7 Questions To Ask Yourself To Go Deeper In Your Meditation
I started meditation 8 years ago. For the first year, it was simply a part of my yoga routine. I didn’t know if I was doing it right or wrong, I just enjoyed the process and hence, continued.
At some point, I started reading books on related topics. While meditation gave me the space to get out of thinking, reading theory gave me the motivation to continue on the path and hope to experience the truth myself.
In Meditation, theory and practice have to go together. If you have recently picked-up meditation or are looking to deepen your understanding, start by asking yourself these 8 questions:
1. Reimagine Your Reality
Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. ― George Orwell, 1984
Our mind is not competent to remember all the details and give an objective view of the past. It patches up memories in an order to present a coherent view and we make our judgment for everything basis this patchwork of selected memories.
What if you could view all the events of the past with continuous consciousness and actually see what happened.
Would you question your life story and realize the role of chance to set you off in the direction you did? Would you still hold a few moments as the best moments of your life? Would you still hold grudges against someone? Would you still desire all the things you do?
Truth reveals itself only when you can view reality the way it is.
“Are you discovering a new understanding of your own reality?”
2. Seek Clarity
Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world? — Ramana Maharshi
The most vital thing in life is clarity. Clarity will help you choose the intention that you bring in daily interactions. Clarity will help you choose how to love and be loved.
Clarity will help you to gather yourself when everything is falling apart. Clarity will help you understand your impulses and decide your reaction to them.
Clarity will guide you to realize what you want out of this life in every moment that you spend here.
“How clear are you about every important aspect of your life?”
3. Know Your Body
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Your body can feel, heal and transform itself. You can experience life in all of its wonders. However, you are not with your body most of the time. Your mind is somewhere else — with your projects, ambitions, worries, and fears.
When the mind is not with the body, you are not fully aware. You need to learn how to bring attention to your body, relax and sleep. You need to reconnect back with your body every now and then.
Breath is a beautiful instrument to enable this. Breathe deeply and feel your body flowing with energy, Breath out and feel the body relaxing. That is being alive, greatest of all miracles.
“Do you have a way to connect with your body?”
4. Develop Awareness Of Desires
When we free ourselves of desire, we will know serenity and freedom — Gautama Buddha
Your whole life is a continuous pull of desires — small and big. You also develop the ability to fulfill them. At any point in time, you are in the process of discovering new desires and identifying ways to accomplish them.
Sometimes, there comes an awareness of the futility of desires and you want to let go. All of life is a struggle between these two states.
With age, you will leave many desires behind by either living them or giving upon them. You will experience the peace that comes with serenity and freedom. You will gain “Wisdom”.
“Are you aware of your own cycle of desires?”
5. Set Your Intention
Every action, thought and feeling is motivated by an intention and that intention is a cause that exists as one with an effect — Gary Zukav
What you think about a person or a situation has immense power.
If your intention is to gain, mock, deceive or feel superior, it will eventually surface. However, if your intention is to enable, learn and grow together, then that would become visible.
Evaluate your intentions honestly. Reset your intentions before you try to reset the outcome.
“What intention do you bring to the world every day?
6. Give Back
Life should be chiefly service. Without that ideal, the intelligence that God has given you is not reaching out toward its goal. When in service you forget the little self, you will feel the big Self of Spirit. — Paramahansa Yogananda
For a day, treat everyone with compassion. Give them love. Forgive them and feel that the universe is giving them happiness and guidance.
Shifting focus from yourself to someone else, even if it’s just for a day will shake your system out of self-pity. You will get a fresh chance to start again.
Selfless service is the axe that can break the mountain of ego. As ego dissolves, meditation gains strength.
“Are you giving back without asking anything in return?”
7. Know Your Own Conditioning
Ask yourself : Is this how I actually feel or is this my emotional history trying to recreate the past? — Yung Pueblo
All our actions are bound by the habit patterns of mind. Every single moment, we are reacting. We are reacting to unconscious impulses. We are reacting to things that are out of our control.
How can we change our future if we have no control over the present? We don’t realize that we do have a choice?
We can choose to observe and act. We can get out of the old conditioning and free ourselves.
“Are you aware of your own conditioning?”
Conclusion
Meditation needs patience. Patience needs motivation. Knowledge is a means to get motivated and continue on the path.
Once you are inspired, the best way to meditate is through meditation itself.
Want to discover your purpose and be motivated every day?
Follow the steps in this template to find your WHY
