What Are You Meditating For?
There is a certain type of psychology called Alderian psychology. A small part of this psychology focuses on the purpose of something that you do instead of the cause of something you do. With a lot of reflection, I think that sometimes we can focus a lot on the causes of what leads us to do things, but whenever you’re looking at the perspective of meditation, I think taking this approach of what is the purpose of why I’m doing this is inherently more helpful with this practice.
When I start meditating, I find it really helpful to go into it with an intention or purpose of why I’m doing it. I find that this helps me guide my mind on what I want to focus on, and it’s also something that I find myself using outside of meditation as well.
When I’m meditating, I find that typically I am meditating to find some sort of peace about something. My intention usually stems along the line of something to do with answering a question, letting go of something that I may be overthinking, or just to really calm my brain. I am typically meditating for peace, but I’m also meditating to learn practices to use in life outside of meditating.
There’s a lot that I’ve learned through meditating and I find that I can utilize it outside of my practice. However, my practice is what makes the things I learn useful outside of actually meditating. Outside of meditating I take that purpose of being intentional and I apply it to my thoughts.
As an over-thinker, I am no stranger to ruminating, thinking about things that may be the worst case scenario, or having trouble letting my brain rest. When I go back to that tool of setting my intention that I talked about earlier, I ask myself what my intention of ruminating or thinking about this is. When I ask myself that question I find that it helps me get back into alignment, because I usually have no purpose of ruminating. Practicing being in alignment and being calm is what meditating feels like to me.
So my purpose of meditating is to create the intention that I want to see in my day-to-day life. The intention of being calm, being able to manage my thoughts and my way of thinking, and making sure that when I feel out of alignment, I know what it feels like to get back into alignment. I find when I’m in alignment, I am able to make the best decisions for myself. I’m able to have conversations that line up with who I really am and my thoughts and behaviors match who I know I am and what I want. So overall, meditation for me has a huge purpose in my life.
It’s an essential practice for someone that is an over-thinker because it gives you the tools to reign in that part of you that can be really destructive and has been for me. It’s a tool that I do lose from time to time, but I know that I need to go back to it when I’m feeling that disconnect from being able to get back into alignment or to manage my thoughts.
Meditation is something that is really important to me and helps me shape myself into a version of me that is comfortable and that flows, and that is how I know that my practice is working for me.
