Meditation doesn’t have to be perfect to work

So check out this picture. Here’s this slim, attractive woman meditating on a beautiful mountaintop at sunrise with no one else in sight. Of course she’s wearing white pants, too, and probably never gets dirty and never gains a pound so she looks fabulous in white! How’s that for the perfect meditation fantasy?

But you know, life is messy. And noisy. And maybe you have to close the door on your family for awhile, turn off the ringer on your phone, and move a bunch of magazines off the chair so you can actually sit down to meditate. And once you do start meditating, all you can think about is the dust on the table nearby or the bathroom that needs cleaning, the exercise class you didn’t get to, someone you don’t like much at work, or the new whatever that one of your kids needs for school ASAP. So much for a beautiful serene sunrise, white organic cotton leggings, and a quiet mind!

This post could just as easily be about anything you might want to try…singing, golf, writing. The whole Nike “just do it” thing applies to all of them. Especially meditation. Sure, you may only have a few minutes, it might not happen every day, and you may never quiet your mind completely.

But that’s not the goal. Just by sitting down, you begin to create your own sanctuary and shift your energy from busyness to peace. Just by doing it, you begin to expand your inner space and awareness, even if you don’t think anything is happening yet! Meditation gives you space to truly be yourself, to integrate who you are as a being with who you are in the body…human being. Even if you don’t do it perfectly