Hey my friend,
Are you able to stay centred?
or does your mind pull you in every which-way?
You see, when I was 16-years old my biggest problem in life was that I was hopelessly addicted to chasing dopamine…
All I would do all day was chase temporary highs through video games (league of legends), pornography, smoking weed, and eating junk food…
the problem?
it made me feel depressed….
But I didn’t know how to stop.
It seemed like my mind would convince me to “just play one more game” … or “just watch one more video…”
and no matter how hard I tried…
it’s like I couldn’t resist this alluring pull.
It’s like my mind would hypnotize me and put me to sleep…
and the next thing I knew I was 6 joints deep…
or I was playing league of legends until 4am (on a weeknight)
the result?
I was always drained, exhausted, and self-loathing…
It kind of reminds me of the character Poison Ivy from Batman …
she’s a seductive villain who uses this hypnotic love-powder to blow in the faces of men and cause them to fall under her spell and become hypnotized…
they completely lose themselves under the weight of their desire…
and then, when they finally kiss her…
they die.
. . .
Today I was meditating…
and I noticed myself getting bullied around by the energies in my body and mind…
it’s almost impossible to describe…
But it’s almost like the thoughts, desires, daydreams, cravings, sensations, aversions, habits, fears, become so strong … that I find my body moving on it’s own.
It’s like all of a sudden I’m scratching an itch and I didn’t even realize it…
or I’m daydreaming about food or some imaginary situation…
or I’m coming up with 1000 reasons to quit early and go do something else…
it’s in these moments…
that I have to remind myself of what my meditation teachers taught me:
Meditation is about building resilience. Many of us get “bullied around” so easily by the ‘energies’ of our body/mind… we can’t even sit still for longer than 5 minutes!
The way that we ‘build resilience’ is through gentle awareness, “touch and go.”
When we feel an uncomfortable sensation… we don’t immediately react to it… (by trying to push it away or bring it closer)
Instead, we just experience it fully… and don’t move.
We label it, “thinking” or “feeling” and then return our attention back to our practice (awareness of the breath, or body scanning)
Over time, we build more resilience to the crazy whirlwind that is the mind… and we don’t get pulled around by every single passing thought / urge.
So, listening to my teachers advice, that’s what I did. I allowed the thought-stories, urges, cravings, justifications, explanations, fears, worries, to simply pass.
Being aware of them… but not getting sucked into them.
After 2 minutes… the difficulty passed… and I experienced an intense calm
*ahhhhh*
BUT WAIT!!!!!
The point is not to cling to the calm either!
(“this will pass too!”)
So, I noticed the calm, and simply continued my practice (by remaining aware)...
lest I get sucked into it like one Poison Ivy’s victims…
eventually… everything passes…
and we have to learn to *stay centred* in pure open awareness.
The Buddha is present in all lands.
This means that, in all moments, we have to remember the Buddha’s example.
He sat under the Bodhi tree, unmoving, for 40 days and 40 nights, until he eventually became liberated.
He was able to clearly witness each passing experience… without a drop of passion or aversion (not pulling them in or pushing them away).
When we follow in his footsteps… by training our minds in a similar way…
we can also learn how to “stay centred” in all moments…
so that we don’t get sucked in to Poison Ivy’s game (of endlessly being pulled around by our craving-distracted minds).
That’s how we can be of greatest benefit to ourselves, and to all beings… and to fully enjoy our lives aligned with our purpose and our highest selves.
Joy, peace, bliss, compassion, excitement, creativity, abundance, they’re all yours!
If you can learn how to master your mind.
Otherwise, it’s another 100 lifetimes stuck in endless craving. 😉
Okay, I hope this was helpful for you!
Stay tuned, as I got more great insights about meditation and self-actualization on the way!
And we’ll chat soon!
Peace ✌🏻🧘🏻♂️❤️🙏🏻
-Adam
P.S. Would you be interested in a brief “mini-course” where I go deeper into the mechanics of meditation, how to sit properly, stay centred, stay consistent, and stick with it over the long run so that you finally achieve more peace and self-awareness? I’m thinking of making one. Subscribe to my newsletter and respond to my email if you’d like that!
