Becoming The Observer

Meditation can bring up a lot of fear. What is it that people are afraid of? Thoughts? Reactions to thoughts? The inability to sit still? Not having enough time to meditate? Probably a combination of all of these. When we spend all of our life trying to avoid the noise in our heads its hard to sit still and shut it out.

Through Vipassana I have learnt that sitting still with curiosity and purpose, it is possible to find peace within and not be afraid. Learning to look at our thoughts helps us to release their power over us.

Mindfulness can help to keep you in the present moment and meditation helps to deepen your practise. When you train yourself to sit through discomfort and not react to it, something else happens.

The body relaxes and a space seems to open up within that allows you to observe the discomfort and notice the changes instead of reacting to them.

The usual reaction is tamed and the mind becomes still. Knowing that everything is impermanent and will change, no matter how bad it may seem, allows for relaxation within. The tensions and resistances we hold create more tension, and therefore more stress.

Think about clenching and releasing your fist. It is like that when you relax and stop resisting. There is a free flow and tensions as the tensions are relaxed.

Watching pain in this way is fascinating. When you become aware of your mind and how the body reacts to thoughts, you can use it as part of your practise.

The mind is amazing and powerful. We can feel happy or sad according to the thoughts we are having and believing in at the time. This creates an instant change to how we are feeling in that moment and affects the rest of your day potentially and future days - even although nothing has happened in that moment.

How can meditation change that? Through awareness. When you have awareness of yourself, your thoughts and your reactions, you can become the observer of them instead of the reactor to them. You are able to stay present to the situation and change the thoughts that you are reacting too.

Taking time to learn meditation free's you from the endless ups and downs of life.

You not only change yourself in the process, but the world around you is also affected

positively by your efforts.