Why I Meditate
August 27, 2012 | No Comments » | Topics: Life
We live in a world where we are afraid of silence. The mind is constantly, compulsively churning, and when we encounter moments of silence we call them “awkward”; we want to fill the silence with something, anything. And the world around us is happy to oblige – we are constantly bombarded with stimuli in the form of radio, tv, video games, shopping malls, phones, computers, the Internet…
Our mind always wants more, and always needs to be doing something. As such, when you identify with your mind and your thoughts, you are constantly restless – you are uncomfortable in silence and you are bored when things aren’t happening.
The result? Stress, anxiety, unease, discontentment. The solution? Become aware of your compulsive mind, and take a few minutes every day to seek out and enjoy silence. Sit down and focus on your breath – breathe in and breathe out, and when you become aware that your mind has wandered, simply return to your breath. This is a simple exercise that will start you down a path of seeing that you are not your mind, and you are not your thoughts. They are tools that you use, not the other way around.
