Guidelines for a Balanced Life: Seated Meditation

Les Leventhal

Seated Meditation can be extremely calming to the nervous system and stimulating to the mind for creativity. If you are able to connect to your breath and a beginner's "don't know" mind, meditation can also be entertaining. Be willing to allow yourself to be guided. Let go of thoughts and ideas about what meditation should be or what you have to experience in order for it to be a "good" meditation. What we encounter when we sit is the 4th Niyama: Svadhyaya - study of the self. We try to hold on to the things that make us comfortable and we try to push away the things that are uncomfortable. The balance and the opportunity exist in that space in between, especially since pushing things away, is still clinging because it has our attention and desire for change. Let go, surrender, be free.