~I invite you to listen to the audio version shared above, where a guided meditation is provided that follows what is shared below in the text.

When I began learning how to drive, I learned on a stick-shift. Not a stick shift with electronical aids, but on a tractor, which required near-perfect coordination of letting off the clutch and pressing the gas while shifting into the next gear at the precise moment in order to enable a smooth transition. It became as much about understanding how shifting worked as it did about knowing the language of that particular vehicle, the tractor.

When it comes to learning how to no longer react and instead respond, it is a chosen skill to learn, and each of us will be a different ‘vehicle’ regarding what combination of variables prompt certain emotions to arise.

Just as there were hills the tractor had to climb and thus I had to gear-down and figure out the precise timing so that I didn’t roll backwards or kill the engine and leave myself stopped mid-way along the journey, there will be obstacles along our journey and in our days that require us to understand how to refrain from reacting when it would be much easier to do so. After all, reacting doesn’t ask of us to think at all. It is a default, it is a habit, and in this case, not a constructive habit.

Meditation doesn’t remove the difficulties that will arise, but it gives us the ability to see that it is a difficult situation and we then give ourselves the space and time to step back mentally and decide how to engage or if to engage, whichever would be the best constructive choice.

Each time we run into moments that rattle us, we take note of this, and we become more in tune with our ‘engine’, in this case, the engine being our mind, our emotions, and the knowledge of ourselves. Meditation teaches us how to pause and observe. This gives us stability. Our awareness has been strengthened by meditating, and how we relate to the unwanted moments changes then as well, instead of doing something reactive that jars us forward, stops us in our tracks, or causes us to regress.

Meditation gives us the tool of shifting smoothly for the situation in which we find ourselves. In other words, navigating with ease and confidence, even when the road isn’t our preferred route.

Let’s begin . . .

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~Learn more about TSLL’s Contentment Masterclass: Discover the benefits of Meditation, which is included in the detailed syllabus shared here, watch the trailer, and read student reviews.

~Comments will be turned off for Meditation posts as you cultivate a practice guided by what you need and your journey to cultivating inner peace and aligning with your true self.