Information comes at us at such an amazing pace these days; internet, television, radio, billboards, heck, even our phones are pumping information at us constantly. Keeping in touch with the world is not an issue anymore; keeping in touch with ourselves has become our most pressing challenge. We can loose ourselves in the sheer volume of information at our fingertips. This is why I have frequently mentioned meditation in my blogs. We have to take a breath once in a while to catch up with what is going on in our lives.
Meditation is highly misunderstood. Many think that meditation requires us to empty our minds, sit in uncomfortable positions for extended periods of time and forego creature comforts, but this is simply not so. Our quest in meditative processes is simply to still the chattering monkeys in our minds so that we can gather our desired thoughts and move on with life from a position of action rather than re-action.
While it is delightful for me to zone-out in the silence, I also find I can achieve the same results through contemplation, which is really just active meditation. Surfers waiting for the right wave often find themselves in contemplation as do those who fish, jog or simply stroll around the neighborhood. Any activity which allows us to whittle-down the range of thoughts running through our minds will do, and this includes watching the grass grow or paint to dry! As we find this quieter place in mind we discover we can focus on one thought or one idea at a time, and eventually we find we have no specific thoughts or ideas in mind at all, then almost by magic we discover an entire universe of ideas and solutions coming to us so clearly.
In the silence there is no silence at all, there is the Universe speaking to us clearly.
