Why I Meditate

A few weeks ago I was asked by my meditation teacher to join a symposium that he was organising. The subject of the symposium was ‘Why I Meditate’ and me and another one of his more dedicated students were asked to contribute to the evening as guest speakers.

So last night we both arrived at the symposium somewhat shy but willing to share with others the benefits we have gained from practising regularly. He was a photographer and teacher and I’m a writer and also part-time teacher so we had some things in common. We both agreed that the best plan of attack was to do a meditation first and then to pretty much say whatever came into our heads. What I found, and I’m sure I can speak for Alex when I say this, is that meditation affects us in so many very different ways that we both wanted to cover a number of points that illustrated some of the small but subtle changes that have happened to our lives. But being pushed for time, we had to narrow it down to a few points which I want to share with you today.

I meditate because it gives me a sense of being present in the moment.

As we are both creative people, being in the moment is of vital importance to us as it is the very essence of creativity. A photograph is capturing a moment, as is a great piece of travel writing (or blog posting for that matter). Meditation sharpens our appreciation of the moment and feeds the creative process. And with meditation, anyone can learn to appreciate the moment. One of the best books I have ever read is Ekhart Tolle’s ‘the Power of Now’, in which he talks at great length about this.

I meditate because it gives me more empathy and connection with others.

As we were both teachers, this was something we found to be very important. I can say that my own teaching has taken on a whole new lease of life, as now I look at it as a way to improve the lives of other people, not just teach them English. I see it as my role to motivate, encourage and support people along a learning path, to help them to develop a better appreciation and undestanding of language and to be a positive factor in someone’s life and that’s really more important than teaching them how to conjugate a verb.

I meditate because it gives me more patience with others

Because meditation teaches you to slow down and acknowledge the world as it is, this naturally extends to people, so we both found that our patience with even the most annoying people has improved. I want to make one comment here though, and I hope it is not taken the wrong way; I want to say that although my overall patience with people has improved, my desire to be surrounded by people who are negative, who criticise, who aren’t moving forward with their lives and want to blame other people for it, who are too egotistical or needy, has definitely decreased. I simply find that I am repelled by them and want to spend as little time with them as possible. I can still be around them and listen to them and generally handle them better but I generally find that they enter my life far less frequently, which is definitely a good thing.

Of course there are many good reasons to meditate, such as having increased self-awareness, less stress and overall better health, but these were the main points that came out of the session and I wanted to share them with you today. I hope that these give you something to think about. So until next time, see you.

Peace

Linda