How to Clear Your Mind
After reading many articles about meditation, you’ve decided to put on some comfortable clothing, sit in the lotus position, close your eyes, and wait for your mind to clear. But it seems like it will never happen. Clearing your mind is one of the most complicated things to do.
Learning to clear your mind is usually pretty difficult, especially at the beginning, or when you feel really stressed. In this article, we’ll tell you how you can fix that.
The mind doesn’t have an on/off switch
The mind is not a device that can be disconnected or turned off (luckily). The process is a little more complicated than simply removing a plug from an outlet or pressing a button. So how can you completely clear your mind?
The question we should really be asking is, does the brain need to be idle in order to meditate? Teachers will certainly tell you so, but it seems like this is not an essential condition for reaching the desired “enlightenment.”
Why? Because it’s a bit complicated to make your thoughts vanish as if by magic. Remember, we can’t just turn our minds off whenever we want to…
Maybe all you need to do is close your eyes and pay attention to what’s happening inside your body. For example, you could pay attention to the air entering your lungs as you breathe, or your spine crying out for better posture (since we’re used to bending it all day). Why not take advantage of the moment and listen to relaxing music, the sound of birds chirping, or the sound of the ocean?
Ideas pop up in our minds without being asked to, and they leave in the same way. The more we try to block them, the more intensely they will try to make themselves heard. Therefore, you shouldn’t try to fight them, but rather become friends with them and wait for them to go away on their own.
Don’t try to make your mind go completely blank
Many people (myself included) try to make their minds go completely blank when they meditate. But let me tell you, this isn’t exactly what you should be trying to do. Try to aim for serenity and the ability to notice what’s happening around and within you.
If your mind is distracted by a thought, instead of being sad that you haven’t achieved “mental purity,” you should be happy! This means that you’re aware of your surroundings, and you’re aware that there are thoughts that circle through your head that you need to solve or work on.
Meditation brings mental clarity
Meditation is not an effort or a struggle, but rather a way of observing yourself and finding peace in the best way you can think of.
Is it possible to find calm in the hectic back-and-forth of your thoughts? Maybe it is, but it all depends on you. Experiment with this new way of meditating and analyze whether it was beneficial to you or not. There will be some positive aspects and some not so positive ones, but meditation will certainly help you calm down a little and push away the things that keep you from sleeping at night.
Also, between all the thoughts that appear in your mind, there are blank spaces. Sometimes they’re long and sometimes they’re not, but they’re still blank! These instances of mental clarity and redeeming silence will make you enjoy the experience.
And with practice, these moments will become more frequent and last longer. The point is not to force this to happen, but just to let it be a consequence of your constant meditation. Simply dedicate yourself to enjoying the ride. It will be a beautiful path that you’ll travel, and it will be worth it to wait for whatever needs to happen to achieve your goal.
A walker makes his path by walking
Once you achieve your goal, you’ll realize that the most important thing, like always, was the journey. And you can apply this to any situation in your daily life!
The advantages of meditating are present not only while you’re sitting there with your legs crossed and your eyes closed, saying “om” and listening to mantras. Meditating can benefit you at any moment during the day, even when your working, riding the train, or making dinner.
Every one of your actions can be a meditation, because your mind doesn’t have to be blank in order to do it well! The crucial point, as you probably understand by now, is to be attentive to what’s happening in every moment. The process of achieving space between your thoughts will happen before you know it, don’t worry.
“The Buddha was once asked: ‘What do you and your disciples practice?’ He responded: ‘We sit, we walk, and we eat.’ ‘But doesn’t everyone sit, walk, and eat?’ the man asked. ‘Yes,’ said the Buddha, ‘but when we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.'”
