People who are newcomers to meditation often come to me expressing the same basic sentiment:
“Becky, I think there’s something wrong with me. I cannot sit still for more than 30 seconds! I just don’t think I will ever be a meditator. It’s not the way I’m wired.”
Don’t worry–I can relate, and so can my partner Nesha. We both had to do a 7-day Silent Retreat as part of our 2-year Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher Certification, and we both found it very challenging.
Nesha shared how after a few days, she had talked herself into the conclusion that she was “just a doer, not a sitter.”
As she met with the Retreat Facilitator at the end of the week for a personal interview, she shared this theory and was met with a blank stare.
“That’s not actually a thing, you understand.”
Nesha started explaining how busy she had always kept herself in her daily life, how she ran a business and juggled tasks and how this is just the way she was wired. But she was still left without validation or excuse.
The cold hard fact is this: nobody’s brain is wired for meditation.
In fact, our modern world is constantly conditioning us to stay in the lowest levels of our brain function: our Default Network and Dorsal Attention Network where we’re primarily focused on the tasks of survival, maintaining stability, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
It takes practice and consistency to be able to access the higher levels of brain function found in our Present-Centered Network, where Gamma brain waves give us access to insight, creativity, strokes of genius…even a Divine intelligence beyond our own.
Just like a novice runner lacks the endurance and muscle tone required for long distances, so does a novice meditator lack the neural pathways that allow for a transcendent meditative experience.
The only way to get there is to practice: to strengthen those muscles through consistency and repetition, even when you don’t feel like it.
Those of us engaged in the Lifehouse Body & Soul Course in Mindful Living show up each week looking for peace, clarity, insight, purpose…a solution to our problems and a sense of progress in our lives.
Strengthening our Presence Muscle, the neural pathways that connect us back to our Present-Centered Network, is absolutely essential to our ability to realize the results we’re looking for.
That’s why we’re inviting you all to our Daily Sit Challenge!
Starting today, we’re asking you to track the number of consecutive days you practice a Daily Sit: anywhere from 2-5 minutes of formal meditation practice.
You can use this time to practice the anchors of presence (breath, sense perceptions, inner body awareness). You can use it to practice observing and naming the thoughts and emotions that arise. You can repeat a mantra or gaze at the flame of a candle.
We’ll track our days until we are left with a winner or small group of winners who will receive a prize and be featured on our social media and email, to share the insights they’ve gained from the experience.
Keep checking in on our social media to track your progress and stay in the running!
https://www.instagram.com/lifehousefit/
We hope you’ll join us for our Daily Sit Challenge!
