Living a Meditative Life

Meditation is a wonderful experience, but so often so many people out there stop meditating and their mind goes back to being extremely busy, active and non-attentive. They leave the meditative state of mind to go back to the every day world. I like to encourage people to truly keep their self in a present awareness all day long. This is actually the premise of the retreats I offer on a regular basis, focusing on a full day of living a meditative life.

Living a meditative life is different than just simply meditating. Many people who meditate often live different lives. They have their meditation and then they have their life. They have deep and wonderful, very present awareness experiences in meditation but the second they stop meditating they let their thoughts, their feelings and their egoic mind take over. They go back to living a very hectic, crazy life. You don’t have to live this way. You can practice meditation throughout the day in a variety of ways. The key, the foundation of it all, is to be 100% present in whatever you are doing. If you are eating, just be present with eating. If you are walking, be present only with your walk. If you’re smelling a flower, just be 100% present with that flower. If you’re listening to music, be 100% present with that music. If you’re with a friend, be 100% present and attentive with your friend.

Most of us lead our lives, all day long with our minds jumping all over the place. We hear commentary in our heads; “like”, “don’t like”, “want”, “don’t want”, “I wonder if…” and it goes on and on. All day long it’s like having a little person on your shoulder whispering in your ear. By the end of the day, we are exhausted from all that mind clutter. For most people the only time they get away from this constant mind clutter is by going to sleep. For those who meditate however, we can learn to quiet our mind during the day when we are awake. That is the beauty of meditation. What if you could keep that state of meditation throughout the day?

It is possible to keep that state of meditation going all day long! The key is to truly be present with one thing at a time, without all the mental commentary. Of course we need some commentary to help us make decisions and learn new things but overall most of what we do can be done very spontaneously. In one of my books I call it “being in the zone”, where you really learn to just trust and go with your natural instincts. You will find that when you do this, things flow very well.

It’s much like someone who’s playing sports. Once a person learns how to do something and do it well, when they get their mind out of the game and they simply trust and flow with their instincts they do it very well. They’re present with nothing but the current moment and doing what comes naturally in playing the game. Many athletes will even use the term that they are “in the zone”. It’s the same way with every day life. When you just trust and flow with what you are supposed to do then what you need to do will just come out of you and happen. When you need to make decisions you can ponder them but mostly you just flow with life, being present with life and quieting the mind. Quiet the mind in such a way that you can just flow with life, be with life, live life; ultimately, just being.

I’d like to share a technique that can be very helpful in being in the present moment throughout the day. This technique comes from your meditation practice. When you meditate, let’s say you’re just focusing on your breath – a breath meditation. When your mind wanders you simply go back to your breath. When your mind wanders you witness the thoughts, acknowledge them and then go back to your breath. Let me give you an example.

Say you are talking with someone and your mind wanders. Don’t try to suppress your mind from wandering, but acknowledge it and just go back to being with them. Perhaps you’re watching the sunset and your mind wanders to different thoughts. You recognize that your mind has wandered but you bring it back to that moment of just watching the sunset, being one with the sunset. Another example would be that perhaps you are going for a walk. You enjoy your surroundings, look around but suddenly your mind wanders to perhaps how hot it is or what you have to do tomorrow. Recognize that your mind has wandered and bring it back to focus on just the walk and the things around you. You don’t try to suppress your thoughts but you witness them, acknowledge them, but then bring your mind back to one thing, the walk. Be present with the day, with the moment you are in and experience the here and now.

I believe that if you can find a way to apply the principles of living a meditative life you will find you are living a much happier life. You will learn how to live in the now, concentrating on one thing at a time and not cluttering your mind with continuous thoughts. You will learn how to acknowledge your thoughts but then quickly re-focus your mind again on what you are doing. It’s almost like going into an automatic pilot mode in life.