Have you read The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer? Loved it ~highly recommend. I also Loved reading his teachings in Oprah’s new book on how meditation helps him deal with problems (see below).
davidji was the first teacher to introduce me to how "meditation" would help me deal with problems. In order to do that I had to learn how to meditate (checked that box). Next, how to access that space between the trigger and my response and then moving into it (work in progress).
Before learning how to meditate (and practicing mindfulness throughout my day) I was pretty much living on autopilot - reacting without really thinking. Some call that sleep walking through life or living unconsciously. Bascially, that behavior led to me saying and doing things (making choices and decisions) that I ultimately regretted and would then dwell upon! Many times these knee jerk reactions made my so called problems even more difficult to manage. I would like to report that I no longer have "problems" but that of course would not be true. What I do have is a new way of responding to them thanks to my meditation practice. I think what Michael Singer says below is spot on to what davidji, Pema Chondron, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Ram Dass and all the masters of wisdom teach ~
Oprah: What are we supposed to do when problems show up?
Michael Singer: the moment it starts with that chitter-chatter, my first reaction inside is to relax and lean away. I lean away from the noise the mind is making. Because you’re going to do one of two things once it starts:You’re either going to lean into it and get involved, and let it pull you in~
Oprah: Yes, which is what most of us do.
Michael: Right, or relax and lean away. And once you lean away and get some space, you will learn over time that that’s the smartest thing you ever did. Why? Because you gave the noise room to pass through and it does. It passes right through.
Meditation allows us to access the space between the stimulus (the “problem”, “chitter chattering”, “story” we’re creating in our minds, and then our how we respond. It slows the speed in which the world is coming into us so that we can make better choices and decisions. Cultivating our practice helps us pause and drop into that space so we become more reflective, open up some space before we respond nuclear or make the problem bigger with our conditioned knee jerk responses.
Keep showing up for your practice. 16 seconds ~ 5 minutes ~ 30 minutes. Whatever works. Just keep showing up.
