Relaxing Into Clarity—
by Donna Quesada: In the context of normal activities, we are usually in a goal-oriented state of mind. We run through our daily tasks and check items off our to-do list. We’re often hurried and rushed. We are doing. This often results in stress because there’s not enough time to complete everything and sometimes complications arise… You take your car to the shop and it’s more expensive and complicated than you expected, or you go to pick someone up from the airport and find yourself running late because of traffic.
When this rhythm becomes our daily norm, we set up the conditions for pent-up stress. And when stress hijacks our body, it makes it difficult for anything to function properly. Everything gets constricted with the tension that stress creates.
From the point of view of eastern teachings, our energy can’t flow in a constricted environment. Think of a water pipe… when constricted, nothing can flow through it.
But when you start meditating, you are putting yourself in a situation in which you are inviting your body and mind to settle. You are encouraging deep, attentive breathing, which enables and reinforces the process of relaxation throughout your entire body. Now the energy starts flowing. The jumbled up cacophony of thoughts that normally dominates our mind, gives way to a pleasing spaciousness. Our emotions settle as our thoughts quiet down.
Like clouds opening up just enough to let the sun through, little apertures begin to appear between thoughts, and you’re able to see into those “gaps.” You begin to see into your truth.
Clarity starts to take the place of confusion.
Releasing Resistance—
If there’s one thing I’ve taken note of, through my years of studying all the various eastern wisdom teachings, it’s that at the core of all of our suffering, is one thing: internal resistance. I could go as far as to say that all of our emotional distress is from resistance!
Said differently, until we fully accept whatever the here and now brings, we will suffer.
When we sit to meditate… Or, in other words, when we sit just to sit, with all of our awareness brought to the act of simply sitting, the hidden bits of internal resistance reveal themselves.
When this happens, you have come face to face with your truth.
And once it’s been found out, the game is over… the resistance transmutes itself into something else. It’s gone. Like magic.
Meditation Is a Unique Task—
Of notable importance, this is the only activity in which the only job you’re sitting down to do is to become aware! As mentioned above, our other daily tasks require busywork, e.g., we do the dishes, wash the car, fill out forms, buythe groceries, etc.
But when we sit on our meditation cushion, our only task is to be. To be here. To hold ourselves in a state of presence.
As you get still, you become more aware. And under the full weight of your unbroken & attentive gaze, it becomes more difficult to camouflage what is really troubling you, or what you’ve been lying to yourself about. The resistance has been revealed.
Meditation Brings Empowerment—
You are waking up. As you wake up, you become empowered to take charge and make necessary changes in your life. The resistance was just the messenger and now that it has done its job, you will know what to do, if anything.
How is it that you suddenly feel so empowered? Because connecting with your truth… connecting with your true selfis connecting with the very power of the divine! The kingdom of God is within you, and all around you.
That divine power is infinite and it is carrying you and supporting you in your mission. So you don’t need to put up with things out of fear anymore. You suddenly know you have strength within yourself! You know it in your bones. And where there is God, there’s no room for doubt.
