything that seems like a challenge will remind you that in responding from your real place of awareness, challenges become gifts and an opportunity to become stronger. With regular practice of turning inward, you will see and experience the truth of it all. However, we have to practice. I know we love that word... practice.
Keep asking yourself, "How does this thought serve the soul?" In this video, I offer you a very simple meditation on "Who am I?" I am a peaceful soul...
Om Shanti, Sister Jenna
For more by Sister Jenna, click here.
For more on The Meditation Museum, click here.
For more on America Meditating and Pause For Peace, click here.
For more on meditation, click here.