20 Quotes To Encourage You To Meditate Daily

I never really used to understand the purpose and concept of meditation. Sitting down with your legs crossed, your back upright, arms outstretched, and palms facing upwards, whilst having your eyes closed, as you remain completely idle in silence, I always just thought it was some waste of time activity for yoga fanatics. Funny thing is, I never really knew what yoga even was about either. Even if I was educated more on meditation and yoga, going back 5, 10, and even 20 years ago, I still wouldn't have been enticed by it, or interested in it. I never really saw any benefit to it, and just the thought of sitting there in such a position, pausing from the mayhem and chaos of everyday life, just to have a few moments of silence, reflection, and understanding, was not my idea of being proactive or productive. I've always been someone who just has to be doing something, apart from when I'm asleep of course, because otherwise it feels like time wasted. Having become someone who has begun to learn the importance of the mind, over these past four years, and the crucial role it plays in regards to our attitude, our behavior, our decision making, our emotions, our outlook, our wellbeing, and even the results we obtain in our life, meditation has finally started to make complete sense to me. It's like anything in life really that, as humans, we tend to form our own perspective, opinion, and belief, about someone or something, even though we don't really know the truth about it or them. I drew a picture in my mind about what meditation was, and without actually knowing about what it entailed, what its benefits were, and why we should practice it daily, I automatically judged it as being a waste of time. Nowadays, I've become an advocate for it.

Firstly, I've learnt that meditation doesn't have to be about being seated in the lotus position, but it can instead be practiced in any comfortable seated position, perhaps even lying down on occasions, provided you are alone and in a quiet location, free of interruptions. The exercise is about feeling relaxed, not about feeling the awkwardness of sitting in a way that feels weird and uncomfortable. Meditation is about taking some time out to just pause and de-stress, and considering the fast paced and demanding life we live nowadays, I think we all could do with a few minutes peace and quiet. With all the concerns of what is happening in our life currently, all the worries and anxiety of potential circumstances and outcomes in the future, combined with all the mistakes and failures of our past, our mind is constantly overwhelmed with thoughts. Let's not forget the time factor also, and how our day is already overloaded with tasks and commitments to complete, to then have to accommodate meditation into our daily schedule looks like a near impossible suggestion. I mentioned the word "wellbeing" above, in regards to how important a role our mind plays in that, and when it comes to meditation, this is where the greatest benefit of it is found. The adversities, challenges, and pressures, that life deals us is unrelenting. There is always something that worries and concerns us, and the more and more these worries and concerns begin to weigh on our mind, the more stressed we can get, naturally. Just by taking 10 minutes out of our day to sit somewhere, close our eyes, and detox our mind, can make a huge difference to our wellbeing and mental health.

Meditation focuses on mindfulness, bringing our mind and awareness into that exact moment in time, whilst allowing us to acknowledge and accept our feelings, thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, that we are experiencing in life, but in a calm and peaceful environment. It's just accepting all that we are feeling, without any judgement. Meditation focuses on the breath, because the breath is a constant, it's always present, and that's where we want to direct our attention, on that very moment. We want to be relieving our mind of all that worry, stress, and concern, and by firstly taking a few deep breaths, we can then become calmer and more relaxed, before we direct our mind fully on each breath we take, so we stay in that moment of peace. It gives our mind a much needed break from the constant barrage of information and stress. Guaranteed, our mind will wander during the process, but then we simply bring our awareness back on our breathing, and acknowledge that in that very moment, that we are actually okay. Perhaps you are like I was, and believe meditation sounds silly and is a waste of time, or perhaps you can eliminate your judgement of it instead, try it out for yourself, and note the difference in how you feel after. It should be a daily priority because you need to look after your wellbeing, and provide your mind with a much needed pause, as we all do. Here are 20 quotes to encourage you to add meditation to your daily schedule, to help you destress and improve your wellbeing.

1.- "Meditate every single day. Not once in a while. Every single day."

- Khensu

2.- "If you meditate regularly, even when you don’t feel like it, you will make great gains, for it will allow you to see how your thoughts impose limits on you. Your resistances to meditation are your mental prisons in miniature."

- Ram Dass

3.- "The best meditation is effortless. The best meditation is a gentle awareness."

- Maxime Lagacé

4.- "Meditation is a vital practice to access conscious contact with your highest self."

- Wayne Dyer

5.- "Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It's like the ultimate rest. It's better than the best sleep you've ever had. It's a quieting of the mind. It sharpens everything, especially your appreciation of your surroundings. It keeps life fresh."

- Hugh Jackman

6.- "Meditation is freedom from thought and a movement in the ecstasy of truth. Meditation is explosion of intelligence."

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

7.- "The mind is definitely something that can be transformed, and meditation is a means to transform it."

- 14th Dalai Lama

8.- "Exercise, prayer, and meditation are examples of calming rituals. They have been shown to induce a happier mood and provide a positive pathway through life's daily frustrations."

- Chuck Norris

9.- "Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

10.- "By the practice of meditation, you will find that you are carrying within your heart a portable paradise."

- Paramahansa Yogananda

11.- "Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass."

- Owen Feltham

12.- "Meditation is to dive all the way within, beyond thought, to the source of thought and pure consciousness. It enlarges the container, every time you transcend. When you come out, you come out refreshed, filled with energy and enthusiasm for life."

- David Lynch

13.- "Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing that connection."

- Amit Ray

14.- "Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy."

- Lou Reed

15.- "Mindfulness meditation is the embrace of any and all mind states in awareness, without preferring one to another."

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

16.- "The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness. But if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions."

- Kelsang Gyatso

17.- "Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being."

- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

18.- "When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a candle in a windless place."

- Bhagavad Gita

19.- "Meditation is key. It's a crazy world we live in. Everything is happening so fast in our world, so to take a moment and clear the mind and just be totally present is so healing. I want to meditate more."

- Jamie Anderson

20.- "Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment."

- Alan Watts

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