13 Facts I Learned From 13 Years of Meditation

   1.     The goal is to calm your thoughts so that all you feel is that void of pure existence  

The hardest part for beginners in meditation is being able to clear the thoughts. In my experience as I have heard with most others, when starting to meditate, the mind is continuously racing. Our thoughts are naturally speeding a mile a minute just thinking about all the random things we need to do in the day, our worries, past, present, future, etc. We don’t notice it, but all of those things we constantly think about are hanging over our heads relentlessly, which makes it difficult to do anything well. When you are finally able to clear you mind of all that extra baggage, a huge weight is lifted. Once you are at this point, you can do one of a couple things. You can either focus your intentions on one single complex problem, which is much easier when you have a clear mind, or you can just relax and enjoy the awesome feeling of thoughtlessness and pure existence.

   2.     There is no need for anything external to meditate

When beginning to meditate, I was very mystified by the whole thing. I wanted to be an expert at meditation and achieve very deep trances very fast, so of course I bought in to the hype of using external “help” to bring me to these states. I was very into using crystals while meditating, and would always hold one during meditation or carry one with me to give me good vibes. I will admit, I did notice a positive effect from carrying a crystal, though I believe this to be merely the placebo effect. There have been studies on the powers and vibrations of crystals. What they found was that the only positive effects were found only from the placebo effect. When I found this out, I tried to meditate without crystals and realized I was able to achieve the same state without them.

As you become more experienced, the best way to meditate is without external influence, although there are things that can help beginners achieve deeper states by using guided meditations and binaural beats.

   3.     Solving complex problems is easier in a meditative state.

The ability to multitask is a myth. The people who think they can do it, are only doing multiple things poorly. It’s obvious that the more complex a problem is, the harder it is to solve this problem. It makes it even harder to solve these problems when we have a thousand other problems in our lives that are in the back of our head dragging us down. When you have the ability to remove all those problems and worries and negative thoughts from your mind, image how much easier it is to focus on one complex problem. You will be amazed at how simple things become when you begin to solve your problems while meditating.

   4.     Meditation is as natural as breathing

Don’t be fooled by people telling you that you have to be in a quiet place or in a meditation position to be meditating. These things might help, but the better you get, the easier it will become the literally meditate anywhere in any situation. As long as you can breathe, you can meditate.

   5.     I am sharper and calmer

In my experience, I have noticed how much calmer and sharper I am since I started meditating. I admit that I still get stressed out and overwhelmed at times, but meditation has given me the ability to be more aware of these states and helps me manage my mood better. The sooner I am aware of my stressful state, I can take the right actions to calm myself and focus my racing emotional mind.

   6.     Meditation is just a tool to focus your intention

This is pretty self-explanatory.  Meditation helps you focus on what you really want.

   7.     Ego is your intellect trying to rationalize the fear you are not facing

You will know you are rationalizing when you begin to make excuses about why you did or didn't do something. You will try to tell yourself that it’s natural or that anyone in your position would have done the same things. It’s more extensive than this, but the more you meditate, the more you will be aware of these thoughts and behaviors.

   8.     Ego manifests itself as thoughts, feelings, words, actions, etc.

Trust me, you will not know when your ego appears in your thoughts, feelings, words, or actions until it has already happened.

   9.     Ego is the symptom of a bigger problem.

Our ego is actually a good thing. It protects us from ourselves. There are some things the mind just cannot handle, and the ego is there to essentially ease you into reality instead of throwing it all at you at once. The bad thing is about the ego, is that it can prevent us from seeing and fixing the bigger issue. This issue is fear.  

   10. Ego points the way to fear

The more you meditate, the more aware you will become of your actions and why you do certain things. We become more aware of when we rationalize or avoid certain things and realize it is because of our fear that we act this way. When you become aware of when your ego arises, you can be assured that there is an underlying fear that is causing your ego to manifest.

   11. Fear is the real problem. Without it, there is no need for ego

If we truly had no fears, ego would not exist. The ego is there to protect us from our fears.

   12.  There is a difference between what you do and why you do it.

I would say a good majority of the things we do, we do unconsciously and most of the time don’t know why we do it. We naturally build our lives around repetition and habits. Because of this, we will continue to do things that don’t serve us and have no use to us. This is why we need to take the time to be more aware of our actions and figure out the reason we act a certain way. This in turn will build a better and happier life for you.

   13. Focusing on what you want (or don’t want) will greatly help you achieve it.

At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but the more I focused and thought about something, the faster it came into reality. The more I thought about accomplishing a goal, the faster and easier I was able to achieve it. On the bad side of that, the more I thought about negative things, the more I experienced these negative things in my life.