Nothing that happened in the past can prevent us from being present here and now. 

Here I am, meditating feeling good, happy and stress-free but what next. At first, it may look scary because who I thought I was in the past was only a shell of limited, rigid habits and patterns. Quite the opposite, I’m very influential in creating new links between neurons in my brain. Hence, a new identity able to adapt, gain new skills and most importantly a deep understanding of the power of elevated emotions and thoughts. 

Once there is an experience of oneness by being connected to the unified field then, love and joy are spontaneously triggered without effort. So, changing limiting patterns into healthy habits becomes a matter of “I can so I do”.

What do I mean by that? 

As I mentioned in my previous posts, the space we discover through meditation is the same space of the mind that opens a potential of how we see and experience ourselves. We are no longer an actor playing a role but a writer and a director at the same time. 

We know the missing link between, I want to change a habit but I can’t. We lack motivation which is the power of the heart. Some people spend years travelling around the world to get inspired, not knowing how to connect and open the heart. 

Through meditation, we gain a tremendous ability to self-regulate from damading emotions, on a level that is equal to a metaphor of a snowflake landning on a warmth hand just to melt instantly. Imagine yourself reacting to an event or person with anger or stress, which can be absolutely normal, but the question is how long you want to stay with those emotions, an hour, days, weeks, or years. 

Loosely speaking, various practices of tantra in Buddhism aim to connect to different qualities embodied by deities, like love and wrath. But this is elevating and self-regulating. 

How often do you find yourself in survival mode which can be necessary at a time but it’s damaging in the long run?  

To be able to come back to the heart of peace and the creative mode we need skills to self-regulate on demand. Life is too short to wait for things to happen, and when we’re stressed it’s even shorter. Hence, meditation. If you leave things to heal and settle by themselves it may take a long time. 

Self-regulating is not forcing, it’s a formula. 

Science indicates that feelings and thoughts influence our brain-body chemistry. If it wasn’t true then stress wouldn’t cause obesity, heart problems, depression, and so on. For this reason in reverse, if we elevate the feeling of love reinforced by loving-kind thoughts, wonderful things happen to our body and environment.

Most people only know the outer environment as a source of happiness and love and as a primordial cause of suffering. On the other hand, our inner environment is as responsible as the outer environment for everything that happens to us, more than we think. 

Meditation is a key to our inner environment to be able to elevate and experience the quality of emotions that promote health, creativity and consequently influence the outer environment. 

Through meditation at its core, I find silence, stillness and space so alive. The energy of being nobody and everybody. This is where I regulate my emotions, and thoughts, that is my well-being. Life becomes less determined by the random winds of emotions and thought but more in control of your owm dreams and passions. 

How many times do we find ourselves tired of playing many roles from being a sister, wife, husband, coworker, leader, friend, and ourselves, to name a few? We take on many roles which require different types of energy to be coherent. So if I’m given a role to be a leader I need to recognise it first and then elevate the right energy, which most of the time happens to us spontaneously. Then, I go to see my sister to be a brother, to my wife to be a husband etc. It goes even deeper, to recognise and manage our female and male energies which shape the quality of relationships, especially between a couple. 

Many of us have experienced cultural differences which are again, different ways of thinking and habits that have their reflection in the brain as neuron pathways and therefore energies. After that, we have spirituality, philosophies, beliefs, psychology, science, various education systems and so on. All of it creates unique identities.

Isn’t it astonishing? The plasticity and multidimensional properties of our brain. I like to think of ourselves as having this inner technology that enable us to self-regulate and create on demand.

Lack of coherence creates friction between who we are and who we want to be. 

It comes down to the ability to self-regulate. This is where meditation comes in very handy. So, I stop and connect to the inner space to become a nobody. Then, I connect myself to a role at work, my family member, a friend, spouse. That’s why some people need more time than others (transitions) to shift their energy between different roles, especially if they find it difficult to quiet the mind of thoughts and emotions. 

Other times we may find ourselves with no energy because it’s too much so I may feel like changing roles or being alone. I can try to change my environment and connect to something or someone, but still, it’s not enough to rest. However, if I sit for meditation to become nobody, space, no role, neutral, I can rest, and recharge like a vacation and it happens within the space of my flat. Yes, sometimes I only need a nap.

So the struggle with adaptability, being here and now may have its roots in sending our attention to the wrong place. The energy goes where our attention goes. 

There is another thing to bear in mind. Stress promotes stress, gratitude promotes gratitude. So we deserve what we promote.

Self-regulating allows us to manage our energy, emotions and thoughts, which is a healthy and creative future.

Sometimes we need to elevate different emotions like compassion, kindness, calmness and wrathful depending on circumstances and needs.

Take a moment and look at your thoughts, emotions, and habits from a distance like an observer. This is you! Acknowledge it and know that only you have the power to be the way you want to be and more. 

Next, as you observe yourself from a distance, then take a moment to observe the observer. What do you experience? You may discover that it’s still you but yet another dimension of you without habits, past or future. Now you’re on a ledge of a cliff to experience oneness. The source of all you are and a potential of who you could be. 

Maybe tomorrow you’ll have to face difficulty, for instance, a job interview, health problems, an uncomfortable conversation with a partner etc. Right now I would like you to become aware of the habit of emotions that accompany these events. Take it to your meditation to self-regulate. Do you need more space? Give yourself space.  Do you need self-esteem? Give yourself self-esteem. Do you need …? Give yourself …. 

So, tomorrow morning when you wake up, gently touch your heart, breathe slowly, and elevate gratitude. Acknowledge goodness in you, feel it, see it. Give yourself 3min or more, before checking social media on a smartphone. This is a good habit. 

Good habits give a better chance to make a better choice.

One more thing. If a habit, which we don’t particularly like, is left unchecked, we always go to the past, and we create the same future. 

I talked about how I apply meditation in my life in terms of coherence and self-regulation.  The next time I hope to talk more about the power of meditation in terms of manifesting, and creating.