Patrick Rea Leadership

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

This myth is one that does stop a lot of people of even investigating what meditation is:

12. Meditation is a religious practice

Meditation is not tied to any religion in particular, it is an ancient practice of self-discovery. Religion is simply a technology designed to assist you in discovering your Self. It is foremost an exercise on reflection, awareness and presence. Any practicing of meditation will not make you any more attached to religion like stretching your body won’t make you a yogi, or abstaining from pork won’t make you Jewish or Muslim.

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

A lot of people are discouraged to keep meditating because of this myth:

11. You’re not ‘good’ at meditation

This thought is a form of result orientation. Meditation is process driven; it’s about training your mind to be in the moment. Once you are working on the process and you can release all thoughts of being ‘good’ at meditation. It’s like saying you weren’t good at laughing or playing as a child, as a child you were not driven by outcomes and it didn’t matter, it was pure abandon. As adults and in our society, we have become overly goal oriented, of course one must have a goal, but the child playing doesn’t constantly look at his/her mother and ask are they doing it right. They just do it. It is the same for you and meditation, do not obsess over being ‘good’ at meditation, just focus on the process. Just place your attention on your breath, breathing in and out, 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out and you will be meditating.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

The answer to this one might surprise you:

10. You must be sitting to meditate

Not true! Whenever we ‘get in the zone’ we are entering into a meditative state. If you’re a runner, swimmer, cyclist, yogi and are totally in the moment, you are said to be in a meditative state. Meditation is not solely the preserve of cross-legged monks chanting Ommmmm. The intent of meditation is that you are in an ongoing meditative state, calm minded and dynamic in action. Sitting to meditate however can be a good place to start if you are that way inclined and if not, and you’re a more active person, it may be through exercise and physical movement that gets you there. It could even be the act of walking through a forest that creates in you a meditative state. Meditation is a dynamic practice not confined to sitting.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

Have you heard this one? This one actually stops a lot of people from practicing meditation daily:

9. Meditation is a waste of time

This is a common misunderstanding, a belief I once held myself. Meditation is the opposite of a waste of time, meditation actually SAVES you time. When you sit with yourself and you can find a place of calm you can reflect on situations and you’ll see that you can find solutions you never could have imagined from the level of the disturbed mind. When you sit with yourself in quietness or with some soothing music you can become incredibly objective and situations in your life that are challenging can unravel in a flash of insight. Difficult emotional states that were preventing you from taking action in life can subside and an objective centred mind can take their place. When the mind is quiet and neutral you can take action easily with a cool head becoming dynamic. All of these things point to the fact that meditation actually saves you time.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

This myth might have come up by misunderstanding what meditation is about and/or the misconception that taking care of yourself is selfish

8. Meditation is a selfish indulgence

Meditation is the most unselfish thing that you can do. Why? Because it makes you a more balanced, productive and centred person that can help people in ways you never dreamed possible in the past. When you sit with yourself and refine your personality, becoming more calm, more centred, when you return to action you are doing things in a superior fashion. You can do them more dynamically. If your work demands a great attention to detail, your mind can be calm and you can work with great poise. If your work is emotionally demanding (say you’re a nurse) you can become more objective and a calm and serene person to be around and in turn improve almost any situation you’re a part of. If you’re a parent, 2 mins of breathing through your heart, can be the difference between shouting at your child and being understanding. It is in turn selfish to not give the people around you your best personality.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

Although is listed as #7 in my list, this is a very common myth about meditation,

7. Meditation is hard

Meditation is not what you may think it is. Things are not what they look like. Your mind can give many false impressions about meditation because of a reluctance to have you turn your focus inwards and see what it’s doing. With the people I teach who are new to meditation, I call it breaking it down to the ridiculous, we do just 2 to 3 minutes meditation and we just sit together and breathe imagining that we are breathing in and out of our hearts. You breathe all day everyday since the moment you were born. What’s hard about doing it with your eyes closed for 2 minutes? ;) Is meditation hard? It is if you think it is.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

This is an interesting myth, and is also one that many people might use an excuse to stop trying to meditate.

6. I can’t meditate because my mind wanders

The only people whose minds don’t wander are the minds of highly accomplished spiritual practitioners. Never feel bad because your mind wanders. When we sit with ourselves in silence, or with some calming music or even using a guided meditation we can begin to get to know our inner personality. Our own self is often the most interesting and absorbing place to us and of course it is natural for our mind to wander from time to time. We can be especially prone to this depending on the time of day we meditate, or our general level of stress. If I’m stressed out, I can hardly sit down at all to meditate, it is a great challenge. So be kind to yourself and understand that your mind is expected to wander at the beginning stages of meditation.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

This time I’m answering a very common myth that seems to stop people from meditating if they don’t feel this the first time they meditate.

5. Meditation is meant to be relaxing

Not always! As we begin to sit with ourselves and to unfold our inner personality, with a clearer view of where we are it might not be relaxing at all! When we take time to sit with ourselves, we can see things that we might not like to see, things we may even have been avoiding and the moment we see the things that we have to correct it can be stressful and even shocking at times. Meditation isn’t even the right course of action for everyone. Sometimes we have to do some work on refining our personality in other ways first before we approach this practice. The other work I am referring to is reading philosophical texts, which teach the higher values in life. With a knowledge of the higher values of life we can begin to refine our personality and with progress there we can begin to sit with ourselves.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

I’m answering mediation myths once per week, this week’s myth is

4. The goal of meditation is to clear your mind

While it can be achieved, it is not necessarily the point of meditation. The point of meditation is to develop a closer relationship to yourself, to get to know and discover your inner personality. The reason your mind can be so crowded is because we are often quite inefficient at processing our emotions and this can kick up quite a few thoughts, so it can be helpful to sit in silence and reflect on your thoughts and your life. So, it is a desirable side effect to clear our minds but it is not the goal.

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

This myth is very common to hear, this is my answer:

3. Meditation must be practiced in silence.

Oh boy! This is definitely not true. From leading London’s largest secular meditation group for many years, we have all sorts of sonic intrusions, alarms going off, people’s phones going off, someone discreetly leaving the room to answer natures call. There are all sorts of noises that will occur during almost any meditation, it’s part and parcel of the experience because we do not live in a vacuum. Noise cancelling headphones, ear plugs can help but are certainly not necessary for a productive meditational practice and can even inhibit the process as you progress. So certainly, meditation does not have to be practiced in silence. Notwithstanding, I do prefer to get up early in the morning when the world is quietest to meditate to maximize quiet time.

In case you missed it ;)

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

As you know, I started to “bust” some myths around meditation, here's the answer to a second myth:

2. I will get inner peace from meditation.
I’m not so sure about this! Sure, meditation is the final practice before Enlightened, but we’re not all at that level. At the beginning of the meditation process when we are getting to know ourselves, we can actually observe that there are plenty of things that we learn about ourselves that can aggravate us! When you begin to have an introverted perspective in life (a perspective inspecting your inner personality) you can find out that there are quite a few parts of our personality that are somewhat of a drag! We can see that we are quite the fixer-upper and that there is work to do and that can be unsettling and can dispel some of the peace you had before.
But if you keep at it and keep refining and working on your personality you will surely get inner peace. And let’s remember, peace is a spectrum, a dimmer switch so to speak so you can be more peaceful without a doubt

A little trailer to let you in on what we're doing at every event we put on at Meditation with Patrick & Friends. We're exploring all different aspects/elements and varieties of meditation. More info in the comments

https://youtu.be/ec1eyHFs8Es

Meditation with Patrick & Friends Meditation with Patrick & Friends is a group were we'll meet up and have interesting curated meditative experiences and speakers on topics such as:- HeartMat...

In case you miss any of the myths I answered, Here's the first one :)

[MEDITATION MYTHS]

There are many myths around mediation and there are many that are not true. I’ll be posting some answers to the most common myths. This is myth number one:

1. I’m going to be able to stop my mind through meditation.

Unlikely! Meditation is a very beautiful practice and stopping the mind is an incredibly high-level spiritual aspiration. It’s ok not to stop the mind in meditation. It’s a practice for you to spend time with yourself getting to know yourself better and observing the workings of your internal system. Your mind thinking can actually be a positive thing because it can give you messages as to things which are going on in your life but that you missed because your attention is extroverted (focused on your external world).

If you find yourself in a meditation situation (I hope you do!) make a deal with your mind. “Mind, I want to have a few minutes of quiet, would you mind just paying attention to my breath and following that go in and out?” When your mind responds you can put its attention there and begin to train it but don’t think it’ll do exactly what you want, because that’s the mind! Stopping the mind is a lifetimes practice of philosophy, discipline, Consciousness and guidance from a Teacher. Don’t get hung up on stopping the mind through meditation, just enjoy getting to know yourself better.

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

During the past weeks I’ve been sharing answers to the most popular meditation myths:

1.I’m going to be able to stop my mind through meditation.
2. I will get inner peace from meditation.
3. Meditation must be practiced in silence.
4. The goal of meditation is to clear your mind
5. Meditation is meant to be relaxing
6. I can’t meditate because my mind wanders
7. Meditation is hard
8. Meditation is a selfish indulgence
9. Meditation is a waste of time
10. You must be sitting to meditate
11. You’re not ‘good’ at meditation
12. Meditation is a religious practice
13. Meditation takes a long time
14. There is only one kind of meditation
15. You’ll feel immediately better after starting meditation
16. Meditation is only for stressed out and anxious people
17. It takes years of dedicated practice to receive any benefits from meditation
18. Meditation is escapism
19. I’m supposed to have transcendent experiences in meditation
20. Meditation is something divorced from everyday life
21. I have to meditate alone
22. You can’t meditate if you think too much
23. I don’t know if I’m doing it right!
24. You must sit in an uncomfortable cross legged position to meditate
25. Meditation is only for adults
26. Meditation takes years to learn

Are there any other myths/question you have around meditation that you would like to have answered? Let me know in the comments!

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

26. Meditation takes years to learn

My spiritual teacher laughs really hard at this notion it takes years to learn meditation. You can learn meditation in 2/3 minutes but doing meditation is another proposition entirely. Meditation is process based. If you were to think of your personality like a hydraulic system, with a piston and a cylinder, and it was terribly rusty if you put the piston into the cylinder it would break. This is what it’s like when people attempt to do single pointed meditation. It is impossible for them to think of one thought to the exclusion of all others. So, we do more relaxed activities first to prepare us for this. Like with the piston and the cylinder you have to get off the flaking rust with a wire brush, then rough rust with sandpaper, then the smaller rust with finer sandpaper and only when it is rust free do you oil it, and the piston slips in effortlessly. This is meditation. Single pointed meditation takes minutes to learn and execute but the preparatory work is what can take some time.

Meditation with Patrick & Friends on March 13 was awesome! Sound Healing with Brooke Hamre Gillespie & Xango Shola of Dream Seed Shamanic Sound Healing guided us through an incredible experience.
Don’t know much about sound healing? This article might help you understand what it is and what are the benefits you can receive from this practice 😊

https://www.healthline.com/health/sound-healing

The Uses and Benefits of Music Therapy Find out how medical professionals are using sound healing to treat everything from behavioral delays to symptoms of dementia and PTSD.

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

This one is become a common practice

25. Meditation is only for adults

Meditation is for people of all ages. It just so happens that adults may have the greatest propensity to be able to sit still for sustained periods of time. Children can absolutely meditate and it is becoming commonplace for them to practice mindfulness practices and moving meditations and even silent sitting meditations. Playing instruments and artistic pursuits can be a wonderful form of meditation for children, or for even more energetic children, the martial arts.

But it doesn’t stop here, the ways to enter into meditative states is limited only by your imagination.

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

24. You must sit in an uncomfortable cross-legged position to meditate

This position became popularized at least visually because it is the position assumed by higher level meditators and meditators of the highest level. It is a specially crafted position that enables you to sit in stillness for the longest amount of time in order to go deeply into your personality. This was a position that sages got into in order to be comfortable and avoid disturbance by the body while they meditated on being Enlightened. Chances are, you’re not meditating on becoming Enlightened just yet, so it’s perfectly ok if you don’t adopt their special posture, chances are with a regular person, their mind will disturb them long before their body. You can sit in any erect seated position that is comfortable to you, or if you’ve the knack for it, do it lying down. Many people tend to fall asleep lying down so it’s best for the beginner to do it from a seated position in order to maximize awareness and alertness.

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

23. I don’t know if I’m doing it right!

This is where a teacher comes in. Depending on your level it depends on the teacher. If you’re a beginner though you can learn through books, videos, online and get a very basic idea of how to begin. When you get to the higher levels of meditation is critical to have a teacher to instruct you on how to do it. Fortunately, the saying “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear” is extremely true and you will find a teacher to meet your level/aspiration will appear when you are ready. It’s also very likely that you experienced deep meditative states many times in life but didn’t know you were doing it. It may have been while you were cleaning the dishes, having a shower, doing your nails, almost anything and chances are you went into a deep meditative state without realizing. This is for a teacher to bring to your awareness.

Now, I must say that for a lower level of meditation, you can use technology to monitor your vital signs, such as heart rate variability, and they can tell you when you’re ‘in the zone’. The highest levels of meditation the experience becomes purely subjective and objective measurements are no longer useful.

We enjoyed so much our mediation with Bon Tradition, that I would like to share some more information about it. This article might help get some insight to this practice

https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/the-tibetan-traditions/the-tibetan-buddhist-and-bon-traditions-a-comparison

The Tibetan Buddhist and Bon Traditions: A Comparison Most people speak of Tibet as having four traditions: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug, with Gelug being the reformed continuation of the earlier Kadam tradition. At the nonsectarian conference of tulkus (incarnate lamas) and abbots that His Holiness the Dalai Lama convened in Sarnath, India, in Dec...

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

You might overthink on this one and decide that you are not meditating…

22. You can’t meditate if you think too much

Well, if that was so nobody would ever get started! In the early stages of meditation though you can find it overwhelming, either because it’s the complete absence of things going on and you anticipated something or because it’s overwhelming to be with your thoughts. What we can do is sit there and sort through that. I like to think of it like your email. Every day you get mail, some of it important, most of it not so important, and some of it has actions for you to take. If you don’t read your mail, it doesn’t stop coming, it just builds up and up and up and up. The actions don’t happen and you get into trouble. This is your life, my life, all of our lives. The signs to make a good life through right action are always there, we just don’t open the mail aka read the signs. So, we must sit down and meditate in order to stop thinking too much. This way we can let the mind get fully caught up. If your mind is still too much, it’s best to do gardening, play an instrument, do some drawing or go do some exercise. Sitting still for meditation is not for everyone.

This past Saturday February 13 we had an incredible and blessed LARGE group meditation.

Meditation with Patrick and Friends is a not for profit foundation supporting intercultural and intertribal community building via consciousness traditions and experiences.

We had absolute blast getting together in the interest of friendship, community and consciousness.

We raised $450 for the Chamma Ling Centre and we're back on March 13th!

Details coming soon. We dearly hope that you can join us.

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

This myth might raise some criticism on the way many people meditate

21. I have to meditate alone

You can meditate alone, with someone, or with a group of thousands! Not everyone in the world has the privilege of getting alone time. Speak to any parent of small children! Meditation throughout the ages has been done in group settings and alone. In shamanic and indigenous traditions meditation is regularly conducted in groups in ceremonial conditions. In modern day Western Europe, neuroscientists gather thousands to meditate together in the same room! So, no, you absolutely don’t have to meditate alone but sometimes it’s nice.

I am very excited for the latest edition of Meditation with Patrick & Friends, we have a student from the Tibetan Bon Tradition coming in and running a meditation for us. This event is free to attend and welcomes donations. Donation will be to support the Chamma Ling Centre of Tibetan Bon, Poland. Full Details on the following link

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tibetan-bon-meditation-with-meditation-with-patrick-friends-tickets-137923100707

Not familiar with Tibetan Bon Tradition? This article explains a bit about it

https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/the-tibetan-traditions/bon-and-tibetan-buddhism

Bon and Tibetan Buddhism This evening I have been asked to speak about the Bon tradition and its relation to Buddhism. When His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks of the Tibetan traditions, he often refers to the five traditions of Tibet: the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug and Bon. From His Holiness' point of view, Bon has an equ...

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

How’s your relationship with everyday life?

20. Meditation is something divorced from everyday life

If we’re very lucky, our meditation practice can be something that helps us become divorced from everyday life! That’s the goal at least. Let me explain. The idea of meditation is for you to gain control over your personality and to not let your emotions and thoughts run your life. When you spend time in meditation looking inwards to see how the reality your emotions and thoughts lose their ability to run your life and you can become their master. So, in fact, meditation is the perfect antidote to everyday life and far from a divorce from everyday life. It can in fact help you to influence your everyday in ways that are impossible to see right now.

Andean Music Master Tito La Rosa shares many sacred sounds and sites of his homeland of Peru. Enjoy :)

https://youtu.be/2VVDi-RUwcE

Traditional Andean Sounds by Tito La Rosa, Peruvian Quechua Descendant See Tito La Rosa at the Heart & Mind Festival: https://www.heartandmindfestival.org/Subscribe to Heart & Mind TV for more indigenous wisdom: https://www.yout...

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

Hey guys, back to answering myths:

19. I’m supposed to have transcendent experiences in meditation

This is particularly difficult emotionally at the beginning of meditation when you hear and that person A saw all the angels and saints and there were explosions of light and whatever you can imagine, when your meditation is quietness, blackness or your daily thoughts rushing into your head and you can feel sad about this. I personally had this experience myself. What I discovered from working with my teachers is that if your meditation is quietness and stillness you may be on a better path than those who see fantastic visuals. The mind will play all sorts of tricks on us to distract us from our true destination, personal sovereignty, including using ecstatic experiences. You must also account for the fact that some people’s minds are wired differently, some people are more visual and they naturally see things, as opposed to a kinaesthetic person who feels things or a person whose mind is more founded in auditory experiences. We are all made differently and no mind is better or worse, and rest assured having transcendent experiences in meditation is not something you’re necessarily supposed to experience.

Patrick Rea Leadership updated their information in their About section.

Mayan Elder Tata Pedro Cruz reveals ancient Mayan knowledge that can be applied to everyday modern living. He is one of the few surviving members of the Mayan Council of the Elders of Tz’utujil, which is a branch of the Maya Qui-che.
(You can turn on CC for English translation)

https://youtu.be/16WO3weVY84

Tata Pedro Cruz, Mayan Elder, Speaks on The Ego and Natural Laughter Medicine Mayan Elder Tata Pedro Cruz reveals ancient Mayan knowledge that can be applied to everyday modern living. Tata Pedro Cruz is one of the few surviving member...

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

This is a wrong concept about meditation

18. Meditation is escapism

In meditation you survey your inner world and sometimes it can be very confronting when your mind shows you something that you are struggling to accept and acknowledge. One of the biggest reasons that meditation is difficult is because you have to see yourself where you’re at currently, it can be too much for people to handle and they end up never even starting. It is because of this that guided meditation became so popular because sitting with yourself was the complete opposite of escapism. In fact, it is the biggest personality of all time who were the biggest meditators, Jesus Christ, the Prophet Mohammed, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, men whose names are written in the annals of time as people who take life very seriously, surely, they weren’t escapists? ;)

Hey guys! Sharing this incredible healing prayer by Huni Kuin

-"Eskawatã Kayawei is a prayer to bring healing to our thoughts, to our hearts and to our minds." -

https://youtu.be/nzY8vXaFU0k

Eskawatã Kayawei - Txana Tuwe, Txana Yube, Biruany & Natxuany - Huni Kuin @ Heart & Mind Festival "Eskawatã Kayawei is a prayer to bring healing to our thoughts, to our hearts and to our minds." - Txana TuweThis video is from the Heart & Mind Festival pre...

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

When do you start receiving benefits from meditation?

17. It takes years of dedicated practice to receive any benefits from meditation

It may take years in order to be able to completely still our mind but you can begin to get benefits from meditation in 3 minutes and under. Of course, the benefits that you can get from a deep process of meditation is akin to a dimmer switch, the benefits are high from an experienced Buddhist monk who has meditated 30,000 hours compared to someone who has just begun a month ago. The benefits are not equal of course, but you can benefit from my meditation on the same day that you start. Here’s a 5 minutes guided meditation where you can experience for yourself the almost immediate benefits of meditation.

https://youtu.be/gT5Xppfg-8U

Patrick’s Emotional Wellbeing Practice Meditation Sample This is a small sample of the mediation we do in my Emotional Wellbeing Practice.Visit my website https://www.patrickrealeadership.com/

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

Happy New Year everyone!

There are more myths to be answered, let’s continue to answer them:

16. Meditation is only for stressed out and anxious people

Meditation is a process of getting to know ourselves and can help us in become a master of our emotions and avoiding stress and anxiety by confronting the situations that create it in a safe environment. Meditation was a process intended for people who had refined their personality and calmed their mind to overcome their final desire and become Enlightened. So, when we look at the origins of meditation, we know that that is a misunderstanding of the practice. Now, few if any of us are on our final desire before Enlightenment, but we can use meditation to sit and reflect on our lives and gain a sense of objectivity and stop being a slave to our emotions which when disturbed, stress us out and make us anxious

[SCIENCE OF MEDITATION❤]

Here you can find a compilation from Mindfulness In Schools and how meditation benefits children
http://mindfulnessinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Children-and-mindfulness-journal-of-childrens-services-weare.pdf

mindfulnessinschools.org

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

This is one that most people don’t understand and makes them back up from meditation

15. You’ll feel immediately better after starting meditation

I’m sorry, but no, it will take some time. You may feel an immediate sensation of feeling better but meditation is a process of refining your personality and clearing your mind. If I can like it to cleaning your room, imagine you hadn’t cleaned your room in several years, in all likelihood you may not be able to see the floor :D This is what it is like when we begin meditation. We begin removing the garbage of our mind, at the beginning this can be non-directed meditation where you sit there and see what comes up and being aware of your emotional and intellectual situation and as you clear your mind, it becomes increasingly calm. As your mind becomes calmer, you will be able to begin directing it. You may be able to focus on a mantra or keep your mind on your breath in time. Although it may take some time, maybe even years to get to that state, so taking it back to the untidy room metaphor, you may find things you hadn’t bargained for when you begin to tidy and it is work to dispense with them. Enjoy the process!

[SCIENCE OF MEDITATION❤]

In a research done by neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two groups of people were exposed to different methods of stress control. The group exposed to meditation techniques showed to be more effective in relieving inflammatory symptoms than other activities that promote wellbeing.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/mnt/releases/255048 #1

Error Page

[MEDITATION MYTHS ANSWERED]

Many people are not aware of how vast meditation is:

14. There is only one kind of meditation

There are in fact many types of meditation. There are many traditions and lineages of meditation within Buddhism and Hinduism, there is 2000-year-old Christian meditation tradition, there are guided secular practices, and meditation is the final stop on the road to Self-Realisation. So, there are many different ways of doing it in fact, which have been practiced successfully throughout the ages.