Did you know that when we meditate our body’s chemistry changes? It’s true!
In fact, we experience the opposite of the physiological effects produced by the fight-or-flight and ego responses. We’re less inclined to perspire, our breathing and heart rate slows, our body’s production of stress hormones decreases, our sex hormone production increases, our growth hormone levels are elevated, our immune system strengthens, and our blood flows more easily throughout our entire body.
As these physiological shifts to our physical body occur, our mind calms, anxiety lessens, stress seems to shed, and there’s an emotional shift in how we respond to unmet needs. This state of restful awareness can last for a moment or through the entire meditation.
The beauty of this process is that the state of restful awareness continues to benefit our bodies even after our meditation session. And as we meditate on a regular basis, we slowly and gently shift our automatic response mechanism to a more unconditioned one.
In the state of restful awareness…We move through situations with greater grace and ease.
We’re more reflective and less reflexive.
We’re less likely to lash out or have knee-jerk reactions, because we’re not coming from a conditioned space.
We’re less impulsive and more intuitive.
We’re making more conscious choices, because we intuitively know what is the highest choice in that moment—the one that honors our self and the person we are interacting with; the one that elevates both of us to the highest plane of existence; the one that comes from a heart filled with compassion, forgiveness, and a desire for peace.
We’re more open to multiple interpretations of a situation or scenario.
We become less attached to our previous interpretations, and our need to defend them feels less urgent.
We see the bigger picture… a more expanded landscape… rather than the more narrow view we once had.
Over the first few weeks of daily meditation, this grace, ease, and expanded awareness weave themselves intermittently through our interactions. As we continue to meditate and spend time in stillness, each day becomes more comfortable, restful awareness becomes more and more our natural state, and greater clarity begins to unfold.
It becomes less important to defend our point of view, because we see greater possibilities and creative solutions emerge to once-daunting challenges.
We become more alert, more creative, more intuitive, and more relaxed. We start having anxiety-free days, and stress becomes more manageable. And our first response to unmet needs is no longer the ego response… it’s as if we have reached another level in our emotional evolution.
Our more common response starts to be one of truly resting while we are aware—of silent witnessing before we act out old, conditioned response patterns yet again. This “new” state could also be called restful alertness, because our senses are heightened and we begin to experience a new lightness of being.
Little things don’t irritate us or knock us off course as easily.
We become more fluid in our thoughts and actions. We become more intuitive and creative in our choices and more visionary in our goals. We start seeing miracles unfold in our daily life.
