Meditation has a power for tapping into authenticity
One of the impacts of meditation practice that I’ve experienced over the years is the un-covering of aspects of myself that were buried under the noise of mind-chatter.
The layers of conditioning and repeated thought patterns that essentially are hard-wired into us from birth, that made up my personality.
Bruce Lipton, the father of epigentics, in his book 'The Biology of Belief' talks expertly about how from the ages of 0-7 we are in this theta brainwave - akin to hypnosis.
So we’re literally hypnotised by the world around us, without the cognitive ability to pick & choose, we’re at the mercy of how, and who we’re bought up by.
The influence of culture, parental upbriging, society, media, school, friendship etc. etc. all shape belief, perception and overall operating system for how we navigate life.
A personality which shapes our personal reality.
Dr. Joe Dispenza in his book ‘Becoming Supernatural’ explains how when repeated over and over again, without intention or awareness, by the age of 35 we’re literally a set of hardowired programming.
Living reactively from stimulus in the environment which trigger the brain’s neural network of a behaviour which has been established and used over and over again.
My operating system caused much pain and suffering for me, and at times others around me. There were characteristics that I'd be behaving from that I never paid attention to that were creating shoddy circumstances in all aspects of life - from selfishness to insecurity, from greed to laziness.
Meditation as I like to describe is this light of awareness - it shines a light on things about us that have been kept in the dark, often through no fault of our own.
In practicing, I started to notice dominant thought patterns which enabled me to reflect on them…to contemplate them.
Noticing how they would arise time and again, despite me wanting to change and make healthier decisions. It took some time before I could notice these patterns without self-judgement and criticism.
As I began to observe these repetititve patterns, there become more space and opportunity to not react to them - where before I’d have no choice in them being reacted upon…there started to emerge some space to mindfully respond as I would like to, with intention.
The slow process is one of beocming more and more me. Less reactive and impulsive or sense driven. A little more measured, authentic and vulnerable too.
And meditation continues to be the tool in which plays a vital role in the process of becoming….