Meditation Real Control For Your Life – May 2008

Unfortunately, many people feel jaded or let down because of past bad relationships or professional failures. They're actually more focused on their regrets than on their dreams and desires and, as a result, get more of the former than the latter. You look for what you don't want by focusing on it. Daily meditation offers a way out of that mindset and into a more positive one.

Meditate, you say? I don't know how to meditate! That's the reaction I get from most people when I tell them to meditate on how they would like their lives to be. However, most people do know how to meditate; it's simply in the opposite direction. The average person spends one hour a day in negative thought, worrying. Do you know how to worry? How much time do you spend worrying about your kids, your bills or your relationship?

Worry is negative meditation. The word 'worry' comes from a root word that means to 'strangle' or 'bite.' In other words, worry can get a stranglehold on you and keep you from living your life the way you're meant to. The worry burns your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical energy that could be better spent living. As a result, every one is already an expert in meditation. You just need to change the focus!

Compelling research by psychologist Martin Seligman has found that people who recall three things they are grateful for each day, experience significantly higher levels of happiness. One small change in perception produces a global change in outlook!

I tell people to spend some time every morning thinking about what they're grateful for, because we tend to be most imbalanced in the morning. Sleep regenerates us and gives us clean slate to start over next day. The problem is that we usually wake up where we left off. We think about what's wrong or what we have to do, rather than the potential of a new day and all that we've accomplished before it. When we wake up and we're coming back to ourselves, we can think, I hate my life! My job is stressful or I don't like who I'm sleeping next to. So you have to start the process as soon as you wake up. Lie there for 2-5 minutes and think of what you are grateful for to start the day out right.