Letting Go

Seems clearer to me now that the main thing meditation enhances is the ability to let go. I even find that I have to consciously choose a line of thinking I want to pursue. I'm not saying that I don't have thoughts popup in to the forefront of my mind, but as and when they do, they just seem to automatically fade away.


One of the hardest things I faced when learning meditation was accepting the inevitable fact that thoughts come to your mind during meditation. Learning to let them go and return to your object of attention is what you are learning, not the annihilation of all thoughts. That may seem strange to some but it was a source of frustration at the early stages of my learning.


You'll find that during the meditation session, the more times you let go, the clearer and easier you can focus your attention. You might find like me, that after several minuets you hit a wall where your attention drifts quite a bit again. This seems to me like when people are doing endurance sports and 'hit the wall', once you're over it, things become easier again.

And just as with each meditation session, you go through cycles of clarity - you may find over the longer term, you experience times where you feel as if you're being knocked back (doubting if it's helping), just to find that once you've over the wall again things are even clearer than before.

Eye twitch gone.

I kept meaning to post this over the last few months. For the last 7 years I've had a rather annoying twitch in my left eye lid. It actually caused my vision to be altered every time it happened, and you can imaging how this could get on your nerves when it's happening 4 or 5 times every hour of every day.

Needless to say I'd read all the advice around; reduce stress, more sleep, good diet, exercise etc, "it will go within a few weeks" - I'm sure they usually do but not this one!

I'd done all that, and for the most part I certainly didn't think I was stressed, I usually slept very well and I'm pretty active. So how come for the last 8 or so months, the eye twitching has pretty much disappeared? Only one thing has changed, I started Meditating about a year ago. All I can think is that it's reduced anxieties that I didn't even realise I had. My mind certainly feels clearer more of the time, and my perspective on life has changed for the better.

I expect because I didn't solely set out to eradicate the twitch, i.e. I'd already accepted it and was no longer focusing on it, probably helped somewhat. Whatever the reasons, I'm very happy it's better.

Live and Learn but Learn to Live.

I'm not sure if that's already a well known saying or not, but I just came up with it and liked the sound of it.

Removing anxieties or unwanted behaviour

A lot of irrational behaviour has evaporated since really getting in to meditation, but for those that do remain I think the key to removing them is;

• Acceptance of the truth behind the behaviour. i.e. is this irrational and exasperated. 
• move on from the acceptance and realise that you can trust yourself to deal with a given situation when it presents itself.
• experience the situation in its true form. i.e. desensitisation. if a specific sound causes frustration, realise there is no longer a need for a direct link between the sound and the frustration.

the hardest thing is when you expect, predict or assume a given reaction is going to occur to a situation. all this does is allow anxiety to play a part in how you react. To be able to trust yourself to deal with situations correctly will help stop reinforcing the old behaviour. 

Keep coming back...

Something to remember about meditation and awareness in general is that the goal is not to spend a continuous period of time without having thoughts, but to be aware of any thought and bring yourself back to focus on your meditation or activity.

The ability to let go of a thought and without dwelling on it, come back to focus is how you build a stronger mind. A side effect is perhaps that you will have less intrusive thoughts but to make your goal the elimination of all thoughts may actually create anxiety in its self.



Training your brain this way reduces anxiety (since you are more effective at letting go) and helps to deal with situations in a more rational, logical and self-aware manor.

After 6 months of meditation I honestly feel my mind is stronger. I no longer have down periods where I feel like retaliating at the world. My perspective on life has changed dramatically, the things in my life are the same but my appreciation of my life has increased.

Quick Update

Haven't missed a day - which I'm really pleased about. There have been occasions when I couldn't meditate in the mornings but I've always managed at least 10mins a day plus walking meditation while out walking the dog.

Have I conquered the hoovering!!!?

For some reason, I've always found it hard to stay in the present moment while hoovering. I couldn't figure out why, during this activity, it was particularly hard to stay focused, but I think I've cracked it!

It was only when talking to my wife about how, believe it or not, when doing things such as parking a car for example, I'd feel like I had to turn the car stereo off to be able to concentrate fully.
Whereas she would quite happily reverse park the car straight into the garage with Gun's and Roses (no accounting for taste) blearing  in the background.

Anyways, I had a think about how the noise of the hoover was making it hard for me to keep focus. I was kind of trying to focus on the movements and feelings of the activity but the noise would somehow distract me. Then I realised that all I needed to do was just keep my attention on the noises I was making while hoovering.

The sound of the hoover, the plastic mechanisms as I extended the handle, the noise as it glided in different directions on the floor.

Since the hoover makes such a distinctive and continuous noise, your brain still has to take in and compute those noises. Perhaps sometimes there's too much information coming in to be able to split your attention on all the senses.

You wouldn't believe how clear my mind was, which is a stark contrast to some of the places it takes me while hoovering!

Busy Christmas and New Year

I'd glad to say not a day has gone by where I haven't kept up the meditation practices. It's been an extremely busy xmas and new year but I feel I've dealt with it really well.

Those times when I notice my thoughts are busier I've followed the guided meditations I found on the WildMind website, http://wildmind.org/

Particularly when I'm tired from lack of sleep, I find it harder to focus on the detailed sensations of my breathing, so I take longer concentrating on the totality of breathing and very gradually narrow the focus down to a particular point.