The Problem with Shaming in Meditation

Many people would be better off not meditating. 

Mostly because of the pervasive mind shaming:

- I should be breathing, but instead, I am thinking. 

- If only those damn thoughts went away. 

- I am so bad at this. 

Before you know it, you are in the midst of self-shaming without even realizing it. 

If you are a woman, you are probably very prone to it. 

Whatever you do, please, be kind to yourself. 

No need to set cruel and unrealistic expectations about how your mind should be.

These expectations have nothing to do with how the meditation experience unfolds for most people. 

Everyone has thoughts in meditation. It is perfectly normal. 

Serenity is not about eliminating any thought-movement from your head.

It is about finding that spot where you can embrace and hold yourself in loving appreciation, while being immersed in a raging complexity of all the things you need to deal with. 

And inner peace never comes from waging war on yourself. 

It is a by-product of accepting yourself exactly as you are.

With all of your thoughts, dreams, fears, hopes. 

With all of the aches of your human heart. 

IN SUMMARY:

It is acceptance and loving attention that brings inner quiet to our worn-down Souls, not denial, shaming, or rejection.