The question was posed: Lately I'm having a difficult time quieting my mind. Any tips you can share for basic meditation? Specifically, my body seems to be resisting it, so I'm patient and letting it be.... but eventually I need to harness it and start to go deeper.

Sevara's response:

Dear J,

If you're hoping to be able to meditate deeply and are looking for ways to still yourself in those moments, it's too late! You must go back a few steps. The inability to relax the mind during meditation is only a symptom of your state of mind that you experience during the day. You must first approach your relationship to your mind at the times when you are not meditating. It's like wanting to start your car without having any gas.

If you live a stressful, worrisome lifestyle you will have problems meditating. If you are an angry person you will have problems meditating. If you carry a lot of guilt, self-doubt you will have problems meditating. All these conditions affect not only your day-to-day life, but also your sleep and dreaming and of course your ability to reach a state of deep meditation.

The first key is to increase your awareness throughout the day. Become mindful of your own mental chatter and take note of what kinds of words and phrases pass by silently in your mind. Become aware and in tune with your emotional state; notice what things make you tense, nervous, irritable, and so forth.

Once you gained the ability to be the watcher of your thoughts and emotions the next step is to determine their cause and source. From where do they originate? Trace back the source of the stress and deal with it compassionately. It may be something offensive someone had said two days ago that still troubles you. Trace back the source of any negative chatter and deal with it compassionately. You may have gotten into the habit of calling yourself dumb or stupid when you make a mistake. Allow yourself to let go of any negativity without clinging to it.

Sometimes it is not possible to understand the root cause of your issues. That is not important, as not everything can be resolved using logic. What is important is to acknowledge the root of the issue and forgive yourself or anyone else involved in it. This acknowledged forgiveness lifts the burden, or in other words, the energetic manifestation of the issue in the body-system. This is why your body has been resisting it. Your body has a wisdom, a language of its own. When it is ill there are signs before it gets chronic. Your tongue, your eyes, your skin, all give you clues that something is not right within.

This is what is happening to you now. Your body is agitated and it is telling you something is not right, something needs to be resolved, something within. If you cannot relax physically, it is certain your mind will not be relaxed - there's your clue, your symptom. But never treat the symptom, always go to the root. If you go on trying to treat the symptom - the body - you will miss something very significant. Go deeper. Discover what disturbances lay beneath the surface., but do so with compassion.

Once you have resolved some of your more urgent issues you can begin to move into meditation. There are many techniques, but first work on what I have just stated.

Blessings,

Sevara