Meditation helps us “Sit with it”

Sitting with ourselves, our thoughts, emotions and sensations can be a scary (often avoided) practice. Meditation is a powerful practice to help us find this process easier to do. On the plus side of “sitting with it” we find healing.

In Meditation we experience freedom and we discover happiness. We all deserve that!

Meditation has many benefits to our overall wellness.

An immediate short term benefit of Meditation is that we get to practice going from activity of the mind to a quieter, calmer mind. Although we may not always feel like we are successfully calming the mind in every meditation – every single practice of meditation IS moving us closer to this benefit. This short term daily benefit results in many long term benefits.

Long term benefits of a daily meditation practice are numerous and today we are going to talk about the long term benefit of being able to “sit with ourselves”

How is “sitting with ourselves” a benefit?

In the ability to sit with whatever is showing up for us , we have the opportunity to transform and release the emotion, the thought, the pain or the situation that is hindering us.

When we are met with any of these uncomfortable experiences, as humans we have the tendency to react in any number of ways.

We may try;

• Running from them
• Ignoring them
• Denying them
• Blaming someone else (deflecting it)
• Numbing them
• Drinking them away
• Eating them away
• Smoking them away
• Shopping them away
• Sleeping them away
• Distracting ourselves with mind numbing activities like scrolling on social media or watching TV
• Distracting ourselves with work or the busyness of our life. (no time to feel or deal)

The only way to truly release and transform thoughts, emotions or pain in our body & mind though – is to sit with it.

We need to FEEL it

Then we can heal it

Healing happens when we feel.

Meditation helps us to do this.

If you are uncomfortable with just the thought of sitting with yourself and all the thoughts, emotions and pains in your body that surface – then you are on the verge of some powerful change.

Chances are if you are unable to sit in stillness or silence because your thoughts are way too loud or the emotions are way too strong or the sensations of pain in your body are intolerable then these unfelt, unheard experiences are showing up in some big ways in your life.

They may show up as;

• Unhappiness
• Depression
• Sadness
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Anger at the small stuff (like traffic and/or things you have no control over)
• Anger and frustration at the people you claim to love the most.
• Shame
• Addictions
• Acute and chronic pain (may start as acute then lead to chronic if left unresolved)
• Illness/sickness (acute or chronic)
• Accidents
• Injuries

We all experience some degree of all of the above mentioned points. Most of them are a part of the human experience. The thing is; we don’t have to suffer like we humans think we do. There is another way of living and it has nothing to do with what is going on in the world around us. It has everything to do with what is happening on the inside.

By adopting a regular daily meditation practice we learn how to sit with our discomforts, we learn how to sit with the mental chatter of our mind and the inner critic. We learn how to sit with our physical, mental and emotional pain.

It isn’t easy

At first it may even seem impossible and we may wonder WHY one would even WANT to.

Why DO we want to?

Because when we practice sitting in stillness and silence every day;

• We learn to observe our thoughts, emotions, sensations and experiences without judging them.
• We learn to feel our emotions and sensations without fearing them.
• We stop getting carried away by the stories we tell ourselves.
• We learn to breathe with and through the discomforts and we let them just be.
• We learn that we will be okay – no matter what shows up.
• We learn we are stronger and more resilient than we gave ourselves credit for.
• We find out who we truly are under the fear, anxiety, anger, frustration and pain.
• We discover our heart.

As we practice meditation on a daily basis, we find we no longer entertain or feed into the thoughts, emotions or situations.

No story, emotion or situation can gain momentum if we choose not to entertain or feed it

Instead we simply sit with it.

We no longer fight against or push anything away.

Instead we simply sit with it all.

We let everything simply be and we breath into any and all discomfort.

We FEEL everything and we listen for the messages.

There is ALWAYS a message in every discomfort and there is always something for us to learn.

There is always an opportunity in every obstacle and in every situation.

If we bypass stillness and avoid dropping into the awareness of our body and what we are feeling and experiencing then we are missing out on very important messages from our body. We are missing out on some big healing opportunities. 

Change happens when we sit in stillness and silence and allow ourselves to feel what we are feeling.

When we feel, we heal.

Meditation helps us to feel the emotion, listen to the emotion and learn from the emotion.

When we allow ourselves to “sit with the emotion” the emotion has less power over us. As we meditate regularly and are open to learning about ourselves in the discomfort, then we see the emotion as a message and it is transformed. It then dissipates & releases.

This is the power of meditation.

This is the power of “sitting with it”

Learn to meditate.

Learn to sit with yourself.

Learn to sit with your thoughts, your emotions, your inner critic and your Soul.

Meditation is simple to learn.

Yet, it is not easy to do – which is why we practice it every day

Meditation is a powerful tool that we can practice to allow ourselves to sit.

As we sit we learn to observe our thoughts.

As we sit we learn to feel.

As we sit we learn to release judgements of our thoughts and emotions.

As we sit we learn to fear less and love more.

As we sit we hear the whispers of our Soul.

As we sit we learn who we are.

As we continue to practice meditation on a daily basis, we realize that there is a message in everything and we begin to not only learn so much about ourselves but we let go of so many beliefs, thoughts and emotions that no longer serve us.

Most importantly we learn that happiness is an inside job and no matter what is going on around us – we can be happy, free and at peace.

Meditation is life changing.

The Next Two  week’s Intention

1. Sign up for a meditation class and learn to meditate.
2. If you already know how to meditate – commit to sitting in stillness and silence every day.
3. Open your mind and body to the process of feeling your discomforts and allow yourself let go of the pain.
4. Practice self-love.
5. Practice non-judgement

If you would like to sign up for on-line meditation classes contact me at leslie@wellnessdefined.ca or

Call or text at 780 722-3442

Recordings are available in the library for approx. 6 months at a time.

As a “Personal Development” – “All-Inclusive” or “VIP” Member you will have access to all the recordings as long as you are a member.

Tuesday March 7^th begins our next Learn to Meditate series – however joining in at a later date still gains you access to the recordings – it doesn’t matter when you are reading this – we can start you on the right path to feeling and healing your mind, body and soul.

Monday March 13^th there will be no Tap in or blog post as I will be returning from my Retreat Sunday evening and will need the next few days to decompress from the beautiful experience. I have learned to honor myself in these following days and lightening my load is a great self-care tool. The fitness and Yoga classes will be as scheduled on Monday March 13^th – those I will need and are also self-care tools

Namaste my friends;

Leslie