Meditation, Gym for the mind - how I stopped quitting

Socrates is said to have claimed,

The unexamined life is not worth living.

By this he meant that examining our lives, beliefs and values is what makes us fully human.

An unexamined life is lived passively without a conscious understanding of why we think, act or choose as we do.

Carl Jung echoed this when he wrote,

He who looks outside, dreams; he who looks within awakes.

Meditation then is not a modern invention.

Yet in this era we often feel too busy for introspection.

In a world geared to material achievement it  seems like time wasting

I have been meditating daily for a few years and have found it to be an invaluable resource.

Now as I am growing old, I am using it to open my mind to embrace the opportunities of this process.

When our attention is purely focused on the body, we miss the larger picture.

After all what  gets my body out of bed in the morning - or not-is my mind.

The resolve to exercise, change my lifestyle/diet comes from my mind - as does the self sabotage that can quietly undo the best of intentions

Meditation is, quite simply, gym for the mind.

An example from my own life.

I was advised to do weight training to strengthen my bones. I began with gratitude and enthusiasm but before long I felt resentful and I came to dread the sessions.

At first I labeled myself lazy and tried to push through.

But this self reflecting meditation has taught me to go deeper and has shown me that we are not the labels or roles that we claim or inhabit — they’re just old clothes  that are dying to be shed.

As I recalled the story of my life I realised that I had a completely forgotten gym history —I had, over time, last time being 20 yrs ago, enrolled 3 times at a gym, and each time I quit after 3 weeks

Being strongly identified as a person who never quits, to conclude that ‘I am just not a gym person’ was the only workable explanation.

Just seeing  this old story was so illuminating that it no longer had power - my resentment and  reluctance evaporated.

The weights are still heavy and the back squats are challenging but I have been simply turning up to gym for 3 years now …. and I’m grateful to be able to do so!

In my next blog I want to explore how all that we have unconsciously  accumulated in our minds about old age can invalidate it and  become an obstacle to fulfilling the deeper purpose of aging.

by Helen Raffal, Sydney Meditation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm6GWqreYMg