Why do I meditate? Because, It’s Worth It.
Authored by: Isaiah Minick
“Keep working on yourself. Keep meditating. Keep reflecting and asking questions. I just had a great Monday back at school. I was alert, caring, focused, and full of patience. I was proud of who I was today and how I treated others. I know everyday isn’t gonna be like this, but wow, it’s worth it to keep it up. Creating a more harmonious life is the most important thing I’ve learned. I want to keep learning to live like this and help others feel this. It’s worth it and so freeing. In the last 3 days I had 2 things happen on my phone that in the past I would have been negatively affected by in the emotional sense all day, but this time I was affected but it passed so quickly and I didn’t carry it with me all day. That’s so cool. ” – Jan 18, 2022
This is a journal entry I wrote several years ago when I had just started meditating. I was a highschool teacher and I was feeling stressed daily, catching myself being annoying towards my students, disconnected from friends, and having to spend my weekends catching up on work because I couldn’t focus during the day. I thought to give this meditation thing a try. Even though I wasn’t having amazing, blissful ‘thought free’ meditations, I was still able to experience the benefits of slowing down and becoming a witness to my life. I continued practicing meditation almost daily for the next 2 and a half years.
Over those years of meditating I was shown a world that I didn’t know existed. There was the peace of mind, the rest, the mental fortitude, the focus, the clarity, the love and kindness felt, the fullness of life, the brightness, the acceptance of what is, the witness of change, the deepening of relationships, and the appreciation of the little things. But when I think of meditation as a whole, what I’m really doing is connecting to myself. As I connect to myself, all of these other benefits start to flow through my life with ease, not force. But what does connecting to myself mean?
The connection to myself I gain from meditation and mindfulness is a continual process of letting go of all the preconceived notions of what I should be, whether they were externally or internally put in place, and recognizing who I truly am. When I’m connected to myself, I allow myself to rest, I take care of myself, I recognize unhealthy patterns and seek help to understand them. When I lovingly accept who I am at this moment, and let go of who I should be, all of a sudden a weight is lifted off my shoulders that I didn’t know I was carrying.
I’ll leave you now with a quote I come back to often, from the dancer Nancy Stark Smith: “Replace ambition with curiosity”. Whenever we sit for meditation, we are not ambitiously striving for the benefits that come from meditation, instead we are becoming curious with the question: “Who am I in this moment?”
