Why Is Meditation So Important?

The term “meditation” has been used quite frequently in recent years, however, I am not sure that the population, as a whole, truly understands what meditation is, and the benefits that you can receive by engaging in this practice.  My life has been dramatically changed by the persistent and consistent practice of meditation; it has also taken my metaphysical practice to new levels and boosted my spiritual gifts.  Of course, meditation is not necessarily about the individual engaging in this practice, but can be of benefit for many other people and situations.  Let’s first begin with some of the ways that meditation is defined.

“Living in a state of full, conscious awareness of one’s whole self, other people, and the context in which we live and work.”

“Paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment.”

“Mindfulness means being awake, aware, and attending—to ourselves and the world around us.”

“Meditation is a mental exercise that trains attention and awareness.”

“Meditation is a practice of concentrated focus upon a sound, object, visualization, the breath, movement, or attention itself in order to increase awareness of the present moment, reduce stress, promote relaxation, and enhance personal and spiritual growth.”

Meditation can clearly be defined and explained in a number of ways, however, I would simplify this down to “the act of stilling and focusing the conscious mind, in order to listen to or communicate with the spiritual world.”  I personally use meditation for some or all of the following reasons:

To listen to messages from my spirit guides or the universe.

To send out intentions to my spirit guides or the universe.

Bring my thoughts down to near-zero to create a space to experience peace.

Purposefully look in on another location – similar to remote viewing.

Simply allow my spirit guides to engage me however they see fit.

Currently, I can meditate and connect quickly and clearly, but I was not always good at this practice; even now, however, I have days where the connection is quite difficult and hard to achieve.  One of the really neat things that I have recently noticed, is that I can literally bring my mind down to very few thoughts, which for many years seemed like an elusive objective.  I think those that start meditation and don’t necessarily see results quickly, soon give up; however, if you stick with it, this practice can completely transform your life.  The more you work with your connection and receive validation, the more centralized and specific it will become.  This is like weightlifting for your consciousness — you must continue to train so you can develop the connection muscle! 

Also remember that not everyone is designed to sit on a mountain top, cross-legged, and smoke a pipe when conducting meditation; there are a very large number of methods to approach reaching the mindfulness of meditation.  Some people are very content and effective at sitting still for meditation, while others have such an active mind that this technique would be virtually impossible.  Most of my clients have minds that operate at a continuous high pace, without the ability to slow it down; in this instance, it is better to consider a kinesthetic or moving meditation or a guided meditation.  Dr. Joe Dispenza is quite the master of meditation and backs all of his work with hard science.  One of my favorite meditation tracks designed by him is his walking meditations which can be found here.  He also has a large number of great resources for meditation on his website.

To be honest, if you ask 100 people how to meditate, you get at least 100 different answers.  I decided to learn meditation by myself and just experimented with a couple of different methods.  The main and easiest way for me to connect was by using a 20-minute piece of music, that was not any know tune that my mind would capture and follow.  I utilized headphones while sitting still with my eyes closed while listening to this soundtrack and attempted to focus my mind on the task at hand.  I struggled for at least a month to reach any semblance of centralizing my thoughts enough to hear or send intentions to the spirit world, however, I finally was able to reach that place within 20 minutes.  As I continued to practice, I began to reach this wonderful space in less and less time, so that my 20 minutes was better connected.  Eventually, all it took was for me to simply start the soundtrack and I had a solid 20 minutes of communicating with the spirit world.  As you might imagine, my meditation muscles had developed well over the months, and now I can meditate without any sound.  I have also found that I have an enormously wonderful experience with mindfulness and communication with the spirit world when I am exercising or pushing my body in some way.  I often go on long walks and come home loaded with new experiences that I had along my walking journey. 

Sometimes classical meditation will not work well for someone, and it may have to be simple and intermittent connections throughout the day when prompted by something that seems to be happening from outside of ourselves.  Whatever method you find yourself connecting purely to the spiritual world, you will certainly find great rewards and personal growth from your attention to the communication from the universe or the spiritual world.  I have had so many wonderful experiences, that it would be impossible to capture all of them in a short article.  I wish I had started my meditation journey long ago, however, it is never too late to start, and you will find yourself in a much better place for routinely practicing meditation.