Consider that your mind is like a house for your thoughts. Most people have lots of unwanted thoughts/guests in their houses…. Some of them are loud and angry, others, lazy and disorganized, and some just don’t respect you at all. They seem to be happy to fight with you at any opportunity and are always there, getting in your way….
Sure, some aspects of your house may seem to be organized at times, but there is always the unwanted stuff lurking in the basement, or even roaming around outside preventing the stuff you want from getting in…..
The true power behind meditation is that it allows you to recognize who the unwanted guests in your house are so that you can set about evicting them. And this in turn enables the stuff you want in your life, to come in, more or less unhindered.
What Is The True Power Behind Meditation?
Most people do not have control over their minds….. Their minds are controlling them and yet they wonder why their lives are not as they wish them to be! An untrained mind is a slave to the internal contents of your mind, most of which you did not consciously choose, and to the influences of the people, events, and circumstances happening in your environment. Meditation is a powerful tool that trains your attention so that you can rid your mind of the unwanted thoughts and reactions you have to your environment that don’t align with your goals and dreams for a better life.
What Happens When You Are Not The Master Of Your Mind?
Your mind is your most valuable asset…. But how many people know how to use it effectively to their advantage?
What happens in your mind is responsible for how you feel. It is your thoughts that are making you anxious, depressed, happy, sad, loving, fearful, successful, energetic, lazy, or miserable. The quality of your thoughts are determining the quality of your life…. Therefore, don’t you think that it would be a great idea to ‘get your mind in order?’
When you, the owner of your mind, is not in control of your thoughts, or are too weak to direct it towards the things you want, your mind will naturally revert to its default settings. And for most people, this is a disaster….
…. it’s a disaster to let your mind wander freely about, with no particular goals in mind, because most people have a negatively biased default setting!
And this means that all the negative programming you picked up during your formative years, from watching the negative crap on mainstream media, and from looking at all the bad stuff in your environment, etc. is going to recycle itself over and over again in your mind and make you feel ‘less than great!’
Sustained laziness to regulate the quality of your thoughts can even lead to severe depression, anxiety, and other personality disorders. This is proven in brain imaging scans which show people with these conditions also have a weak or inactive ‘prefrontal cortex’ (the part of the brain which controls attention.) Reference: Prefrontal Cortex and Depression
Therefore, there is a direct correlation between the ability to pay attention and our overall well-being.
Regular Meditation Will Positively Transform Your Life
While the usual benefits of meditation, which include stress reduction, a greater sense of overall well-being, lower blood pressure, muscle relaxation, etc. are good enough reasons for practicing meditation, the main benefits are much greater in that meditation helps you to master your mind…. and this benefits all spheres of your life.
Long-term meditators are better able to optimize how the brain uses resources to benefit the practitioner. More of their attention can be focused on being a creative force to better their lives, rather than just being dragged along by their old patterns of conditioning brought about by their negative default thought patterns. Meditators become more purposeful about their actions with the intent of achieving their goals. In effect, they learn to respond consciously to their environment, instead of mindlessly reacting to it.
This happens naturally as meditation works on both the mind and emotions…. Your mind is the active component that creates the conditions in your life, and your emotions are an indicator of how closely your goals and desires are being manifested in the way you want them to be.
If you have a baseline emotional state where you are happy and content most of the time, then it’s likely that life is typically working out for you as you want.
However, if you are sad, lonely, depressed, angry, etc. a lot of the time, then your mind is not being used effectively to bring about the results you desire. Therefore, the gap between how things are and how you want them to be is relatively large, and this leads to you being discontented with your life.
…. meditation is a powerful tool that you can use to bring attention to unwanted guests (thoughts) in your house. And once aware of them, you can ‘clean house’ and begin manufacturing your life to become the way you want it to be.
Final Thoughts
Meditation is a powerful tool that has been used for centuries to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
While meditation is typically seen as a way to connect with the divine, achieve enlightenment, and find inner peace, it is also a way to train the mind and gain control over thoughts and emotions.
And the benefit of this is that you will become more mindful and present which allows you to fully experience each moment without judgment or distraction. This can lead to a greater sense of joy and fulfillment in life.
Meditation also helps individuals cultivate a deeper sense of compassion and empathy for others. And as individuals become more self-aware and learn to manage their own emotions, they can better understand and connect with the emotions of others which leads to more meaningful relationships and a greater sense of interconnectedness with the world around them.
In addition to transforming individuals, the long-term benefit of meditation is that it has the power to transform society as a whole. As more individuals practice meditation and cultivate inner peace, compassion, and empathy, these qualities will spread to others, which creates a ripple effect of positive change in the world.
