LifeForce

It can be common for people to struggle to remain awake on occasions during meditation due to three separate factors (see later on). Regardless of the explanations for having this propensity to doze off, the key resides in applying your awareness. Becoming aware is a core competency to be acquired through meditation, so, intriguingly, being aware is the key to not zoning out during your meditation activities.

The most common reason for people having a tendency to doze off during meditation is unsurprising a result of their hectic or frantic lives. If you have had a busy day or have struggled with stress, then you might identify that you often become drowsy during your meditation. This is simply because your body begins to destress from the pressures of your life as you perform the meditation activity. If you regularly experience this, then take time out to stand or splash some water on your face before proceeding. During the afternoon, lots of people experience an energy slump which can affect them when meditating. If that is the case, then it could be more beneficial for you to practice meditation in the morning when the body is awake. It is also common that a relaxed posture can contribute to the impulse to nod off, so take the opportunity to get started with some improved posture before you start your meditation. It does not mean that you need to sit in a contorted position, just becoming more aware of your body is the key.

A much more bewildering reason why you may become sleepy during your meditation is that your mind is proactively functioning to control your life. This might sound like a dichotomy that falling asleep is because of the activity of your mind. Yet it is effectively your mind which is applying control over you, hindering your ability to successfully practice meditation. In this way you might feel as though you are not succeeding, and that you cannot meditate. When the fact is, your mind is compelling you to be this way to ensure that it can preserve control. If you continue to meditate, you can strive to take back control from your mind, nevertheless be aware that your mind is most likely to strongly resist giving up control at any cost.

The final aspect which is seldom taken into consideration is that through the process of learning to meditate, you can awaken some of the inner energy of your true self. As the energy of your Life Force flows into your body, this can initially lead to a sensation of tiredness or even phasing out. This is simply because your body and mind are not accustomed to these kinds of energy apart from the minuscule quantities which are necessary to keep the human mechanism alive. If you are experiencing zoning out, then the key once more is the application of awareness. Being aware, as mentioned previously, is a cornerstone of meditation and it is never truer than when your Life Force energies begin to come to the fore via advanced meditation. As you apply your awareness, know these energies flow through the energy pathways (meridians) of your body. This knowing, through your awareness, will assist you to maintain your focus and not zone off.

Learning to pause for a moment is an effective way to control your reactions in a world which seems filled with conflict and triggers. Pausing for a moment is very important for your happiness and wellness.

Have you stopped to consider that you may be continually rushing through life, not pausing to notice all the wonder that exists around you? So even if you are not pausing as a means to control your reactions to what you are experiencing in life, try to pause now to savour the moment, whatever that may be.

Simple learning to pause for a moment can be a very powerful tool which not only allows you to moderate your thinking, it also allows you to connect and savour the moments in life.

Be mindful of the destination addiction where you become fixated with the notion that happiness is elsewhere. Until you surrender that concept of happiness is in another place, it is going to never be where you are. So on examination what does this all mean? If you were to answer the question, do you live your life only to get to the end of it? Then most people would say unequivocally no. However in the world today, many people suffer from the belief that success or happiness is the destination. They are always on the run, on the move, and their goal seems to be to get through the day rather than live each day. Such people become addicted to the idea that the future is where success will be found, happiness resides, and that each intervening moment is just a means to get there.

Rather than living in the now, more and more people seem to be living in anything but the now, being psychologically absent and disregarding everything currently in their life. If you find that you are thinking this way, then you are falling into the trap of destination addiction. You continually chase the illusive notion of happiness and literally suffer from your pursuits. In this case, you may find that your goal has not been to enjoy the day, but instead, you have focused on getting through the day. You have always been focused on getting somewhere, foregoing the opportunities to savour the moments of life along the way. When you arrive at the destination, the feeling of success or happiness seems to elude you, as if it has somehow escaped to the next day, week or year. Then the feeling of satisfaction is continually deferred, and you end up living your life in hot pursuit of some extraordinary bliss which you have no idea how to find.

Social media and an era of excess make a major contribution to the pandemic of destination addiction. In the never-ending pursuit of happiness, you may find that you spend increasing amounts of time or money on trying to acquire happiness. But if you are being honest, how often have you found that the happiness so acquired was only temporary? This is made worse by people and companies peddling items and experiences to “totally change your life” or “make you happier than you ever dreamed possible”. Cars with the newest widgets, fancier clothing, more exquisite jewellery or even the latest gadget, can all be symptomatic of this underlying trend to feed destination addiction.

As increasing numbers of us become engrossed in destination addiction, as we tend to rush through as many experiences as quickly as possible. You may find that you start living by the adage of “been there, done that”. Life should not be about destinations or endings; if it were then life would be very different. If life were about the destination then you would only read the last page of any book, have deserts for meals, or only attended graduation day at school or college. Destination addiction is frequently an attempt to get on with life faster, hoping that you will enjoy your life better. Yet constant rushing through life frequently means that you will miss or bypass golden opportunities along the way. In this way, destination addiction is working against you, as you become too busy or too focused on the objective to be aware of life happing around you. It can become increasingly easy to feel empty as if your life is lacking any meaning.

If you are prone to overthinking, then destination addiction is the perfect setup for failure. It can become very common for people to trade short-term gratification in the hope of reaching the ultimate goal. It could be manifest that happiness is the next deal, the next high, the next acquisition, the next drink, or even something seemingly as silly as the next hot-fudge sundae. In all these instances realise that your mind is overthinking and making you believe the proverbial adage that the grass is greener over the next hill. Destination addiction can cause you to become impatient as you attempt to reach your goal. You then end up with little time for yourself and grow evermore impatient as the destination always seems just out of reach.

It is important to be aware that none of us is immune to destination addiction, and we all have times when we have to convince ourselves that better times are ahead. The trouble with destination addiction is that it focuses purely on the end and not on purpose. Fortunately, there is an excellent remedy for destination addiction, but it is often hard to find.

The key to defeating destination addiction is to find happiness in the life you have and to achieve the goals that are important to you, not what you believe will impress everyone else. When you declare that you are content with what you have, where you are and who you are, it is possible to break out of this addiction. You may then find that you begin to live more in the now and savour the full experiences that life avails to you every day. You can then live intelligently with purpose, make the means the end, and also the end the means. Then you may come to the realisation that true happiness never comes from a destination. Happiness comes from within us as you experience and live in the here and now.

As a being of energy and light, you come into this world with the capability to shine the light of your existence out into the world. However, for many of us, our light has become dim and smothered in many layers of emotions. These layers of emotions, particularly those relating to regrets, smother the light. It is like being covered in many thick layers of dirt or mud.

Take a moment to believe that what has been done, is in the past. If you allow yourself to let go of some of the regrets that you hold onto, then you will have the opportunity to remove some of the layers of emotion which cloud the splendour of your true self. As you remove some of these layers of proverbial mud, you have the opportunity for the light of your Life Force to shine out from the darkness. Allow the light of your Life Force to break through the emotional barriers and colour the world around you every day.

Energy is the catalyst and creative force of the universe and life within it, which brings into existence atoms, particles, worlds, stars and galaxies. The human form is made of the very same substance and controlled by the same energies; yet is endowed with a mind to think, examine, reason and learn. However, few of us genuinely understand how our mind functions, let alone realise that what is generally regarded as the human mind is a construct of many different aspects. Broadly speaking, the human mind can be categorised into four main areas. First and foremost is what the majority of people consider the mind, it is your intellect or what is referred to as Buddhi in some old languages such as Sanskrit. Various other aspects of the human mind include your personality (Ahankara), your mental form or body (Manas) and the Spark of Life (Chitta) which connects to the basis of creation within you.

What is perceived as the human mind, is typically that of the brain. This is the component of intellect, the domain of thoughts and thinking, however, this is just a small part of the bigger picture. Our minds are undeniably a lot more than our intellect, as they consist of multiple interrelated parts which function as a whole. The complete intelligence of us as humans is distributed throughout our being. The knowledge and understanding of how to access or use these other components of our intelligence is rarely understood.

We unconsciously use some of these other dimensions of our mind all the time, yet few people are aware of the complex interactions and how our minds function. Consider that you do not know how to conduct your mind, your energies, your emotions or your body, and any effort to understand this could be beneficial for you to fully engage in life.

Your thoughts are energy, but they are just the beginning, as your thoughts interact with the various other facets of your minds. Through obtaining an understanding that you are far more than the intellect of your brain, you can begin to comprehend that there is a great deal more to making life happen. Take the time to pause and think with active intellect is an excellent starting point in life, and can lead you to the greatest discovery of the human minds.

To comprehend who is “Brand You”, you need to first and foremost understand the construct of the personality which adheres to every part of your being, like a really sticky material. Your personality is pervasive to who you think and believe you are. It has the three primary facets of how you perceive yourself to be, how you believe others see you and the actual layers of the thought of others about you.

Your personality is both influenced and affected by numerous other aspects. These include, yet are not confined to conditional thinking, thoughts, emotions and feelings of others; causality or karma (especially of friends and family); astronomical astrological programming; and much deeper elements of your Life Force. Your personality is bi-directional, indicating that it has two distinct sides. This is similar to a stained glass window, which might appear rather drab from one side, whereas when viewed from the opposite side, it can take on an entirely different light.

The concept of “Brand You” is your perception of how the world discerns you, and is in effect the external expression of your personality. Increasingly this facet of your personality is not composed from direct human interactions, but is established and reinforced via your interactions in social media, and the illusionary worlds of computer games and virtual worlds such as the Metaverse. Consider for a moment how you would feel after you make a post on social media or appeared in the news. Think about how your personality can be affected by all of your friends or followers whether they like or comment on your posting; or you receive either no reactions or conversely your post, article or video goes viral. All these reactions on social media generate the energies of thought and emotions which are directed towards you and your personality.

The aforementioned aspects of personality and “Brand You” can become amplified to where the brand becomes much larger than the individual, particularly for celebrities and influencers. This “Brand You” can entirely engulf the personality and dominate that person’s existence in this world. So carefully consider how you project “Brand You” into the world, as all facets of the personality so expressed can bring about numerous lifetimes of accumulated karma

A usual query which people ask is when should I meditate? While there may be various schools of thought on the topic, there is no golden rule as to when to practice meditation as it can be unique to each one of us as individuals. However, many meditation instructors do concur that the most important aspect is to create some time for you, regardless of the time of day or any kind of timetable.

While formal meditation practice in a peaceful location where you are less likely to be interrupted is optimal, there need be no reason why you cannot employ aspects of mindfulness and meditation at any other time in your life. Without a doubt, it can frequently be in these hectic or stressful moments when you require the benefits of your mindfulness or meditation practices the most.

There are lots of times all throughout the day when you can apply your attention to help bring elements of calmness within you. When you travel on a train or bus, you can bring your attention to your breath. As you stroll down the street or take a walk through the park, you could focus on the sounds you hear or the motion of your legs. These practical and straightforward aspects of mindfulness should be incorporated into your daily life, so that mindfulness is not something separate, but is part of living.

In a similar way undertaking full meditation activities must not be treated like a chore which is slotted into an established timeslot each week. While carrying out meditation at a particular time of day can be beneficial, the reason is that doing your meditations at an established time builds a sense of commitment and focus within your meditation practice. Some people discover that it is best to do their meditation in the morning, yet if you are proverbially not a morning person then forcing yourself to do a morning meditation can be counterproductive. Others find it is best to do meditation in the evening to help them unwind and destress from the day. You may find that practising meditation after eating can be less effective, as your physical body is more focused on digesting your food. However, some people have actually discovered that after eating, their body is focused on food digestion, so their minds can be more focused on meditation.

The takeaway from all of this is that meditation can be done at any time. Find a time which works for you, and make use of that time routinely when you are starting to meditate. Once you have become familiar with your meditation techniques and it has become integrated into your life, then there is absolutely no reason why you cannot do meditation at any time throughout the day or night. Ultimately the most important thing is that you invest the time to do meditation on a regular basis to ensure that it becomes a natural part of your life.

Most of the aspects of Breathe with Purpose and Life Force Mindfulness have been developed to make sure that they can be applied at any time. The key is that via practice and repetition, you program the activities into your mind so that they can be conveniently recalled and applied when they are needed.

When you are joyous, happy or in a positive state of mind, your heart and mind, are open to brand-new things. Savour every positive experience and emotion such as joy, to bring a newfound sense of wonderment to life. Even something which might have seemed ordinary can begin to hold a greater significance as you take pleasure in every moment that life offers.

Taking the opportunity to savour joy can be as simple as paying attention to the things that you take pleasure in or that make you happy. If your mind strays try your best to maintain focus on the joyous moments. Spending time to linger on these positive feelings that arise is an incredibly straightforward form of mindfulness. This can lead to a happier outlook, increased self-worth and better resilience when faced with stress and anxiety. If you savour the joy and happiness, it can bring appreciation and positivity to all aspects of your life, and you can gain greater access to your intuition and creativity. This can be partly because you are not burdened or blinded by negative thoughts and feelings which so many of us have on a daily basis.

The process to savour positive elements of life is relatively simple. If you have previously practised some type of mindfulness, you are partway there. Savouring joy is about being aware and centring your attention on some positive experience or sensation in your life. Savouring the people, experiences and things in your life enables you to grow in mindfulness, though it does not require formal meditation.

To initiate this technique, invest some time to recollect a recent experience that you found enjoyable or satisfying. That could be anything, yet if it entails some sounds or physical activity such as a walk on the beach, having a bite to eat with a new mate, or having fun with a pet, it will certainly be easier to keep your focus. Make the effort to recall that positive moment and immerse yourself in the memories. While it may not last forever, really savouring the moment can make it seem like time has virtually stopped. After that choose an additional recent event or experience which gave you satisfaction or enjoyment, and once again recapture the feelings of joy. You are most likely to find that it is much easier to stay in the moment, as the feelings of joy and happiness from your last sensation operate like a magnet, drawing in the positive sentiments. With the increased sentiments, you will be able to sustain a stronger focus on the happy moments.

Our daily lives are full of opportunities to appreciate, and express gratitude for the things that bring us joy and a sense of satisfaction and happiness. Savouring these positive moments can provide you with an oasis amidst the challenges of life. Gradually, you can develop a growing awareness of the origins of joy, satisfaction and happiness which can boost the positive influences in your life.

There are very clear benefits of recollecting these moments of joy and happiness, including improved physical and psychological health. While savouring can be beneficial, it does not deny the reality of what is difficult in our life such as challenging emotions. When you find yourself in an unpleasant mood, consider that you cannot be open to new ideas, regardless of just how fantastic or amazing they are. Without some joy in your heart, life can seem to be slow and frequently dull or uninteresting. However, this practice of savouring can enable you to bring positivity to your life by paying attention to what feels good.