A Vital Support for Your Meditation Practice

Contemplation goes hand-in-hand with meditation. The reason for this is simple. If you have an experience in your life, but don’t recognize its significance, then does that experience have any meaning for you? Probably not. Similarly, if you have an experience in meditation, and afterward you don’t contemplate its significance, then you don’t receive the full power of the experience. It’s one thing to see a light, or hear a sound while meditating; it’s another to understand the significance of that experience.

Contemplation offers a method for understanding the deeper meaning behind everything you experience. It opens your connection to the Spirit, which reveals the profound and often simple truth behind our existence. It opens you to the experience of hearing God speak in your life, and there are so many ways She speaks!

For example, the other day, a gentleman left my place of work and shouted, “Praise the Lord, brother.” At first, I was taken aback. How could someone just say that? How could he impose his beliefs upon me? But I recognized my resistance to what he said, and so I contemplated what was said, and how I felt. Through that, I came into the experience that this was God’s way of reminding me to praise him through every thought, word and action I performed that day. Suddenly, I went from being taken aback, to feeling uplifted and remembering God.

Each experience will be different and unique. Sometimes your experience will be simple, and sometimes profound. For instance, seven years ago, I felt a very deep feeling of love expanding in the center of my chest as I meditated. The experience was so intense, I wept for hours, and the feeling stayed with me for several days before it began to lessen. However, I’ve continued to contemplate the significance of that experience to this day. In this way, this experience has not lost its power. Instead of forgetting about it, or letting it get lost in the currents of time, I have kept it in the forefront of my thoughts through contemplation and I use it as a stepping-stone for my spiritual practice.

Of course, not every experience is positive. Sometimes you encounter something negative, like someone shouting at you or saying something that irritates you. You might feel irritated for hours about it or you might use some meditation techniques to get over it quickly. Although these can be very effective, there’s more to it than that. Sally Kempton once explained to me that transcending an experience through meditation is only half the story. She described people who spend 2 hours a day meditating and then wonder why they’re suffering from disease. The answer was simple; they aren’t really dealing with the things going on in their life. They certainly aren’t contemplating the significance of the events of their life. I should know…I was one of those people…

They complain about how terrible their job is, or their girlfriend, or their car. And the minute they get a new job or become free from that person or buy a new car, they find something else to complain about. You see, even though they’ve changed the external circumstances of their life, they never changed their internal state, so they just keep revolving around the same issues. I’m sure you know someone like that…’cause you and I aren’t like that, right?

Well, maybe we all are, to some extent. That’s why contemplation is such a vital component to living a healthy life. There is a golden path, by following which you stay in alignment with the divine will. It is divergence from this that is the root of all dis-ease. When we feel separate, we experience dis-ease. When we experience union and connectedness, we are living in the light of God. In that space, there is no dis-ease.

The good news is, we always have a choice. Spiritual healing takes place on many levels and anything is possible. Of course, all I can do is share my experience with you. But if you never put forth any effort, how will you ever know what’s possible for you?

Journaling as a spiritual practice can heighten your experience of life and meditation by revealing hidden meanings and significance to the events of your life. It opens you to new understandings that may not be obvious at first.

All you need is a paper and pen. Actually, if you use a computer, you don’t really need even that. Some people use a word processor, others use regular paper, and some people like to invest in a nice leather bound book and colored pen. Whatever form your journal takes, allow it to be something that resonates with you and inspires you to use it.

Step 1 – Choosing a Topic

Write the date at the top of the page. This gives you an indication of when you wrote this when you go back and read it in 3 weeks, or 3 months, or 3 years.Choose a topic. It may be a life experience, traumatic event, meditation experience, question or something else. Write your topic or question at the top of the page under the date.

Step 2 – Write it All Down

Write down everything you think or feel about your topic or question. Write down everything that comes to mind, without an editor. This means you don’t edit or censor anything that comes to mind, you just write it all down. This can be the hardest part, because you may think about writing something, and then you’ll have the thought, “Oh, I can’t write that. That sounds terrible.” Or “That’s just stupid!”If these thoughts arise, do your best to disregard them and continue writing whatever thoughts or feelings come up for you in the course of writing. Do this for at least 5 minutes, more if needed.

If you’re writing about a meditation experience, try to capture the essence of the experience with words. Sometimes expressing such an experience is not easy, but you may find that translating such an experience into words lends itself to deepening the experience you had in meditation.

Step 3 – Be Creative

Not everyone is “word” oriented. Many people enjoy pictures and expressing themselves creatively. If you’re such a person, step 2 might be difficult, but now’s your chance to shine. In step 3, be creative.Create or include pictures or symbols about your experience. This could take the form of a doodle, or a magazine cut out, or a full color painting. Anything you want to express the topic or question. Be creative and express yourself as fully as you’d like. If you’re writing about a meditation experience, draw something that captures the essence of that experience for you. Or…

Write a poem. Some of my most memorable meditation experiences have been so difficult to write about that I found myself creating a flow of words that make no sense, but captures the experience well. When read, these often sound like poetic verses. Experiment and have fun with it.

Step 4 – Leave Some Space

If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to leave some space either on this page, or the next, to add comments or insights you have in the future. You’ve put a lot of energy into your journal entry and because you’ve set such a strong intention with it, your mind will be contemplating your experience or question while you’re not actively thinking about it. This is the power of the subconscious. When the answers or insights don’t come right away, you can expect them to pop up sometime in the next day or two after journaling.Perhaps someone will say something to you, and it will be just what you needed to hear. Or you’ll open a book, and read what’s written, and it just happens to relate to your topic or question. Or maybe you’ll have a dream that reveals something to you about your experience. Whatever happens, you’ll want to have some room to right this stuff down.