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5 Unexpected Ways Meditation Will Change Your Life

We all know meditation can help us to relax and reduce stress by cutting out the continual white noise of our chattering mind. When I started meditating, my goal was to have at least a few minutes of peace each day from the repetitive loop of thoughts that always seemed to keep me in a perpetually harried state. While I certainly achieved a few moments of respite, in time, these few moments of peace had a tremendously transformative effect on my life in ways I never would have imagined.

Meditation can help you relax. But it will do so much more than that. Regular meditation can also help you to:

1. Make better choices for yourself.

How many times have you made poor food choices, stayed in negative, draining relationships or frittered away hours of time on meaningless activities simply because you were operating on autopilot? Meditation helps you to cultivate awareness of your own patterns and behaviors.

As you begin to pay attention to yourself and your life, you start to notice the small choices you make each day –and how those choices add up to the sum total of who you are and what you do in life. When you can take a step back and get a bird’s eye view, you’re able to use this state of awareness to pause and change tack, and these small moment by moment changes can eventually transform your whole life.

2. Heal your relationships.

Meditation helps you to cultivate a sense of presence, and when you’re present with your loved ones, or indeed anyone, magical changes in how you relate to each other take place. When you cultivate presence, you not only truly listen to others, but you give them the freedom to be who they are without our limiting prejudices and judgments getting in the way. In the present moment, we allow each of our relationships to be begin fresh, free from past grievances or future expectations, and we see the beauty of each human being unfold in a new light.

3. Increase your productivity at work.

When the mind is scattered, you may start to think of all of the things that need to be done – or worse, you try to do everything that needs to be done all at once, and end up overwhelmed and exhausted. Meditation cultivates clarity, and a clear mind can focus laser-like on one task to complete it without running off in different directions like a bunch of crazy monkeys. This sense of clarity and focus actually allows you to get more done in less time without the stress and drama.

4. Stop the pointless worrying.

Fear, stress, anxiety and worrying are frequently based on the illusory concepts of past and future, and have very little to do with what’s happening in this moment, right now. Yet so often people taint the present moment with these unreal imaginings. Meditation helps you to get real and tune in to the present moment, the only place where peace resides. Inner peace is a choice, and it’s always here, now.

5. Accept life’s challenges with grace and ease.

Many people reject the present moment because it’s not how they want it to be. As soon as the present moment doesn’t measure up to what you think it should be, the sh*t hits the fan, and you check out of the now. You can fall into patterns of victimhood, pessimism, despair or anguish. You may resist life’s natural flow and get caught up in mental fantasies of “should have,” “could have” and “it’s not fair.”

The greatest gift that meditation can give is the awareness that despite the seeming chaos, despite life not going how you think it ought to, when you step back and experience the joy of just being, you come to the realization that all is perfect, right now.

12:29 AM

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#meditation

#yoga

#self healing

#presence

#relationships

#work

#stress

#choices

#decisions

#productivity

#worry

12:27 AM

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Sometimes I miss certain people from my past so much.

I deeply regret that we aren’t as close as we used to be. Or close at all, really. I tell myself it’s okay, that we’ve grown apart and it’s more painful to force the friendship, but it’s not okay. I love these girls. Women, now. I want them in my life and it hurts so much to think that they don’t feel the same way.

My best friend from treatment. We transformed our lives together. But we live halfway across the country from each other, and it’s so fucking hard to stay in touch. We have busy lives. She has a husband, I have my boyfriend. Her yoga career is taking off, and mine’s about to begin. I feel like I’m the only one who makes time to text or call. I never get through to her, no matter when I call. I feel like I don’t matter as much to her as she does to me. But letting this friendship go isn’t nearly as hard as the other one.

My best friend from fourth grade. We used to be inseparable. We spent more time in timeout during recess than playing on the playground because we couldn’t stay out of trouble. We rode horses nearly every day together. We wanted to major in veterinary medicine and room together at Texas A&M. That never happened. She was “cooler” than me in high school. We made different friends and started to grow apart. I later learned, during a drunken reunion, that we both struggled with body image issues and eating disorders. I ended up inpatient and am in recovery. I don’t believe she ever got the same. I see pictures now, on Facebook, and am so worried about her. She’s so thin, pale, fragile. The sparkle in her eyes isn’t there. But I don’t feel like it’s my place to say anything. I never see her anymore. I’ve tried, so hard, to stay in touch with her. She always flakes out on me. Never texts me back, or something comes up, whatever. I’ve given up. How sad is that? I came to the point where I thought, “I’m going to text her and try to meet up with her one more time. If she doesn’t get back to me, or if it falls through, I’m done. Ball’s in her court. If she wants to see me, she knows where to find me.” Sure enough, I was left hanging. I felt like I’d been dumped. No closure, just slowly grown apart to the point where she doesn’t respect me enough to set aside a couple of hours for me. I’ll always love her. I’m always here for her.