Supercharge Your Meditation – Two important steps people skip

Infinite Bliss Podcast – Episode 9

These two simple steps you can pay attention to when you meditate will make all the difference and supercharge your meditation experience.

These are not mistakes, but people often skip over these things without realizing just how fundamentally important they are. If you start to incorporate them into your daily meditation routine, you will go from meditation frustration to meditation master.

Hope you find this helpful.

Thanks for listening.

Mat Robinson ~ The Gregarious Hermit

 #InnerPeace #SpiritualAwakening #SpiritualJourney #Enlightenment #SpiritualAwakeningPodcast #Meditation #MeditationTips

Hope you find this helpful.

Thanks for listening.

Mat Robinson ~ The Gregarious Hermit

#InnerPeace #SpiritualAwakening #SpiritualJourney #Enlightenment #SpiritualAwakeningPodcast #Meditation #MeditationTips

Meditation can be difficult and frustrating for a lot of people, but adopting these two strategies and adding them to your meditation routine will give you that extra little push into something more exciting. The two things are not difficult and you’ll probably go “well duh”, but usually when I talk to people that are struggling with meditation it’s because they skip over this key step. So they spend their entire meditation just sitting with their eyes closed wrestling with their mind instead of floating on could nine in nirvana.

The second tip is not often taught, but reinforcing this idea right after you finish your meditation can help you bring that peace into the real world with you after you’re done. And that’s the point isn’t it. We meditate to experience peace and bliss, but we also want that to spill over into our everyday life. So making this step deliberate and focused helps your evolution move along a little quicker.

Namaste my friends.

I wish you nothing but peace, love and happiness. Oh and deep inner-peace and infinite bliss.

Mat

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Transcript

Hi everybody, welcome, and thank you for joining me.

I can’t believe we’re at episode 9 already. Where did the time go? And for a podcast that talks about inner-peace and infinite bliss, I can’t believe I haven’t talked about meditation yet either.

So let’s fix that right now.

Meditation is an essential tool for cultivating an understanding of what inner-peace is. Only when you’ve experienced it will you understand its importance and want to bring it into your everyday life.

I’m not going to give you a guided meditation right now, there are literally thousands online for you to listen to, but rather, I’m going to talk about a couple of important things that I think people often miss. They’re not necessarily mistakes or things that people do wrong, but simple things you can do to really enhance and supercharge your meditation to make it more productive.

I have to be honest with you, meditation can be quite frustrating. In the era of quick fixes, life hacking and instant gratification, meditation doesn’t seem to fit into this way of life. Meditation requires patience and a persistent ferocity that I think is the skill that’s missing from our culture these days. If meditation doesn’t work in one or two sessions, or you seem to get stuck, then it’s too easy to declare that meditation doesn’t work and simply quit. Not realizing that the very thing you’re trying to get some relief from, “a noisy mind”, is usually the thing that convinces you you’re not good at meditation or that it’s not working. Oh the irony.

The first issue I come across quite often is that people don’t spend enough time to physically relax their bodies. Instead they want to jump right into doing battle with their mind. They sit down. Do a couple of deep breaths and then start saying their mantra or trying to follow their breath.

But no matter what they do, their mind keeps jumping in and interrupting them.

And I get it. What often happens is that you have this really amazing meditation where you transcended the body, and are floating in this space of peace, love and joy. Where your problems no longer exist. All your cares and worries get replaced with, let’s call it, “infinite bliss”. And it’s so transformative and spellbinding. But the problem is that you want to get right back to that again the very next time you sit down to meditate. You crave that same experience. And who could blame you.

But this excitement and desire causes people to rush over the physical relaxation part. Not realizing that physical relaxation is so fundamental to meditation. Because without it, you won’t be able to fully detach your awareness from your body.

If you don’t take the time to fully relax your body and release all the muscle tension, you’ll spend the entire meditation exploring all the aches and pains in your body instead of becoming one with the universe.

That leads to frustration and a noisy mind trying to control the experience.

So in the era of hacks and quick fixes, you can think of physical relaxation as pre-meditation. Like pre-gaming, only more healthy. It just prepares your body ahead of time for a successful meditation. Plus as an added bonus, you’ll be able to tell all your friends that you’re pre-med.

Meditation is about slowing down, taking your time and just allowing everything to be as it is.

Our sense of body comes from muscle tension. If you’re totally relaxed, you literally lose awareness of your body.

And a calm, relaxed body, signals to your mind quite clearly, that you feel safe and so it doesn’t need to be hyper vigilant on the lookout for danger. So if you first relax your body with your pre-med workout, your mind will start to calm down and you can then move on to observing your mind.

Think about it like this. A peaceful body, leads to a peaceful mind. So if you quiet the body first, then your mind will become still.

I am going to walk you through the process of relaxing your body and removing all those inner distractions in a little while, but we also need to talk about calming your senses.

Having the most relaxed and peaceful body in the world, does not do you any good if every few minutes, your cat wanders into the room and bops you over the head, or your kids keep coming in and asking when dinner’s gonna be ready.

So before you do your pre-meditation workout to relax your body to remove all the inner distractions, we also need to be diligent and do a pre-pre-meditation workout to remove all the distractions from our external environment.

And when I say all, I mean as many as you can. As you start to calm yourself into meditation, you’ll quickly realize that even the tiniest movement, sound, or smell will grab your mind’s attention and curiosity. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a little sound proof recording booth like I have here, you’ll become aware that even your heart beat and the blood flowing around your body makes a noise.

So what we’re really trying to do when we think about removing distractions, is removing transient events. Things that cause a sudden change in your senses. A sudden noise, a flash of light, something touching you could indicate a predator sneaking up on you. Your mind reacts to these impulses to make sure that you’re not in any danger. But that constant lookout for danger is what keeps your mind from settling and allowing you to drift into a deep meditative state.

Constant noises, constant lights or constant smells are fine because your mind gets accustomed to the sensory input and loses interest. If the air conditioner hasn’t attacked you yet, then you’re probably OK. If your scented candle isn’t pumping out the musky odor of a saber tooth tiger, then you’re probably OK.

Your mind stops worrying.

So a calm environment with as few “changes” as possible will calm down your senses.

This is why we close our eyes to meditate. That one action alone, eliminates a massive amount of sensory input.

You should make the room a comfortable temperature. Not too hot, not too cold. Avoid drafts or fans that constantly tickle the hairs on your arms.

Make sure the room doesn’t smell like food or is too strongly scented. There’s nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread to make you realize how hungry you are. Your mind will be like, “ok, are we gonna eat the bread yet? Are we gonna eat the bread yet? What about now?”

Your clothing should be loose and comfortable. You may not notice tight clothes throughout the day, but when you sit to meditate, tight socks, waistband or textured clothing can really stand out.

Remove your phone. The reason why we’re all stressed out in the first place and need to meditate is because of this little gizmo. Don’t even bring it into the room with you unless you’re using it as a timer or listening to a meditation app. But definitely put it on do-not-disturb. There’s nothing like that little ding to make you go, “mmmmm, I wonder how popular I am?”

The next thing to do is remove all the internal distractions. What do I mean by that?

If you’re hungry, your stomach is going to be rumbling and gurgling. Have a small snack some time before you start. If you’ve eaten a large meal, your stomach is going to be gurgling and rumbling. Make sure you don’t eat a large meal for several hours before meditating.

If you’re going to be sitting still for a prolonged period, make yourself comfortable. Use cushions or blankets as padding to eliminate any pressure points. I’m tall and skinny, so when I sit with my legs crossed, there’s a lot of pressure on my shins. So I sit on a bean bag cushion to push my pelvis up and forward and also conforms to my contours to eliminate localized pressure. Then I put towels under my knees to just raise them slightly to relieve the contact between my ankles and shins.

And don’t worry if you can’t sit in lotus position. That’s not a requirement for meditation. A simple high backed chair like a typical dining room chair works great for most people. Just add cushions to the seat or under your feet until you find the right height where your pelvis just tips forward and puts your spine in a very neutral relaxed state. And try not to lean against the back rest if you can, otherwise you’ll feel that pressure digging in.

So that’s my pre-pre-meditation routine. Now, I’m sitting comfortably in my calm environment having removed as many external distractions as possible and making my body comfortable to remove the internal distractions. Now it’s time to start my pre-meditation routine.

Before I start following my breath or saying my mantra, I work on refining my posture. I sit as tall and straight as I can
so that I don’t require any muscle power to keep me balanced. If I lean, my muscles get tense and I will remain conscious of this tension during my meditation.

Once I feel like I’m fairly well balanced, then I start to systematically work my way through every part of my body, finding tension and then releasing it by relaxing the muscles.

Starting with my toes, I feel for any tension and just relax. Working my way up my legs, I picture the muscles melting like butter, and I adjust my posture until I don’t need to engage the muscles to remain in balance. I slowly work my way through the rest of my body, paying close attention to my upper back, neck and shoulders. These muscles often carry a lot of tension because of the way we sit and the types of jobs we have these days. Those muscles aren’t tired from toiling in the dirt all day but they are tense from holding our arms locked in position while we hold our phones or use our computers.

Next, we make our way up to our head. Make sure it’s perfectly balanced on top of your shoulders. Just wobble your head in a gentle circle until you find that balance point.

And finally. Relax and release all the tension from your jaw. If you practice mindfulness, one thing you might become acutely aware of, is that, every time you disappear into a conversation in your head, your jaw tenses up. I think your mind locks your jaw so you don’t accidentally speak your inner monologue out loud. But relax it while keeping your mouth closed. You’ll probably have to keep checking your jaw throughout your meditation to make sure it doesn’t tense up on you.

And lastly, make sure you’re not squinting or frowning. Relax, relax, relax.

Now go through your entire body one last time to make sure nothing tensed up on you. You’d be surprised how easily the tension sneaks back in there. But it’s that tension that will keep you trapped in your body and prevent you from getting into a deep meditative state.

Once you’ve done all that, now it’s time to turn your attention to your breathing. Hold your body still but relaxed, so you lose awareness of it and at the same time, slowly make your breathing as gentle as possible.

Once you’ve done all those things, then it’s time to start meditating.

That whole routine should take about 5-10 minutes, but it really is time well spent. It supercharges your meditation and helps you get to the next level.

But I do get it. The temptation to skip this step is really strong and I used to be guilty of it myself before I realized the importance. If you don’t take the time to relax properly, then you’re really just sitting there with your eyes closed, and that’s what causes the frustration.

You’re much better off spending 8 minutes doing this pre-meditation work for a 2 minute deep meditation rather than 10 minutes of mediocre meditation where you’re distracted and wrestling with your thoughts.

That’s quite a pre-game setup, but it really makes a big difference. This next tip is a lot simpler but it’s the equivalent of the post-game cool down. Think of it as the post workout electrolytes or protein supplement. It allows you to extend your experience and bring it back with you. And that’s kind of the reason for meditating in the first place is so that you can bring that peace into your everyday life.

So for our post-meditation program, we make that transition very deliberate.

After you finish your meditation. Don’t just jump up and spring into action. Become aware of how gentle you’re breathing, how calm and peaceful your body feels. And as you open your eyes, take a moment to look around your room while maintaining awareness of that inner-peace.

Stand up slowly and gently go about your business. Don’t be in a rush. Just slowly do the things you were going to do. If you’re getting ready for bed, brush your teeth slowly and deliberately. Plug your phone into the charger slowly and deliberately while maintaining awareness of your calmness.

If you do that additional step you can bring your meditation into your waking life.

Think of it this way. If you meditate for 10 minutes, you’ll get 10 minutes of bliss, but if you bring that peace with you when you open your eyes and start to interact with the world, you can maintain that peace all day. Or at least as far as your first encounter with another human.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got for you this week. Don’t be in a hurry to start doing battle with your mind. Take the time to calm your environment to remove the external distractions. Then take the time to calm your inner environment. Then work on your posture to relax and release all the muscle tension, like your entire body is a piece of butter melting in the sun. Each time you breathe in, fill yourself with wonderful energy and as you breathe out, picture this energy descending through your body like a gentle parachute just floating down. And just relax, relax, relax.

After you finish your meditation and are full of peace and joy, then try to maintain that feeling as you slowly get back to your normal activities. If you can do that and not be in such a hurry to meditate, you will experience meditation on a much deeper level and you’ll quickly cultivate deep inner-peace and infinite bliss.

Alight, thanks for listening and I’ll catch you on the next episode.

Bye for now.

Mat Robinson ~ The Gregarious Hermit

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