Helping You Love Yourself into Success and Less Stress! Helpful Hints for Meditation Part VI: Meditation, Thoughts and Forgiveness by Ilenya Marrin, DSS HOME FREE NEWSLETTER PRODUCTS SERVICES ABOUT ME TESTIMONIALS RESOURCES CONTACT Meditation Meditation, Thoughts and Forgiveness Often during meditation, thoughts and memories arise as if of their own accord. Many of these thoughts are your "need attention" and "to do" items. Others have to do with your ongoing relationships and projects -- your unfinished business with people and situations, or your mental rehearsal for an important meeting, etc. Then there are demanding thoughts and vivid technicolor pictures, or niggling grey or sepia images on the edges of your awareness, that you haven't noticed in years. They come floating up from the depths of your subconscious or unconscious mind and you're wondering, "Where did that come from?!" In my work with people from all walks of life, I've noted that this is one of the biggest reasons people don't start meditation, or they stop after a few tries. It can be disconcerting or downright frightening to have long-forgotten memories rushing unbidden into your awareness. Allowing these thoughts to float through your awareness is part of the great blessing of meditation. When you just observe them, you gain detachment. You learn to be a neutral observer, which is one of the greatest keys for happy and successful living. When you neutrally observe, many of these old and painful memories can be released or healed in a gentle and natural way. You really don't have to do much about any of it. Just let it be. Dealing with Thoughts in Your Meditation Thirty years ago, when I started in the British Meditation Society, I heard, "Just let the thoughts be there. Don't try to push them out." This works! Just observe the thoughts. If you find you are off entirely on thoughts with no awareness of your meditation practice, then gently bring your awareness back to your practice. Begin again. An as experiment, let me instruct you right now, "Don't think about frogs. Whatever you do, absolutely, you must not think about frogs." What are you thinking of? What are you picturing in your mind? There's a similar process when you try to push away and deny the thoughts that arise during meditation. Just let the thoughts and memories be and they will dissipate on their own. Bring your focus back to your word or prayerful phrase, or your breathing, etc. Forgiveness in Meditation If your thoughts in meditation are especially disturbing, you can practice self-forgiveness or extend thoughts of forgiveness to the other person(s) involved. You can simply say, "I forgive myself for judging myself . . ." for whatever you did or said or thought. "I forgive you . . ." and name the person that you judge. You might need to repeat this process several times for it to "take" on the emotional level where the forgiveness is needed. It might feel artificial at first. Stick with it. An intention of forgiveness will carry you a long way into emotional health, well-being and less stress. (See Part IV of this series on Meditation and Intention.) Note: If you have experienced severe trauma of some sort,you might want professional counseling assistance to help you with healing your consciousness prior to being able to use forgiveness. However, if thoughts involving judgments of yourself or others arise during meditation, do your best to forgive and forget. (There is much more detail on how to do self-forgiveness in my ebook, The Power of Personal Peace: Reducing Stress by Loving Yourself from the Inside Out.) Please note that the second half of forgive is "forget," as in "Forgive and forget." As long as the issue keeps coming up, more forgiveness is called for until the slate is wiped clean inside of you. Go to Part VII: Some Working Definitions Related to Meditation and Spiritual Growth Back to Welcome Page and List of Recent Articles Meditation

Loving Your Success Blog
Phone: 802-658-2921