My Guide Said...

Being sick is not fun, nor is it something a well balanced person should look forward to. However, there are aspects of being sick that you might apply to your more healthy moments that could be of benefit to both yourself and those you love.

Face it, when you are sick you take time out to be sick. Even if you continue to slog through your work day you recognize the fact that you are sick and at your first opportunity promise yourself that you will crawl into bed for some much needed rest. You are very aware of your condition and you ply yourself with potables in the form of traditional home remedies such as chicken soup, gargling with salted water, and honey and lemon to soothe your scratchy sore throat.

Additionally, there are many over the counter medicines that you can take to give you comfort and to mask your symptoms so that you can continue to work or go to school. Ideally, you would stay home to be sick, but many people just cannot or choose not to do that. It’s, more than likely, already too late in the sense that you have already spread your cold amongst your co-workers and students, so what’s the use? Stay at work. Just remember to wash your hands often. But, cautionary germ spreading techniques aside, the point is that your attention is brought back to your poor, aching, sick body moment after moment. You sneeze. Argh. You crap. Ohhh. You ache. Owweee. Your head hurts. Uhhhh. Your skin is crawling with chills. Eeeee. You just cannot concentrate on anything else. Your attention comes back to your condition time and time again.

That’s how you need to meditate. Your attention will wander. Bring it back to the point of the meditation. You think about what you’re going to be doing today. Bring your attention away from these plans to the focus, to the light of your meditation. Why do you think nuns spend so much time in prayer? Do you think they move to that wondrous place right quick? No, they know how to move in and be with Source. But they do it a lot and they do it often. We would caution you about over-meditating. But, you can certainly do it for 20 minutes at a stretch. Any more time spent on it than that and you should have a meditation coach to confer with, but 20 minutes out of your day is not going to kill you.

With practice, with long practice, the accumulated benefits of a practice of meditation will begin to show. You, certainly, will notice it first. Basically, you’re going to feel a whole lot better, both emotionally and physically. Because you feel better you’re going to interact with your world in a more soothing way. Hey, you could probably run for office and win on the meditation ticket. All joking aside, it’s the old law of change yourself and change the world you live in.