I meditate every day and love it. There are so many reasons to meditate. I wrote this piece about one of them for myself some time ago, remembered it today and decided to share it:
I am so grateful for meditation – it has taught me to pause.
Today someone gave me some feedback which I felt was unfair and I nearly fired off an anggrrrry email back to them.
I felt anger rise up like molten lava burning its way painfully up through the middle of my chest.
The voice of calm said to me, “Don’t send a nasty email back“…”But I’m fed up with moaners” said the angry part of me.
“You know anger never works” said the calm voice.
So I paused and deleted my annoyed email.
5 minutes later I was so glad I did. Phew, thank goodness I didn’t send it.
…10 minutes later I was able to smile.
……15 minutes later I was able to understand why the other person was upset.
………20 minutes later I was able to examine my feelings of hurt and see they were an old pattern.
…………25 minutes after I felt grateful for that lesson.
Anger is an important feeling. I don’t want to suppress it but I’d prefer to learn how to express it in a way that makes a positive difference. As a human being of course I let my anger flare up at times but I am happy that those times are becoming less frequent and milder. It makes for a more peaceful life for me and others, which is what I really want.
I am so glad that meditation has taught me to pause.
