COMING HOME TO YOURSELF: The Power of Meditation

Through the practice of meditation, we can learn to be with ourselves — with whatever is happening to us — holding it in a calmer, more grounded way.

Meditating doesn't always mean sitting in a traditional meditation posture. We meditate when we are present, when our attention is placed on what is happening in the moment — both internally and externally. When we can not only feel what is occurring within us, but also observe it, maintaining a certain awareness and "distance" that gives us room to choose, rather than simply react.

Externally, we keep our attention on the senses. Internally, we can observe the flow of our thoughts without following any particular narrative, image, or daydream. We can also become aware of our physical sensations in the body, as well as our emotions. Yet again, with meditation, we aim to feel them, to be able to hold them — observing them without clinging to them.

Over the past 15 years, I have practiced many and varied types of meditation: active meditations, both walking and involving body movement; standing meditations; lying down and seated meditations; meditations through visualizations, with different prompts or imagery; energetic meditations; with sound and voice, with music or in silence; with the focus on the breath, the body, or a specific emotion.

From all of these, I have learned something valuable, and they have all helped me reconnect with myself. But above all, I have learned that there is no single way to meditate, just as there is no single posture. What I do believe helps, however, is establishing a practice — a routine, whatever form it takes. Training the "muscle of attention" every day, learning to redirect it without being swept away by thoughts and emotions.

In my view, there is one essential ingredient in meditation — beyond regular practice — that makes it truly work, and which I learned through Mindfulness training. It is about focusing attention as in other meditations, but above all doing so with compassion: with kindness, warmth, and patience toward ourselves. Training our capacity to treat ourselves and others with care and understanding.

I consider meditation a very valuable tool in today's world, and so I try to incorporate it as much as possible into the psychotherapy I offer — as a means of finding a point of balance between feeling our emotions (from a therapeutic perspective) and learning not to be overwhelmed or flooded by them (through Mindfulness). Meditation teaches us to be in contact with our inner world, with what we feel — and goes even a step further, teaching us to be in contact with who we are. Meditation connects us with the most original and authentic part of ourselves.

In the times we are living through, I believe it is more necessary than ever to reconnect with the calm within us, as well as with our center and our most authentic self — our truth — and to let that be the guide for the decisions we make from here on.

So I invite you to take a little moment — or a big one — each day, to be with yourself, to pay attention to yourself, to practice finding some stillness. And perhaps, over time, that stillness will become silence. And perhaps we can begin to hear ourselves, and listen to ourselves, and perhaps even… begin to trust ourselves.

"To meditate is to return to your inner home."

The Human Way of Things.