The Key to
Worldly Success
| |  | by Sonia Choquette, Ph.D. | | | Here is the key to shaping your world to be exactly the way you want. Meditate.
When it comes to meditation, most people believe that it means undertaking a rigid and narrow discipline that calls for sitting still, and focusing the mind on one single thought, word, image, or mantra to the exclusion of all else. And to do so for an extended period of time until the mind becomes still and all thoughts cease. I know I believed this was meditation, or more specifically “proper meditation�?for some time. I even wrote that this was the proper way to meditate in several of my previous books.
However, upon further study I’ve come to realize that though this is certainly one way to meditate, it is by no means the only way, and most surprising at least to me, not the most productive way either.
That is why (at least I think) most people don’t meditate or even feel drawn to meditate in this way. On some intuitive level they sense it’s limited. However, this is not to say that people reject meditation. Even though many say it doesn’t appeal, or it is too difficult to try, the truth is all people do meditate all the time, and in fact, are quite masterful at it. They do it differently than the rigid approach and they call it something else. They call it worry.
Yes, worry. You see worry is in fact an act of intense meditation because meditation is the act of focusing your attention on one thing to the exclusion of all else. And that’s what worry does. Just randomly ask any person what they are thinking about at any given time for instance, and 7 out of 10 will tell you it is something they are worrying over.
This means most of us are regularly engaged in an intense and focused form of meditation that consumes our thoughts. This proves that meditation itself is actually natural and comes quite easily to us.
I believe the key to learning to meditate productively is to first understand how it benefits you besides the obvious benefits of a more peaceful outlook, less stress and anxiety.
The law of the universe as you’ve been learning, dictate that we are creative beings and because that is so we create what we focus or meditate on. The secret is that we do not create what merely fleets across our minds, but rather what we concentrate on, or in fact meditate on. Meditation is the practice of concentrated focused thought. Intense thought held over a long period of time brings about its counterpart in the physical world. In fact quantum physics verifies our experiences are simply thought in motion. That’s why meditation is so powerful. It literally shapes and creates the world you experience. So if you meditate on worry, you shape your experience to reflect what you worry about.
That’s the secret to meditation, and why meditating on nothing is not necessarily a productive effort. This is not to say that it is not a good idea to clear your mind of negative thoughts and keep focused on the Divine, our source because it absolutely is. We all need to relax our brains and remind ourselves where our blessings come from. But a more active and powerful means of meditation is to become skilled in unwavering focused attention on what we do wish to experience. Moreover we must keep this focus to the exclusion of all else, and be able to hold that focus over a consistent period of time.
Do you realize what being able to do this will open up to you? Anything you desire. That’s what is so exciting. Unwavering focus is the key to what my teachers call successful active meditation. The ability to hold your focus, concentrate it (which means to intensify) make stronger what exactly you desire and want. It literally shapes the psychic fluid of the physical world to mold to your thought.
That’s where real skill comes in. From this new vantage point I hope you can understand where sitting passively and focusing on nothing becomes evidently a waste of time.
Sitting quietly, however, and concentrating on the love of God and the Divine Spirit in all living things becomes quite another matter. In fact this becomes a very powerful meditation in which to shape your experience.
Just imagine what your life experience would be like if you did concentrate your thoughts and attention on how much God loved you, on how much joy God took in showering you with blessing upon blessing. Imagine meditating on this to the exclusion of all other thoughts for a concentrated period of time.
A student of mine, Ed, decided to do just that when I proposed the idea to see what happened. His first realization once he began, he said was that he noticed just how focused he was on how little love he felt or noticed in his life. To help him along he decided to support his new focus by finding evidence of God’s love. He first found it in the beauty of his garden which, when in bloom, brought him tremendous joy. He also found evidence of God’s love in his good health, something that he was blessed to have and always did. Starting with these realizations he began to concentrate his full attention on how much more God loved him and became open to discovering new things. The first major shift that happened after meditating on God’s great love for him occurred two months later. Suddenly women everywhere started to ask him out on dates. After all he was over 50, balding and with a reasonable paunch, thick eyeglasses and short but still they did. They were beautiful, lovely women as well.
By the fourth month he was steadily dating an attractive woman whom he liked very much. By the time we spoke again, a year had passed. “I never would have believed I would call myself a “meditator�?he said, “but your theory captured my imagination�? “Meditating on being loved has given me just about everything missing in my life, except for maybe some more hair�?he continued�? laughing and patting at his bald pate.
That night he called me, laughing hysterically, “guess what�? he said, “I was just contacted by a medical group looking for volunteers in hair re-growth research. Someone recommended me to them. If I want to, I can get two years worth of re-growth stimulation treatments for free. Now, that is truly love from God!�?BR>
Recognizing that what we focus on for any concentrated period of time is indeed meditation, and realizing that what we meditate on does create our experience shows us that every moment of our life is meditation in some way. If you are patient with your meditation, and consistent it will yield results. Always. That is Divine Law.
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