Meditation is something that everyone experienced differently. When you first get into meditation, most people have a few preconceived notions about what it is, what it means, and how it should be done. These are ideas we’ve mostly picked up from TV, books, and movies that feature characters who meditate but, let’s face it, you can’t exactly trust screenwriters to define the world or we’d all be living a wild combination of action scenes and meet-cutes 100% of the time.
If you haven’t spent much time meditating yet, it’s probably not what you think it is. Meditation isn’t the immediate key to enlightenment and it won’t automatically fix all the problems in your life. What it can do is empower you to achieve your goals and solve your problems by focusing the mind and taking away the stress that slows you down.
There Is No ‘One Way’ To Meditate
When you see people meditating on TV, there’s usually some special pose, special breathing, and they may seem to have very strict rules about how and when to meditate. While it’s true that meditation is an important part of several organized religions, faiths, and philosophies, there’s no one way to meditate and it’s pretty hard to ‘do it wrong’. One of the best parts about meditation is that anyone can do it and it can be used to accomplish a nearly infinite number of goals.
You don’t need equipment, furniture, money, or a teacher to learn to meditate and you don’t need to join any particular religion or culture. If you choose to look into a few traditional meditation practices, these can help you and enhance your experience, but no particular technique or structure is required. Anyone can meditate and any time simply by sitting down and clearing the mind.
What Should You Think When Meditating?
There are many schools of thought on what the mind should be doing when you meditate. While everyone can agree that sitting quietly is the first step, what do you do afterward? Count your breaths? Count imaginary sheep? Is it more like falling asleep or focused thought?The answer is that it can be any of these things for you depending on what you’re meditating on. If you’re trying to solve a problem, start by clearing your mind of everything but what you want to be thinking about.
If you’re looking for answers or help making a decision, focus on the circumstances at hand and examine the situation from a calm, objective point of view to see if new solutions present themselves.Of course, if you’re just trying to relieve stress, you may simply want to clear your mind, relax, and let your thoughts go where they will.
Is It Okay If Your Thoughts Wander?
If done without focus, meditation can absolutely put you into that pre-sleep state where your mind is active and thinking but the thoughts are undirected and seemingly random. If you close your eyes and try to meditate and this is what happens to your thoughts, that’s okay.
What this really means is that you have a tangle of unresolved thoughts seething just under the surface of your conscious actions and meditation is the perfect way to sort yourself out. Let your thoughts wander but stay aware of what you’re thinking. Remember the thought path and follow trails that feel right or unsettled to start unraveling the knot of feelings and worries.
The bottom line is that there are a lot of different ways to meditate and to use meditation to your benefit. While you can definitely focus your mind to a knife’s edge and cut through problems and solutions with meditation, it’s also completely alright if your thoughts tend to wander instead. Either guide them back to your goals or use that wandering to explore your inner self and settle issues that have been wanting to rise to the surface. After a few weeks of sorting your thoughts, you may find yourself calmer, more collected, and able to focus more clearly because you and the meditation have cleared away the mental clutter of unsettled worries.