An Established Anchor

An anchor needs to be established so there’s a place one can return to when the merry go round mind is leading the charge. This is a place where it’s safe and secure away from the insanity of one’s own mind.

I was discussing meditation with a friend and we agreed that so many people have difficulty with it. Recently there was a study done where the subjects had a choice to pick electric shock therapy or sit in a empty room for fifteen minutes. Obviously everyone picked sitting in a room. After all how hard can that be? After the experiment, they asked the subjects if they had the choice again which would they pick, they all said the electric shock therapy. I find this astonishing, but I also understand the misconception of meditation and why this is so. It’s because so many people don’t truly investigate what mediation actually is and what it does. I can tell you this, it’s not magic, but I would like to share my thoughts on meditation which I refer to as simply sitting.
The first thing to do is establish an anchor. Everyone who is alive has some kind a place that is called home where the day starts and most times it ends. Even a homeless person has some kind of anchor to start the day regardless if it’s under a bridge or in a cardboard box. This anchor is the base which will be used to return to when the mind wanders. As one always returns home, so will the established anchor be used in this way.

In the beginning the mind will wander a lot because of the lack of developed discipline, it has to wander because there is nothing in place to keep it from doing so. The main reason meditation is difficult is because people think it’s something to do. One will never ever quiet the mind, it’s something that occurs on its own. This is probably the biggest misconception, that it’s something that can be done. Well the bad news is it can’t, but the good news is discipline can be established to allow the mind to settle. It will just take take time and perseverance to allow this. One sits, the mind wanders, one returns to whatever the established anchor is, the breath is such an anchor. As this is done over and over, the mind wanders less and less.

The benefit of this is when the mind begins to settle, there’s an awareness that at least for me allowed the reaching outside myself for my answers to stop. Once the reaching stopped, I started looking inward and life started to become different. This difference is in my view of life and how it has changed in a most beautiful way. But like I said, its not magic and the most important part of establishing any form of discipline is one will get out of it exactly what’s put into it.