3 Mindset Shifts for Better Meditations
You’ve likely heard various tips and tricks for how to begin a meditation practice, such as utilizing guided meditation apps, finding classes near you, and learning the many different types of meditation techniques.
While these tips are all incredibly helpful in learning about meditation and beginning a personal practice, I’ve found there’s less information online about the mindset one needs to have in order to create a fulfilling practice.
Much of the focus tends to be on the more external aspects of the practice, like mudras (hand postures), setting the space (think meditation pillows and candles), or finding the perfect meditation instructor.
These all have their purpose and can definitely help better your practice, but I’ve found that the most integral component of creating a practice that nourishes you, expands your consciousness, and improves your quality of life, is to shift how you view meditation as a whole.
So, here are 3 mindset shifts for a better meditation practice!
In This Blog Post, We’ll Cover:
✓ Why Your Mindset About Meditation is So Important
✓ 3 Mindset Shifts for Better Meditation
Meditation is not “clearing” the mind.
There is no right way to meditate.
Meditation doesn’t have an end goal.
✓ A 7-Day Meditation Course to Enhance Your Practice + an Exclusive Offer!
Why Your Mindset is So Important
The mind is programmed from the moment we’re born to intake and process information from our direct experience. Every interaction, relationship, experience, and feeling have a profound impact on what the brain stores and chooses to believe. Because of this, the internal dialogue that you experience is more often than not determined by the perspectives and beliefs that you’ve been conditioned to live and think by.
Many of us have been conditioned in some way or another to criticize, to judge, to shame, to expect, to move quickly, to always be on the go, to be doing. This conditioning can be internally projected (meaning we are harsh on how we view ourselves), externally projected (we’re harsh on how we view others and the world around us), or a combination of both.
When beginning a meditation practice, the mindset you have can determine how you perceive your ability to meditate, the concept of meditation, and whether it’s something you can actually do or not.
Throughout my personal spiritual journey, I’ve heard friends and clients alike say that they’re “not able” to meditate because they couldn’t quiet their mind or they couldn’t sit still in the postures they typically see online. My response has always been to direct them towards the mindset shifts that are featured in this article, because I genuinely believe that shifting your perspective on something can significantly improve your direct experience with it.
3 Mindset Shifts for Better Meditation
1. Meditation is not the “clearing” of the mind. it’s the observance of it.
The stereotypical imagery of meditation is someone sitting cross-legged, thumb and forefinger touching in the Gyana mudra, chanting “Ohm”, and clearing their mind. This imagery follows us into our adult perspective, leaving many of us to feel that meditation is something exclusively for yogis and advanced gurus.
“I could never meditate because I can’t clear my mind.”
The good news, my friend, is that meditation isn’t the clearing of the mind, it’s the observance of it. Meditation is the interrupter of the internal chatter of your brain, but rather than cutting in mid-sentence to “fix” the thought or pushing the thought away, meditation interrupts the chatter by witnessing it.
The quieting that you so often hear in relation to meditation doesn’t come about by forcing the brain into silence. Contrarily, the silence comes organically as you create space to bring awareness to your mind and what exactly it’s talking about when it chatters all day long.
Meditation is the intentional witnessing of the self.
It’s completely normal (because you’re human with a human conditioned brain) to seemingly experience an influx of thoughts when you sit down to meditate. This doesn’t mean that you’re “bad” at meditating or that you’re doing it wrong. What it more so implicates is that your mind isn’t currently being distracted, and therefore has nothing to do or focus on to draw away from the chatter, and you (your actual self) is witnessing the constant noise the mind thinks it must create in order to fill silence, fill gaps in time, to be “productive.”
Through a consistent meditation practice, you’ll begin to notice just how much your mind talks to you throughout the day. But you’ll always have the knowing that the purpose of your practice isn’t to forcibly submit the brain into silence, but to simply notice it.
2. There is no “right way” to meditate.
Let’s briefly return to the stereotypical image of meditation we tend to see - sitting cross-legged, long Ohhhmmms, the expression of pure concentration.
Was this how you perceived meditation to be at one point? If so, how has it influenced your idea of how you should meditate?
The beauty of the personal meditation practice is that it’s just that - personal. There are no requirements of what your practice should look like, how long it should be, or how often it should be. Everyone’s journey + practice are unique, meaning that what resonates with one individual may not resonate with another.
Sitting cross-legged and chanting may not resonate with you, but laying down and breathing deeply into your belly might. You may really enjoy guided meditations, feeling the most confident and encouraged with the assistance of a meditation instructor. Or you may feel really good when you dance intuitively for an hour or so, being fully present in the rhythm of the music and aware of every sensation that you experience.
There are so many modalities and techniques for meditation, meaning there is no “right way” to do it. If your practice is deepening your self-awareness, expanding your perspectives, and bringing stillness into your daily life, then it’s the right practice for you.
3. There is no end goal of meditation, only presence.
The goal of meditation is not enlightenment, nor is it “ego death”, or any other term you’ve likely heard as the purpose of meditating. Upholding these ideas (that there is an end goal to meditation) creates space for self-judgment, criticism, and expectation.
As you read earlier, your mind likely has been conditioned for criticism in some way or another, and it can be so easy for that criticism to be turned inward if you feel a goal or something you’re “supposed to feel” isn’t happening.
This is why it’s so important to know that the purpose of meditation is simply to be with yourself. In this space of being, there is no striving, no forcing, no expecting, no doing. There is only you, the conscious awareness of your breath, and the moment this awareness exists in.
So much of the disconnection we experience with ourselves stems from the constant urge to move, to plan, to create, to organize, to understand. When we create the intentional space for nothingness (and to know that nothingness is very purposeful), we allow the frayed internal fibers within us to begin reconnecting. In this reconnection, we can cultivate more self-awareness, more self-love, and more awareness and love for the world around us.
There is no end goal, the purpose is always in the moment with you.
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I hope this blog post has helped you in shifting your mindset around meditation so you can have a better practice.
I look forward to seeing you in Inner Sanctuary!
With love,
Meet the Author
Hey! I’m Alexandria - Certified Holistic Life Coach, Breathwork + Meditation Teacher, and Intuitive Healer.
My passion is facilitating spaces for you to heal, grow, and align with your highest potential. Through Intuitive Soul Coaching, Conscious Breathwork + Meditation, and Quantum Sessions, I help clients just like you to dive into their inner depths to ascend higher.
If this work feels resonant with you and you’d like to learn more about how we can work together, book a FREE 45-Minute Soul Discovery Call TODAY.