There’s more to meditation than feeling better

Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project,

I heard something the other day in the morning meditation at The Open Heart Project sangha: a thoughtful, well-done study confirms that meditation improves your brain and can make you happier.

That’s meaningful and encouraging.

It also reminded me that there’s another kind of understanding of meditation, one that comes from thousands of years of lived experience. We are not broken. No one needs to be fixed. Meditation can help us relax into our goodness, our confusion, our weirdness, all of it. Somehow, this relaxing with who we are and what is actually happening wakes us up. The door to compassion and clarity opens wide.

In this week’s podcast, I share seven principles that compliment this view of practice. It starts with the understanding that you are whole, right now, and you always have been. Your thoughts and emotions are part of the path. Even heartbreak has something to show us. Boundaries matter. And what we discover in practice naturally extends beyond ourselves.

Meditation may help us feel better, but it can also help us show up more fully for our lives, just as we are. No fixing required.

If this resonates, you are warmly invited to listen to the full podcast episode (#53).

Warmly,
Susan

PS: This is also the subject of my upcoming book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics. Coming in June!

categorized in: dharma, meditation