Many people wonder if they should meditate even when they really don't want to. Others wonder if it's better or worse to meditate when sick. And some may even feel worse after meditation and wonder if this ancient spiritual practice just isn't for them at all.
In this podcast episode, I dive into the debate about whether we should force ourselves to meditate no matter what, or if we should only do it when it feels natural. Is creating consistency at all cost the most important thing? Or do certain conditions need to be met in order to meditate effectively? The answer may surprise you.
Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.
*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.
Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/
Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.
Many people wonder if they should meditate even when they really don't want to. Others wonder if it's better or worse to meditate when sick. And some may even feel worse after meditation and wonder if this ancient spiritual practice just isn't for them at all.
In this podcast episode, I dive into the debate about whether we should force ourselves to meditate no matter what, or if we should only do it when it feels natural. Is creating consistency at all cost the most important thing? Or do certain conditions need to be met in order to meditate effectively? The answer may surprise you.
Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.
*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.
Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/
Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.
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Welcome to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter our world is a projection of our collective consciousness. The more peace we bring into our lives, the more peace we bring into this world. So let the transformation begin.
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The question today is, if you're feeling poorly, should you meditate?
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And the answer, like so many answers,
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lies in the question, should you meditate? And it's really that one word should.
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That tells us everything we need to know.
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Whenever we ask a question.
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Often, the question itself
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hides the answer, because it reveals our mental state, our current situation, and what we're feeling what's on our mind.
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And in this particular instance,
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the word should, indicates that we are under the impression that there is a perfect way that there is a perfect circumstance, that if we do certain things, in a certain way, we will achieve a perfect state.
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And the truth of our existence is that everything is already perfect.
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And what I mean by that
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is that things can only happen the way they happen. And every thing that happens, happens because of infinite factors that came before it. And all of those infinite factors that played into something happening, had their own infinite factors that made those things happen exactly the way they did. When there are things that we don't like,
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when people do things we don't like, when people are a certain way, and we wish they weren't.
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We need only look at the causes, to understand that these people, these things, these situations are happening.
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Because that is the role that was needed to be played in this universe. In this situation.
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We are all simply playing our role. We make these choices based on the experiences of our lives.
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And so all of the combination of things that can happen and roles people can play will be played when those roles become apparent to each person
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at the time, that
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their role is needing to be played. When Beethoven
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composed music, there was a critic there to criticize it.
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As crazy as that may sound, there was someone fulfilling that role, not because they're bad people, not because Beethoven's music was bad, not because Beethoven had bad karma.
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But simply because of a series of events, a person's experiences which shaped their worldview,
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and shaped their personality
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created for the circumstances to find fault in this beautiful music. And as horrible as it was
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after the Great Depression, and after World War One
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when Germany was a battered economy
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one very abused
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person
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from a very early age I
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grew up to fulfill that role of lunatic madman dictator
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And that hateful man who used all of that hatred and anger in that society
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would
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empower himself to become
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the Adolf Hitler, we all now.
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And just as everything has a cause, and everything happens, because of so many factors that came before it, the two World Wars led to the longest peace piece in Europe's history.
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And so,
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within every situation, within every person, within every object, and choice that we make, within it is the yin and the yang, the light in the dark,
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there is no right choice and wrong choice, there is no
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perfect life we can create. There are only is varying degrees of harm, and help that we are bringing to the world with our actions.
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Sometimes those choices we make will be mindful, thoughtful, and compassionate.
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If we have nourished those qualities within ourselves, if those qualities have been nourished within ourselves by others,
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or they may be unmindful, mindless, thoughtless,
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and can even be cruel, if we have had those qualities nourished within us. And even if we are very mindful,
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we still have that darkness, we may be aware of it.
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But we all have that yin yang, every single one of us. And that yin yang, is light on one side, and dark in the other. And on the side, that is light, is a point of darkness. And on the side that's dark is a point of light.
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And because even in the dark, there is light, even in the light, there is dark, and they are both in the union.
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It takes ugliness to recognize beauty. It takes beauty to recognize ugliness.
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It takes
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it takes war, to value peace.
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It takes hard work to enjoy rest.
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It takes repression, to value freedom.
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And so even if we could design a more perfect world,
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more perfect than perfect.
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So such as World Peace, and no weapons, we could be creating the circumstances that would
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quickly deteriorate into fascism. Because when we get rid of all the weapons,
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the person with the largest stick is God.
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And so we almost need this balance, which is
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this steady, fight for good
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against evil. And
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the fact that we're all here shows us that love is stronger than hate.
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And we can be grateful to our oppressors, our enemies, those who would harm and to our own suffering,
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for containing within them, the seeds of peace, the seeds of love and freedom. And so when it comes to our meditation,
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a practice designed to help us through suffering
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to help us be more compassionate.
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We can also recognize
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that that suffering that our trapped in thoughts
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have led us to meditation. And that with meditation, we learn to dig deep
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notice, except, and even appreciate, all have our thoughts and feelings, and that full spectrum of emotions and to fully be in our being. When we are not feeling well, it is very natural to not want to fully be in our body.
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It is natural to want to avoid
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ourselves distract ourselves. Many people like to get obliterated from alcohol and drugs and
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adrenaline pumping activities. And as a long term meditator, I really get it. There are many days where I do not want to meditate. It is not fun. And I would rather do just about anything else.
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But what I have found personally, is that, however I'm feeling before meditation is never how I'm feeling at the end of meditation.
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And it is a catalyst for complete change,
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and transformation. Also, as a longtime meditator, I know what it's like to fall off the wagon, skip a day,
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a day turns into a week. And I reach a place where I need meditation, so bad, I can't even do anything else. And I need like one or two hours of meditation, because I haven't been doing my 20 minutes a day or my 30 minutes a day.
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And sometimes it can get to a place where you feel great, you've been doing it every day for months, and
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you forget why you need it. And so you miss a day here, missed a day there. And it's easy to fall out of that habit. And it really does take a consistent habit in order to create that lasting change we all want.
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But on the flip side, on the Yang side of the Yin.
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Sometimes we need that contrast, we need to fall out of it, to remind ourselves why we're doing it in the first place. And to fully see the difference it makes in our lives.
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And as the theme of today's show is kind of the yin and the yang. To further go down that path.
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I think of the two different sides to this argument. And one side will tell you never miss a day, no matter what do it. Even if you hate it, even if you have to wake up earlier, or go to bed later, or skip something else. It is the most important thing. And if you just do it every day for the rest of your life, good things will happen.
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And there is 100% truth to that. It is incredibly beneficial. It is not very easy to create a new positive habit, but it is very easy to fall back and lose a positive new habit.
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And for me personally, there truly is no greater habit in my life than the habit of meditation and the impact it has on me and everyone around me that I care about.
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And on the flip side,
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there are many monks I've met and other meditation teachers who say it should never be a chore.
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It should only be done out of love and joy. And if you do it but you hate it, you are not going to stick with it. And you are going to have a miserable time and it can make your bad situations even worse. And like the yin and the yang, there is 100% truth to that.
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If you are
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By reliving a negative story from your life, if you are constantly repeating thoughts in your mind that are negative, and scary, and bringing up very destructive emotions,
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then it can be true that paying attention to those thoughts and giving them your full attention may not be the best thing. In that moment, there is a fine line between
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closing your eyes
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and focusing on your breath, watching your thoughts come and go.
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And
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sitting alone, in quiet, depressed, and constantly, just thinking the worst possible things you can think of, which we often call depression, many depressed people are perfectly fine, sitting with their eyes closed in a dark room,
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and just wallowing in painful thoughts and memories.
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And so we don't want our meditation to look like that.
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And if meditation is stirring up these feelings, and by the end of 20 minutes, you're more depressed instead of less depressed,
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then it may have crossed that line, from meditation into
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depressive thinking. And so those are the two common takes on meditation. And both are equally true.
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And I come in on the middle path, I come in on the both and neither.
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I have learned from people who say, Never miss a meditation, I've learned meditation from people who have said, Never force yourself.
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For me, personally, especially early on,
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it was very important for me to build up that habit to really get good at meditation. By consistency,
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I would notice the difference that meditation would make, and it didn't happen right away. It was a few months before I really noticed my life had completely changed, I really lacked the subtle awareness to notice all the ways meditation was making my mood better, making me more positive,
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more relaxed, comfortable.
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And so it took a long time to gain that subtlety of awareness, which really can only be done in meditation because we remove all big distractions. And we start to observe that very subtle things at very subtle levels, like the breath is a very subtle sensation. And we don't even notice oftentimes how the air brushes past our upper lip when we inhale, and how, when we exhale, it comes back out our nose and we feel slightly warmer air brushing against that moustache area.
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I don't know what that's called for women, but the same area.
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And so as you practice focusing on something very subtle, even a mantra in your mind, which just becomes a thought form. And these very subtle thoughts in our mind become the focal point. Suddenly, we notice more in our everyday life.
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And so mostly for new meditators.
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The benefits from meditation may not be overtly apparent when we are first starting out. And when we feel like we're in a bad mood.
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We may look at meditation, like a chore, like it's a real pain in the butt. And we would rather do anything
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but after a few months of consistency, it's very common to
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not live without it. To feel like
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when we're feeling poorly is the exact right time to do it.
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For me in my life today, when I am
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struggling with anything, when I'm
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I've
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woken up on the wrong side of the bed for no particular reason.
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That is when I need meditation the most. And that is when I'll do an even longer meditation.
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Thanks to my consistency, I've reached a place where just that first breath, when I close my eyes is so rejuvenating, so healing, restorative and peaceful, that it just centers me almost immediately.
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And if you are thinking that I am just a spiritually
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gifted person,
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I assure you that this this boy over here who was diagnosed with a DD and ADHD from a very early age, had a greater struggle with meditation than anyone I've ever met.
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I was the most fidgety person at
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all of my early meditation retreats and ashrams and monasteries that I stayed at.
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I was probably the worst meditator in all these classes, constantly rearranging my body and scratching and fidgeting, constantly opening my eyes just to look around out of boredom, and constantly
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bored, stressed, and thinking.
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I think everybody in the classes probably thought something was wrong with me. But their eyes were pretty much closed the whole time. I knew because I was looking around. So I don't think anyone noticed hopefully too much. But I was the anti theist, most agitated, metod meditator for the longest time. And
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so I did not get that sense of peace, instantly, that I do now. And I am by no means a perfect meditator today, I occasionally miss a meditation, and thoughts are coming and going all the time. But
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if I can just watch one breath, if I can just say one mantra,
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then there is a break in that stream of thought. And there is a moment of freedom from these thoughts.
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And a freedom from going down some train of thought, mindlessly and unconsciously, and just going wherever the next thought that pops into my head comes from, and just going down this rabbit hole of uncontrollable thinking,
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just one moment of awareness, stillness, and peace means that the next thoughts are going to be infused with that mental state.
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And the thoughts become more positive
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and less mindless. And as we become more aware of our thoughts, they stop betraying us, they stop generating our own suffering.
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And they are more likely to generate
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joy,
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and positive feelings of love,
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and gratitude.
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So for me, consistency has really been the key to get to this place, where when I am feeling poorly, meditation is the key. It's the solution.
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And it is really foundational for how I think and feel throughout the rest of the day.
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It's definitely not as easy as a pill.
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But it is more real, because it puts us into our natural state, our natural way of being.
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But that's me. And there is no one size fits all approach.
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If meditation is making you more depressed, or
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diminishing your
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happiness, your peace, your joy,
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then I think it's important to maybe take a meditation retreat, or to
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learn a bit more about it.
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Maybe consistency, or lack of it is the problem is the thing that is pushing us away from meditation. It's our own inner resistance. And so if we look deep, we can see that it's not the meditation, we are resisting, but it is our ego, always wanting to be doing,
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achieving,
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distracting itself, wanting to do anything, except have to look at itself and have to become mindful of what it is always doing, which is thinking it prefers to be unsupervised. And so there is a natural tendency in people to resist meditation.
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And if we're not actually trying to get away from depression, we're trying to get away from meditation, then it's best to move towards the thing that we're running away from, because that's usually the thing we need the most. That usually is the thing that eventually, when we have just had enough when we are at our wits end, it's that thing we've been running away from, that we have become exhausted running away from. That is the thing we need in that moment. And so really look deep into
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how you're feeling, why you're feeling
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what meditation
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makes you feel.
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And if it's not helping, if you want faster progress, or if it is making your mental state worse.
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Then whichever reason you find for this resistance to meditation,
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then that reason will hold the answer for you. And only you will know what you need in this moment. So that is all the information there is about whether to meditate when feeling poorly. And the answer for each of us lies within
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and the best way to find that answer is to quiet the mind. And listen to the heart.
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Thank you so much for listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host Todd Perelmuter. Peace and love.
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You've been listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Being here and putting in this important and noble work is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and others. If you found this podcast even a little helpful. Please make sure to leave a review so it can reach others who may be in need. And remember, the path to peace starts with a single step.