Now in the last lecture we looked at what meditation is but this is a great time to clear up some of the myths that surround meditation,
Trust me there's a lot.
So let's start.
Meditation is not therapy.
Now we'll go into later just how many amazing benefits there are to meditation that are scientifically backed.
However there are limitations to meditation so if you're someone who finds that meditation is not making them feel better and they have any thoughts that are harmful to them or to others then always seek medical help.
That I can't stress enough.
This is not something that will just fix all your problems.
It has amazing capacity to do a lot of good things but it is not a replacement for therapy.
So that is a disclaimer and always look after yourself like with anything always look after yourself and seek medical help if you need.
Alright with that in mind another misconception about meditation is that it's a magic pill.
That if we do it once we'll just get all these benefits we're going to talk about later straight away and that's just simply not the case.
If you went to the gym and said to the trainer after one session this was great I enjoyed the session however I don't feel like I have a six-pack yet.
It would be crazy right?
It would be an absurd thing to think that after one session you could reap all the results of what a lifetime of training has done for someone else and that's the same with meditation.
We need to put the time in we need to hone the skill the practice to get better at it and to feel the results.
The more we do the more we get better the more we get the results and more we get the benefits that come with those results.
So if you're someone who just wants a quick fix after one off then although you may get some benefits the first time you meditate the real good stuff comes after a long bit of practice and that's why it's called a meditation practice so don't expect all these incredible results after just one session.
So let's get that myth out the way straight away.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it's not a trip to Nirvana and by that I mean meditation has a lot of a lot of misconceptions about how it's supposed to make you feel.
For some people it elicits these ideas of being away in some sort of heaven on earth and don't get me wrong there's times you meditate that you may feel these glorious feelings and emotions these very positive effects and emotions going on in your body however that is not the case every time.
Sometimes it might be very frustrating sometimes it might be downright boring.
The important thing to note is that it fluctuates just like everything else fluctuates in your life.
The important thing is we show up and we pay attention to the present moment by engrossing ourselves in whatever's going on at the time.
So keep in mind it's not always going to be this pleasurable experience and sometimes it may even bring up some feelings of negative emotions and what we have to do is not run towards or away either one of those things.
Not run towards the pleasurable and not run away from the unpleasurable.
We'll go more into this as we hit the past no meditations and we look at the work of someone like Buddha but for now it's enough that we just know that there is an arrangement of feelings that you may feel when you first meditate or whenever you meditate for that matter.
So keep in mind that you may not be doing it wrong just because you don't feel these positive things every time.
Another misconception is that it's clearing the mind.
The father of mindfulness who we'll talk about in the mindfulness lecture says it so himself.
It's not about clearing the mind as much it is about showing us what is on our mind.
So often we can get very frustrated when we go to a yoga or meditation class and we're expected to clear the mind which is just impossible for us to do.
We simply can't stop ourselves thinking.
Our mind's function is to think just like the lungs function is to breathe.
We can't stop those things however we can change how we do them and that's a beautiful thing.
Just like we can breathe slower or faster we can also think in different ways or about things in a different way.
We can't stop the thinking but we can change maybe how we react to that thinking.
So that's an important thing to keep in mind.
If you're meditating don't feel like you have to clear the mind just be aware of what comes into your mind.
That's going to help you get away from a lot of frustration.
Remember one of the key concepts of the definition of meditation we're working towards is non analytical or non judgmental thinking about things.
So if we're judging the very meditation we're doing then we've kind of failed the first hurdle.
So we're welcome to have the mind wander or do things that we don't necessarily want but as soon as we start saying this is good or bad we're kind of losing the battle somewhat.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there's one best type.
So often people say what is the best type of meditation and the answer is whatever's getting you to meditate.
In showbiz there's a famous saying what is your favorite job and whatever's getting me the next one and that's exactly what it's like with meditation.
The best type of meditation is the one that's getting you to do the action.
So in this course my plan really is to show you so many different types that you can find one that works for you.
Keep in mind that may be different from day to day.
As you said before your type of meditation may fluctuate your mood may fluctuate so having a arsenal of different weapons of meditation will be very useful for you to have so that on different days when you feel like you need different things you can draw on different meditations and find one that works for you and one that can make an impact on your life but also one that you can do on a daily basis.
So that's what would give you such an arrangement.
So there's not one best type that's better than all the others.
Certainly the scientific literature is too small to say one is better than the others right now so I would say it's important that you just get meditating.
So find the one that works for you get into it and do it and start getting those benefits but not straight away like we said it's gonna take a little bit of time.
So those are some of the myths that surround meditation hopefully that clears up what you think about meditation and what it is and what it is not and you're ready to move on to how you start and how to make it a habit and that's all coming up in the next few videos so enjoy!
