{"id":2230,"date":"2014-11-25T01:14:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T01:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/why-i-love-meditation\/"},"modified":"2014-11-25T01:14:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T01:14:41","slug":"why-i-love-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/why-i-love-meditation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Love Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why I love meditation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I love meditation because it \u201cwakes me up\u201d and allows me to experience life for real<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Before I encountered meditation \u2013 and the path of \u201cwaking up\u201d \u2013 I was trapped in my mind (and I didn\u2019t even realize it at the time). \u00a0I was experiencing all kinds of uncomfortable things, like anxiety, depression, ADD, etc on pretty much a constant basis.<\/p>\n

Then, one day, while walking around in my normal fog of anxiety and ADD, I walked into a \u201cbook store\u201d called \u201cBorders.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s where people used to buy things to read before the internet put them all out of business.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest\u2026 I wasn\u2019t really looking for books. \u00a0I was looking for hot, smart girls (one of my many cravings\/addictions at the time). \u00a0I spotted a cute brunette standing next to a table with some books on it. \u00a0I walked over, picked up a book and opened it up to a random page so that I could say \u201chmm\u201d out loud, and make some interesting comment to get a conversation going. \u00a0Pretty sneaky huh?<\/p>\n

I honestly don\u2019t remember which paragraph it was that I read, but it probably went something like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go beyond the thinking mind, you become aware of just Being<\/em>. \u00a0You can\u2019t become aware of Being by thinking about it. \u00a0Your mind can\u2019t understand what it\u2019s like to go beyond the mind. \u00a0You can only experience it, now.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stopped for a moment to try to figure out what he meant. \u00a0I wanted to \u201cexperience it\u2026\u201d being aware of Being, \u201cbeyond the mind,\u201d whatever that meant. \u00a0All of a sudden, a shiver ran up my spine. \u00a0My mind was quiet. \u00a0I was aware of just BEING, for the first time since I was a little child.<\/p>\n

I looked around the room,\u00a0and it was like I had never seen the world before. \u00a0I saw everything so much more CLEARLY\u2026 as if in HD. \u00a0The books, the tables, the people\u2026 even the space between the objects. \u00a0I was able to feel my body, as if for the first time. \u00a0Everything was quiet<\/em>\u2026 I was able to hear the sounds around me for the first time in as long as I could remember.<\/p>\n

It reminded me of what it was like to be a child. \u00a0There was a joy and a curiosity in just BEING ALIVE\u2026 just looking around with curiosity and amazement. \u00a0\u201dWow, look at this place!\u201d<\/p>\n

For lack of a better way of saying it, it felt like waking up after having been completely immersed in a dream.<\/p>\n

I looked at the room around me, I looked at myself, and I felt like I was a kid\u00a0in a book-store-playground. \u00a0Except now I was a grown-up and I could do whatever I wanted!<\/p>\n

It felt like I was a child who had fallen asleep, sleepwalked through life for 15 years in the dream of my mind, and now, in a moment, woken up in a bookstore.<\/p>\n

The shivers that were running up my spine were making me feel lighter, like a burden had been lifted off my shoulder after years and years of carrying it around. \u00a0I read another paragraph. \u00a0It said something about how the mind can feel like a heavy burden if we never learn to put it down, and how when we enter \u201cThe Now,\u201d there\u2019s a feeling of lightness and joy\u2026 a feeling of childlike happiness that wells up from within and fills one\u2019s entire being. \u00a0Joie de vivre, the joy of life, that flows in when one is aware of Being in the present moment.<\/p>\n

I looked at the front cover of the book. \u00a0It was called \u201cThe Power of Now.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s a book that I never would have picked up if not for my sneaky, sneaky tricks. \u00a0I guess I should thank the girl who was standing at that table, but I\u2019ll never know who she was. \u00a0In that moment, I looked at the book, I looked at the girl, and I smiled as I sat down to read on. \u00a0I must have read for an hour and a half before I stood up, went downstairs and bought the book. \u00a0That book changed my life forever.<\/p>\n

After being trapped in my mind for my entire adult life, I felt freed by this book. \u00a0I could still think just as well, but I didn\u2019t feel the need to be thinking ALL THE TIME. \u00a0The moments of Just Being were blissful and frequent. \u00a0I found myself doing things I never imagined I would do, backpacking alone through mountains and jungles, journeying across the face of the Planet.<\/p>\n

Only when I found myself in Thailand did I fully realize the power of meditation. \u00a0It\u2019s the key to waking up from the dream of thought.<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I used to have a lot of nightmares. \u00a0Sometimes, I would realize that I was dreaming, and I would try to wake myself up. \u00a0I would lie down on the dream floor, and then JUMP UP. \u00a0I thought that would wake me up, but it never did. \u00a0Sometimes I would try to yell (within the dream) to wake myself up. \u00a0That didn\u2019t work either. \u00a0You can\u2019t wake yourself up by doing things within the dream. \u00a0You can only wake yourself up by going beyond<\/em> the dream and becoming aware<\/em> of your body, and the room around you, in real life.<\/p>\n

Before that moment in the book store, I walked around for over a decade, living in a dream, not even realizing that I was asleep. \u00a0That moment of \u201cwaking up\u201d reminded me of the real world. \u00a0I became aware of my body, in real life. \u00a0I became aware of the room around me.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, my mind was so used to dreaming that I would continuously fall back asleep. \u00a0I would go for months before waking up again\u2026 living a life of 99.99% sleeping, 0.01% experiencing. \u00a0Sometimes I would pick up The Power of Now and it would wake me up. \u00a0Sometimes it wouldn\u2019t, and then I\u2019d get really frustrated, knowing that I was dreaming, but being unable to wake up.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, when I\u00a0notice that I\u2019ve gotten sucked into the dream of mind, all I have to do to wake up is to stop for a moment and meditate. \u00a0It only takes a few seconds, and it wakes me up\u2026 every time.<\/p>\n

And that is why I love meditation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love meditation because it \u201cwakes me up\u201d and allows me to experience life for real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,3,39],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-why-meditate","tag-benefits","tag-meditation","tag-subjective"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Love Meditation - Meditation Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/why-i-love-meditation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Love Meditation - Meditation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I love meditation because it \u201cwakes me up\u201d and allows me to experience life for real.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/why-i-love-meditation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Meditation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Meditation-Magazine-565383236930078\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kevin.ellerton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-25T01:14:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Screen-shot-2014-11-24-at-8.17.34-PM1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"775\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"463\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Ellerton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Ellerton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin Ellerton\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1116a060c43d0d9dbf2c522ea4f9f2f9\"},\"headline\":\"Why I Love Meditation\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-25T01:14:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1095,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/05\\\/Screen-shot-2014-11-24-at-8.17.34-PM1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"benefits\",\"meditation\",\"subjective\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Why Meditate?\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/why-i-love-meditation\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Love Meditation - 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