Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Meditation & Spirituality: Mind Overload? Meditate

Have you ever been preparing breakfast and poured orange juice instead of milk into your cereal? Or you get up from your chair, walk to the bedroom to get a hairpin but when you get there you have absolutely no idea what you were going to get? When this happens, the first thing we ask ourselves is, "Am I going crazy or what?" The response to this question is usually "or what?" The name for this is Mind Overload.

From the moment that you get up in the morning, your mind starts working. For most people life means caring and dealing with family, home, work, health, money, traffic, etc. If you're lucky, you do this only sixteen hours per day. You barely get a good night's sleep. You're mind is at work day in and day out with practically no rest. Even during sleep your mind is not fully at rest. How can it not be on overload?

You try to take care of yourself, right? You eat healthy, exercise, and visit the doctor for regular check-ups. But who's taking care of your mind? Most people don't give this much thought until they have a nervous breakdown or develop severe depression. And when this happens, they wonder how it happened. Well, it was very simple, they didn't take care of their minds. Your mind needs as much caring as the rest of your body. This is where meditation comes in.

Your body needs it on a regular basis if you want to maintain its health. Imagine your mind as an overstuffed drawer. Every so often you need to empty it out. Get rid of the junk that you've accumulated, re-arrange the keepers, and leave plenty of room for the stuff that you'll be collecting in the future. This is exactly what meditation is: cleansing, throwing out and making room. If you meditate on a regular basis you won't find yourself pouring coffee into the coffee maker without a filter. And you won't be reaching for the remote when you meant to answer the phone.

It doesn't matter what kind of meditation you do as long as you do it on a regular basis. There are so many to choose from; it won't take you long to find one that you like. Making time to meditate is just as important as making time to exercise.

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