Simply Stay in the Present Moment
It is common to feel different emotions during your meditation. You laugh, you cry, sometimes you feel sad and elated at other time. While a beginner meditator can’t plug his emotions right away, it’s absolutely critical not to examine your emotions or try to find their cause (you can do that after your meditation if you like but not during the session). When you find yourself digressing from your meditation, gently draw your attention to the present moment. You could listen to your breath.
The greater effort you put in following the instructions above, the more you’ll gain from meditation. If you sit down to meditate and start to analyse or pursue your thoughts, you will not progress in gaining mental stability and calmness. The four primary hurdles of meditation continue to bother such a meditator. While meditating, don’r brood over, don’t resent and don’t repent your past. Don’t examine what’s going on in your present life. Don’t imagine any future. Don’t analyse any thought. when a thought comes, don’t run after it. It’ll disappear. It’ll wither away on its own. Don’t crave for any specific experience or else you’ll end up mentally constructing that experience, thereby jeopardising your meditation. Don’t let your mind wander. Simply maintain your awareness with alertness. Just be here now, in the present moment and you’ll see the beauty of meditation soon enough.
Reference : Om Swami. A Million Thoughts.
I learned about staying in the moment through a musical.
Rent has the message of living in the moment and in love.
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Yes music is a great way to stay in the moment. Just don’t attach any emotions to the music or get carried away if there are lyrics.
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I think that depends on the genre.
I love musical theatre- so technically I have to get attached to the emotions, lyrics, and melody.
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Ah makes sense. Thank you for sharing.
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An insightful post. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you. When you become aware that you’re mind is wandering, you take note and come back to the present. The more your mind wanders, the practice you actually get off bringing your mind to the present. It is perfectly normal for your mind to wander during meditation. Some days I fight it and fight it and my mind still wanders.
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Thank you. This really helps.
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Glad to heat that. Take Care.
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For sure I have never practised meditation…hope to do it one day.
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Do try and see if you feel any different.
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I will make some effort
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Glad to hear that 🙂
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In what I’ve read from mystics, this is what they advise for life. Be present in the moment. Maybe we think of mystics dwelling in an ether of possibilities, and maybe they are. But there’s seems to be a great emphasis from them, maybe the greatest, on understanding and living in the now.
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Yes I agree with you. Living in the present moment is so important because there is no point in worrying about the past and also being anxious about the future. The only thing you are able to take control is the moment that you have with you right now. It gives the answer for your future and justifies your learnings from your past.
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