First, I want to thank you my brother Kuan Yuen, for being the first person to teach me about meditation.
It was 15 years ago, when we made a family trip and check-in to a hotel. He talked about how this practice calm his mind and take off his pressure from his studies. I was of course interested as I faced study pressure as well.
“Sit in a lotus posture and put your hands on top of your lap/ else you can try the ‘Dhayana’ gestures. Listen to my instruction to do this breathing exercise. In…Out…” and so after 10 minutes, I saw him fell asleep which I was then puzzled, isn’t it supposed to be deep breathing and relaxation only? (which I later found out a surprising fact of sleeping during meditation)
After years of practicing and attending workshops learning from masters around the world (thanks to the internet and my ex-company), I realize there is never right or wrong way in meditation, and one thing hold true: How aware are you of your breathing in the present.
I strongly suggest anyone who think meditation is boring/ hard to practice to consider again by visiting Youtube (which is really a great source of guided meditation, meditation music etc.) and directly try out the different types of meditation.
But one factor I consider very important is that, you are free from anyone/ any distractions during your meditation. That’s why before/ after bed meditation is consider most effective for beginner as you having the tiniest distraction around your bed, as you know it is time for you to sleep/ rise at a point of your day (of course no electronic devices unless it was there to switch on your guided meditation session/ music).
Why is it a powerful tool to be present (and for life)?
(1) Self-fulfill first mindset
Interestingly, the more I meditate, the more I am guided and aware of my breath, the more I can make a balanced mind-heart decision. The reason behind is, when my mind and my heart no longer driven by what my work wants out of me, what my family wants out of me, what my network wants out of me etc., everything in my life starts to make sense.
It all started with increased self-awareness, and once I started self-aware, it was a point of no return. It feels weird at first, to stop giving myself too much in my work, my family, my connections, my socials etc. and I was once confused about being selfish in having time to self-care.
Still, I went ahead with my self-care mindset and chose not to focus on selfish. Over time, the energy of me taking care of myself rewarded me so much with a heighten vibration and a renewed energy to get in tune with my inner strength and inner resources.
It was then I realized, there are so much more about life aside all the material achievement that make one feels achieved, satisfied, and ‘self-actualize’. It is a life full of creation instead of just consumption. What I choose to create with what I consume is more important than what I choose to consume. It is then I start to be sure of, this, is my life, not others.
Once I feel more of who I am, I started to express myself more freely and have lesser stress as there is no expectation gap for myself. I am not saying that I free myself of all roles in life, but I started to understand what prioritization meant to me besides what my family, my work and my social life wants out of me.
One bonus I get is that, I no longer explain to others what my criteria of ‘ideal life’, ‘ideal partner’, ;ideal job’, ‘ideal image’ or anything of ‘my ideal’. I just live it to the fullest and it is such an empowering moment to not explain everything to everyone. The journey of self-fulfilling is definitely the greatest benefit I crafted out of my meditation practice.
(2) Allowing the ‘gut feeling’ to guide, activating the ‘YIN’ energy
The more you are aware and ‘in sync’ with your breath, you are allowing the signals from the ‘gut’ to appear to you. Here comes the fun part where I experimented myself when making decisions: to follow my ‘gut feeling’ or my ‘logical mind’ and often 99% of the time, my gut feeling always leads me to expected results where the logical mind often leads me to conclude, “I wish I could choose again…”
Well things happen.
It is also when I train myself in identifying my gut feeling and practice making decisions with my gut, it opens up my psychic abilities, i.e. energy reading (in many forms known as clairsentient, clairaudience, clairvoyance etc.). This is one powerful skill I am able to unlock with meditation and then, I found myself able to read tarot and oracle cards to decode energies. I start to predict for friends and family back then where energies will manifest and how to make adjustment to navigate the path of least resistance.
Things also went beyond reading the cards. It was one of my ex-colleague where she directly asked what is ‘tarot reading’ and I explained it in a way where energy vibrates, the card will be attracted to reveal messages to a reader. She then asked me if I can read what is in her mind about her career. I glanced at what she wore and immediately said, you feel repetitive and not flexible in your role, she was like, WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT JUST HAPPENED? I took that as a ‘stop’ signal, as it is unethical to read people energy without their consent. That experience was also one of the reason that I decided to study tarot.
It is the mastery of ‘being present’ with myself that allows me a clarity of mind to read energies. However, as a reader to read my own energy, I sometimes will struggle as I still need to battle against my wounds and trauma that blocks me to be present. Often, my ego is too busy to protect me from being facing my pain, hence I will need to find someone else to do my readings. Surprise? That’s why a reader still sometimes, need someone else to help them to understand where they are going, and hence why the spiritual community will come together and work with each other.
(3) Being an observer and hold no judgement
What meditation also does is that, it helps to hold a space within oneself to expand. I was once pressured to a point that, I no longer identify myself with the reality I live. It was frustrating as everyone else around seems like they are knowing what they do, as they keep questioning me of what I do does not make sense and will not bring me where I vision myself at, and only if I follow their footstep, I can make things happen. I barely can imagine how I breathe through those conversations; they were suffocating, I was too tired to wear a mask.
It was then I find a radical need of going into solitude, to have a conversation with myself, be it my happiness of my sadness, I treated them equally. From pushing away bad emotions and welcoming only the good ones, I found a sense of liberation when I start to be an observer. I watched how my emotion talked, and I just keep breathing. Now, instead of letting myself overwhelmed by my sadness and feel guilty to cry, I tell my emotion that I am human and it is okay to cry and release; instead of letting myself to not feel proud about my achievement and not putting a wide smile/ laugh just the way I feel laughing, I tell my emotion it is okay to laugh and be happy.
It is also empowering when I no longer judge myself, I no longer hold judgement on others. This is how I learn to free my energy and see life for what it is. Magical? Indeed, a transformative moment.
Alright – above are what I benefitted from practicing meditation. Would you try to meditate or why not?