How Does One Apply Meditation in Daily Life?

Meditation isn't about the time we sit down with our eyes closed. It's about how that time impacts the rest of our day and our life. While the benefits of meditation naturally spill out into our day, there are a few easy things we can do to bring even more mindfulness, peace and patience into our daily life.

In this episode, Todd shares those tips and tricks for living our lives in a meditative state — present, aware, alert, and at peace.

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Transcript

0:01  
Welcome to the Eastwesticism podcast where our host Todd Perelmuter shares the lessons he's learned spending eight years living with gurus, monks, lamas, and shamans across 35 countries and five continents. Join in the journey as he brings the best scientifically proven methods for living your best life from the east and the west, straight to you. The path to peace, love, health and happiness starts here.

0:28  
Hi, welcome back to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter. And today I'm going to answer the question, how does one apply meditation in daily life? That is a great question. And the answer is twofold. 

0:45  
Number one, you don't have to do anything. Meditation naturally applies to your daily life, it may take a very long time to notice, it may take a couple of weeks, it may take a couple of months, it may be that the first day and few weeks, you notice maybe a 1% change. And maybe you don't even notice how your daily life is changing. And maybe other people notice. 

1:12  
But maybe you don't. And maybe you'll notice one or 2% change, you know, a little more patient a little more calm, a little more focused, a little more joyful, a little more peaceful, a little less stressed and obsessed with external stimulus and pleasures. And overtime, a couple weeks, couple months, you'll look back. And you'll say, the change is so enormous, I can't even believe I ever didn't meditate, or I ever used to be like that. That's very common. 

1:47  
But it's like training at a gym, you'll notice little changes everyday to your muscles in your body. And a year later, it's like a miraculous change. But it takes time. And when you live with yourself every single day, it can be hard to see big changes. It's also like when you don't see a child for a couple years, and you see how big the changes. But if you're with them every single day, you don't notice at all until you look at pictures. 

2:19  
And it's the same with meditation, because we're mind training, we're training our minds, to be more calm, peaceful, focused, joyful, and just present. And we're also becoming aware of our thoughts and the way our mind works. And we're becoming our own therapist, and we're healing from past trauma. And we're setting down negative baggage we carry with us because we realize it doesn't serve us and we don't need it any longer. 

2:47  
And all of this applies to your daily life in the way we treat others, we're more compassionate, and we're more aware of other people's needs, because we're less in our head. And we're more aware of our surroundings because we've been practicing being aware of our breath, or focusing on our mantra. 

3:09  
And that's what meditation is all about that mind training, so that we become the best version of ourselves. No one teaches us how to pay attention. No one teaches us how to have a peaceful mind. But when we learn meditation, that is the practice to achieve it. And the benefits are a million fold from less addiction, and better health, and better mental health. 

3:46  
And all of this spills out into every aspect of our lives, we become more creative, we become smarter, because our minds are thinking more clearly. And we're not carrying the weight of our past and our future on our shoulders. And we're just fully in the present moment. And we're being our best selves because we're fully engaged with what we're doing. So that is the first part of the answer, that the benefits come naturally. And you just have to stick with it. 

4:17  
And over time, you will see the change. You'll see it in your friendships and relationships and your family relationships. You will see the changes as you look back with how you were living your life. And maybe you decided that certain things and people no longer served you and you've found new people and positive people and You've nurtured better relationships. 

4:45  
And your discipline improves. Because sitting down in meditation everyday takes discipline and even that discipline extends through everything in our lives, from our personal health, to our jobs. 

5:00  
The second part of the answer is to make life, your daily life, a meditation practice. And that is a powerful practice. And it is incredible for helping us live in that meditative state, which is what we all want. We all want to be fully present fully at peace, relaxed. And even when we're working really hard, we're in a flow. 

5:30  
And we're not complaining to ourselves in our mind, we are embracing the task at hand fully, as if we had chosen to do it as if we love to do it. And that is where true balance and peace and happiness can be sustained throughout our entire lives. 

5:53  
The way we do that, is by constantly being curious and aware of what is going on in the present moment. For example, many meditators turn everything they do into a meditation practice, walking meditation, is being fully present with each step, feeling the ground under your heel, as it hits the concrete or grass, feeling as your foot rolls down your foot hitting the floor. 

6:34  
At the same time feeling the other foot slowly being raised off the ground and feeling the ground come off the foot, and then rolling down with your next step. And being nowhere. But here. And now. That is the walking meditation. 

6:55  
The eating meditation is feeling every single bite and tasting every second of your food and feeling it between your teeth and being fully present with each bite. When we brush our teeth, instead of thinking about what we're going to do today, we feel the bubbles in between each tooth and we feel each brushstroke as we brush our teeth. 

7:28  
When we do the dishes, we feel the soap suds and we feel the water rushing around our hands. And we're fully aware of what we're doing in the moment. And we're not often some distant future, or reliving the past. And in this way, every moment can be a meditation. When we're not doing those things we're always breathing, we can always be aware of our breath, we can feel our breath, fully feeling the lungs expanding in the belly expanding and contracting. 

8:04  
And we can feel the air bristling our nose hairs as it comes in our nose, we can feel the warm air come out. And it's just about being fully present at all times. And certain things we can do, such as putting notes around the house that say breathe, or little Buddha statues or any kind of reminders to be present, you could even write be present, be here now. 

8:32  
So many little things you can do to remind yourself throughout the day, in places especially where you frequently lose yourself, you get lost in your thoughts, little reminders that nothing is more important than being fully here and now. And most of the time what our minds are thinking, unless we're doing something creative or researching something. 

8:57  
Our mind doesn't need to be running a million miles an hour chaotically grasping at anything it can do to occupy the time and we can just be in peace. Everything around us will constantly be changing and our minds constantly fluctuating and thinking and our moods will go up and down. 

9:21  
But there is stillness in observation. And it is because our consciousness, our awareness is the only thing that never changes. It is always a deep piece and it is always under every sense. We perceive it is what does the perceiving. The eyes don't see without consciousness, looking at what they're seeing. 

9:50  
And the more we tap into that stillness, and the more we feel it and we become deeply rooted in it, which is our daily meditation practice will train us to do the more we can live in the meditative state. 

10:07  
So I hope that helps. I hope those tips you try them out and let me know how it goes. Please be sure to message us on social media at @toddperel. And we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much. Until next time, peace and love.

10:29  
You were listening to the Eastwesticism podcast. Be sure to visit us at eastwesticism.org to join the conversation and receive enlightening emails. Until next time