Meditation 101

When I ask just about every new client about their existing meditation practice, I always get something along the lines of:

“Meditation doesn’t work for me”

“I’m not good at meditating”

“My mind doesn’t slow down”

To which I reply: that’s what everybody says.

First of all, when I say “meditation is a practice”, I mean it— it takes practice.

Just like working out your physical body at the gym, you don’t go one time and expect to leave with raging biceps and a juicy dumptruck. No.

You understand the assignment is to keep going consistently and with time and commitment you will watch your physical body transform into a stronger one.

Same thing with meditation. You aren’t going to sit down once for 15 minutes and have a life changing, out of body, ego-less experience.

You’re going to sit there and notice how chaotic your mind really is, and that can be really overwhelming, which is why most people give up and think meditation doesn’t work for them.

It's important to note that we think anywhere from 60-70,000 thoughts a day— most of which are totally unconscious, meaning we aren’t even aware that we’re thinking them.

So, if we're thinking 60-70,000 (mostly unconscious) thoughts a day, and you understand that your thoughts create your reality, you are going through every day creating your reality unconsciously with unacknowledged harmful mental programs, limiting beliefs, and uncomfortable thought forms.

Meditation helps to bring awareness to these unconscious programs, thoughts and beliefs and provides the opportunity to introduce new thoughts, new beliefs and new ways of being into your life experience.

But how?

I think it’s a pretty huge misconception that the sole purpose of meditation is to “silence the mind”.

Eventually, yes, that is a goal that can be reached, and having a quiet mind is a gift in and of itself, but there is so much more that can be accomplished.

What meditation is really meant to do is to help separate that seemingly never-ending chatter of the conscious waking mind from the awareness of the chatter itself, so that you can be in control of the mind.

The act of closing your eyes, stilling the body and moving your focus from external stimuli to the inner world in meditation slows the brainwaves down from irregular beta waves (conscious mind/waking brainwave state) into an alpha or theta wave state.

In this alpha/theta state, we leave the conscious mind behind and enter into the subconscious where your true self is accessed.

We want to get to the point where we can easily utilize the deeper mind as a tool to assist you in connecting and merging with your higher consciousness, creating your desired reality, and retrieving useful information stored in your subconscious mind.

Your job in meditation is to be the observer, the watcher of the mind, the witness.

Let the mind do its thing, don’t fight with it, and understand that you are NOT those thoughts. They're there and you're watching them, but you aren't the thoughts themselves.

They are a program. You are the gentle presence behind the thoughts, and you can watch them pass without being attached to them.

To become awareness itself, you can bring your focus back to the physical sensations in your body, the rhythm of your breath, a mantra, what you can hear in the space around you, the music you're listening to etc.

By doing this over and over and over again, and maybe you do it 100 times in your first few sessions, you are stepping into presence.

When you are present, you are aware.

You’re not thinking, there’s no talking in the head, you just are.

This might last for a fraction of a second before the next thought barges in at first, but you now have a taste of what’s to come.

You enter presence, a thought arises, you observe it, let it go, and return to presence. This is the general protocol for successful meditation.

The more you practice, the more you become presently aware, those spaces of awareness grow bigger and wider.

The brainwaves are slowing down.

The conscious mind begins to shut down—it’s no longer running the show.

You have gained back control.

Once the conscious mind slows down and eventually turns off, the subconscious mind turns on, just like when you're dreaming at night, but this time you're "awake".

You haven't drifted fully into a delta brainwave state, you are hovering right on the cusp of wakefulness, and it's here where the mystical occurs.

You’ve passed a very important threshold of consciousness.

The never-ending stream of thoughts has slowed with the brainwaves, and in the silence of the deep inner mind, your true self emerges.

No longer tainted by the chatter of the egoic conscious mind, you have access to more of who you really are.

Answers and direction seem to spring forth out of no where, as you're not actively "thinking".

Images flash through the mind of moments in the past that need attention and healing, movies begin to play of your ideal future, you receive downloads of ideas and information that illuminate your path forward in life. You see yourself and your life from a higher perspective, where you're able to detach from the suffering and effortlessly stumble into solutions.

The subconscious is finally able to speak without the loud static of the conscious mind drowning it out.

You’ve tapped into something powerful, elusive, yet always there.

This is why you start a meditation practice. This is why you COMMIT to a meditation practice.

It’s not always going to be easy, you’re not always going to want to do it, your body will fight with you, your ego will say you don’t have time and it doesn’t work anyway.

Yet every single time you make yourself take the time, you coerce your body to sit still and you become the observer of your mind and you continue to infuse awareness into the entire process, you are accomplishing something fantastic.

When you get to that first meditation experience where you transcend your personality and your personal reality and enter into a higher state of consciousness, you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s indescribable and invaluable.

I’ve been meditating regularly for about 4 years now, and where I can go and what I can do in my mind now blows me away.

Out of body travel, experiencing alternate timelines of reality, entering different dimensions of consciousness, visiting past lifetimes, receiving guidance and information from non-physical beings and so much more.

I’ve had to work at it, but I’ve unlocked a powerful part of myself that I can access anytime I want or need. If I am ever feeling stuck, all I have to do it meditate and I get everything I need.

I can say firmly and confidently that the best thing I've ever done for myself was form a meditation practice.

I know it’s intimidating to start. And I know your conscious mind is going to come up with a hundred reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t start.

Your first task is to become aware of this conscious mind trying to sabotage your growth— it hates change and it hates the unknown, so become aware of it.

Your second task is to start small, 5-7 minutes a day. It's best to do it first thing in the morning or right before bed as you are already in an altered brainwave state.

I always recommend a playlist on YouTube called “mettaverse light forms”— short and beautiful music tracks to listen to with headphones. Any "hemi-sync" or binaural beats music will be great, though.

Do your best not to judge your mind or to analyze the experience while you’re in it. Plenty of time for that after. Keep watching the thoughts roll through the mind, keep returning to presence, and know you’ve just begun a journey that will transform every facet of your life.

Start there and if and when you need some more direction, I’m here to guide you in this inner journey. However I can support you in becoming a more evolved version of yourself I will.

I've watched dozens of "I-can't-meditate-ers" transform into religious explorers of consciousness. I've watched them create new beautiful realities and new states of being. I've watched them ween off antidepressants and overcome anxiety. I've watched them sit down for 30 minutes of meditation and crave 30 more. I've watched them step into power they never knew they had. All from forming a meditation practice.

All of the keys are within, know that.

For additional support or questions that need answers, email me at kaitlyn@soul-magic.com.