Meditation is a Practice
If there is one thing I swear by as one of the key elements of going on a healing journey, it’s meditation.
Now, if you’re someone who is thinking, “I don’t know how to meditate”, or flat out, “I just can’t meditate.” Stay with me for a minute. I’ve known several people who have said this about meditation. In fact, when I first started my healing journey, and got back into therapy, my therapist wanted me to start a meditation practice on day one. And I thought, “Whoa, I’m not very good at clearing my mind, I’ve tried that.”
Then she said something to me that changed the way I thought about meditation, and how I practice meditation today, she said, “This is less about clearing your mind, and more about letting your mind wander, observing what comes up for you without judgment, and letting it go.” BOOM.
She invited me to practice this in a visual way, and asked me to imagine my thoughts floating down a stream like leaves. Let them come, and let them go. “Write down what comes up for you.”
What comes up for you. THIS. This is when I realized what meditation could really be about for me. And I want you to consider this, too.
Meditation is about letting your thoughts come up for you, instead of trying to hush them up, or shove them away where they will only get louder and louder until they spill out of the mental jar you’re putting them into.
In fact, there are so many different ways to do this kind of internal work. My own meditation practice looks different every single day. Some days I get quiet for five minutes and just focus on breathing, visualizing the air entering and leaving my body. Some days, I sit silently for 30 minutes or more letting my Parts speak to me (this is a form of Internal Family Systems meditation/therapy). I imagine us all around a cozy, wooden kitchen table with my Self at the head, ready to hear each Part speak their piece, and let me know what they need. If you want to dive in more deeply on an IFS Meditation practice, I very highly recommend the book “No Bad Parts” by Richard Schwartz, the pioneer of the IFS therapy modality.
Other days, I turn on a guided meditation in the BetterSleep app, or on Spotify. Gabrielle Bernstein has several that I enjoy! This allows me to let another guide my mind, and what’s funny is that in those moments of calm, and peace, STUFF still “comes up for me.” I observe without judgement, which is KEY, and get curious about what’s popping up out of the depths of my mind, without dwelling on those thoughts.
If you want to get to know yourself better, if you want to do internal work, if you want to start healing… getting into a solid, daily meditation practice is one of the best ways I know how! While it might feel uncomfortable at first, you will certainly lean into it over time and learn to use it as a form of cultivating some of the deepest inner peace you will ever come to know.
Give it a try, and let us know how it goes for you in the Full Circle Wellness Private Facebook Community!
Know that you CAN,
and BE WELL
Leah
