Well, hello wonderful people! So, meditation. When you hear this word, what is the first thing that comes in your mind? Maybe a bald guy ,sitting in Lotus position and smiling?... or the Meditating Buddha? Someone sitting on a hill... chanting "ommm"... Well, probably probably. Now let's take a look at the misconceptions that have been going around for quite a while about meditation.
-No, you don't have to be bald to meditate.
- No ,you don't have to be a Buddhist monk to meditate.
- No, you don't have to really belong to any religion to meditate.
- No, you don't need Buddha statues and fancy 10.000 $ altars to meditate.
Alright , so most people think that when you meditate you have to really force yourself to totally empty your mind. Is this the case? No, not really. You see, our brain is constantly working, even when we're sleeping. It is said that we have more than 70.000 thoughts approximately every day. And that's a lot, I know. So , emptying your mind? Hmh.. you can definitely try it, but it's not something I do. In my judgement, meditation is about calming your mind, observing your thoughts and letting them pass by. When, you meditate, you observe your thoughts and you just let go of all tension.
The other day, I was teaching my daughter how to meditate, and I noticed she made the same mistakes that I used to make when I first started to dabble in meditation. Breathing deeply is great. It helps you relax more, calm your mind, let go of all tension, alter your consciousness, etc. However, please do NOT force yourself. Breathe deeply, as long as it feels comfortable for you. Do not stress yourself. Do not overdo it. Also, do not force yourself to relax, and do not get disappointed if you can't relax fully. Just let it be and let go. For beginners at least, meditation can be tricky if not hard at first, so give yourself some time to get used to it, and you'll get there.
Moreover, like I said above, you don't have to sit in Lotus position to meditate. Do not do anything that feels uncomfortable to you. Your back should be straight because that helps you relax more, and also it helps the energy flow. Also, you can lie down, but most people choose not to, because you might fall asleep and that's not what we're looking for.
Furthermore, do protect yourself before you meditate. You can have some protective crystals around, or protective amulets charms, etc. You can by all means cast a circle too. Why? Because when we meditate , we open ourselves up, and we need to be protected.
Last but not least, why meditation is so important? Meditation is really important; can't stress that enough, because we learn how to relax ourselves, and alter our consciousness, thing which is pivotal when doing magick. Also, we can do a huge variety of things, through meditation, things like Pathworking, astral projection, finding your spirit guides and so on.