In life there are those who want to measure and study something from a distance and then there are those - bless their souls - who want to get face first in and experience it. Taste it!
Take chocolate - or a fine whisky - or a sunny day - or anything you love ... you can analyse the heck out of it OR you can get down and immerse yourself in it.
Just think about it OR fully experience it it? What would YOU prefer?
I know what I prefer.
Every now and then I go onto various meditation and mindfulness forums and see what’s happening, see what’s being talked about, see if I can learn something, see if I can lend a hand or some advice to someone.
Every single time I’ve quit within ten minutes. 5 minutes actually. Perhaps I should persevere but some of the denizens of the internet just bore me super quick.
There is a bunch of people trying to make meditation and mindfulness so complicated, using foreign languages and jazzy terms and arguing about this state of being and that state of being … doing anything it seems EXCEPT for actually experiencing what they are talking about.
Because when you actually experience it you have little concern to argue about it. You kinda just shrug your shoulders and walk away and go and hang out with people who taste it - because they are so much more fun.
Simplicity is the height of gloriousness. Simplicity is good, simplicity is true, simplicity is what you deserve. Complication, on the other hand, kills all enthusiasm, and I believe, denotes wanting to measure something rather than actually face first experience it.
Being stress free is your natural state of being. Meditation, believe it or not, is your natural state of being. Mindfulness and awareness, is your natural state of being. Being content and calm and clear with a half-step back is your natural state of being.
Kids do it - you’ve forgotten it. That is all. Don’t complicate this, please don’t … there’s absolutely no need. It’s the simplest thing in the world. And experience it! Experience now. This is it. You cannot think about it, you can only do it. Freedom from all suffering lies within you, right here, right now.
If you have a “formal” meditation practice great. If you Ascend, great. If you do “the pause” and regularly just stop as you listen to music (or silence) or drink tea or read or breathe or exercise or knit then wonderful.
Whatever you do, switch off regularly, get to know the comfort and the calm that comes with your own presence and you are golden.
Keep it simple, and just do it, ok?
Go well! Arjuna
PS. Of course, I think of an eyes closed meditation practice as an incredible boost to your sanity. If you want to be the sanest person alive, a simple meditation practice will furnish you with that quickity quick. Here’s a few things I wrote for you, and it's free: