Why You Shouldn’t Meditate
Ok, so the title is a little clickbaity. Meditation is suitable for some, though certainly not all. And most of those for whom it is suitable will need to do a bit of preparatory work. Let us explain….
If you are suffering with irrational anxiety for example, and somebody showed you how to follow your breath, there would be a high likelihood that this would induce a panic state with a concern about the ability to breathe and perhaps hyperventilation. One of the many problems there are in this realm is the obsession around mindfulness which has permeated professional healthcare and has come to mean everything and nothing. Take our following the breath example above; this is one of the many pseudo-meditation methods prescribed (pseudo-meditation in as much as it cherry picks a superficial part of a traditional system), and the prescriber often doesn’t have a protocol to fix any problems. In fact, we have never come across such a restorative protocol in a mainstream healthcare setting. They may not even be aware of such side effects. Mindfulness in its purest form, if they were able to stick with that, would in fact be a good intervention for most. Just simple being in the momentness whether that’s cooking, cleaning, walking, working etc. A good example of why this is effective is if you consider the polarities of work and rest. If you just potter around not quite working and not quite resting feeling guilty about your lack of dynamism, you are likely to be left feeling restless and guilty. So if you’re going to work/exercise go all in (in intent, not necessarily intensity) and your chi will rise. If you’re going to rest go equally all in, sink in to that sofa and let the chi sink.
If you are going to take one thing away from this post let it be this; meditation is an amplifier and will increase the amplitude of your current state. We would therefore dispense the exact same advice as we would around drugs and alcohol (actually scratch that, alcohol is one of the worst drugs so it shouldn’t be differentiated). Do not enter in to meditation if you are not in a stable position at the get-go. Or do, it’s your life! Caveat emptor.
We mentioned above the requirement for preparatory work. Martial type training or bodywork is excellent for this, both to prepare your body for the physical and mental requirements of seated meditation for example, and to strengthen the connective tissue to run the various energies. This physical counterpoint is the very essence of grounding as part of a complete magical practice. A good internal system will cover the whole continuum, sometimes in just one posture, move or principle. That is what makes it so awesome!
And here it is, the inevitable upsell. If you have had issues with a meditative practice that has induced a dark night of the soul type event, get in touch about our factory reset meditation protocol. It is fairly rudimentary sprititual first aid if you will, but it has proven to be effective. If you are looking to push through the experience and reap the benefits of coming out the other side you may need more specialist support, not that it is a given our method would necessarily be a u turn, often just a course correction.
Train intelligently and be well.