A Quiet Mind

Recently, a friend of mine starting meditating and she loves it. She says she looks forward to her meditation time every day. I understand her enthusiasm!

One time I was at a yoga retreat where we engaged in many kinds of yoga practices. As you may know, most yoga practices and exercises are ultimately aimed at quieting our minds so that we can meditate. Well, we did lots of yoga and I had an interesting experience.

As the chattering voices around me became silent, due to us all being engaged in yoga practice, I could hear my own chattering mind more clearly. Several things came up in my mind that I recognized that I wanted to work on. So this was a good thing as I was able to pray and meditate on these items and then kind of let them go.

Then, my mind became more silent. This felt so good, peaceful, and refreshing. One yoga sutra says that when the space between our thoughts expands, the bliss inside of us grows. I could definitely feel that.

However, what happened next was the most touching experience. I found that as my own mind/voice became quiet, I could hear an Inner voice more clearly. That voice said to go here and do that. That voice was in the flow. It was a deeper, more intuitive voice. That voice was inside me and I could hear it clearly since I was quiet.

My mind is not nearly as quiet in my regular life as it is on retreat. However, just remembering that experience draws me back to my meditation mat and yoga practices again and again. Just a few moments of touching that silence space in meditation still infuses my day with sweetness and reminds me that I have access to that Inner voice.

May you create the time and space for your spiritual practices and attain all the benefits of a quieted, trusting, peaceful mind.