Meditation is an extremely powerful tool in helping you ‘get into state’.
It helps clear away all the junk and creates a silence (setting you free from your own mental ‘chatter’ in your head).
Since your state depends on where you focus your mind, being ‘empty’…
…(that is, free from this mental ‘chatter’ that I’m sure we’ve all experienced when we’ve walked into a bar)…
..Is a useful mental place to be in as a starting point for getting into state.
There are a lot of resources on the Internet about different styles of meditation, but I want to talk about one in particular.
The meditation I find works the best for helping get into state is a guided meditation designed to help develop concentration skills.
It’s centered around focusing on your breathing, but differs to Taoist meditation in one way.
Whilst it also allows thoughts to come and go as they please, it gets you to place any thoughts in the background of your awareness and for you to bring awareness of your breathing to the foreground.
So how does this help your state?
Well, you can be any state you want; you just have to focus your attention on the things that are most conducive to getting into a particular state.
Being able to concentrate your mind more with more precision allows you to transition between states quicker because you spend less time trying to shift your focus.
It is just like training a muscle in the gym. A bit of practice and repetition means you can consciously control it with great precision (which, ultimately, means having state ‘ON TAP’).
For example: If I’d spent all day at work and then I went to a bar to hang out with mates, I’d want to change my state.
Being at work, living my purpose, means I’d be in a very directed and focused state. This is great when I’m trying to achieve goals but not so great when I’m out socialising.
So when I get to the bar, I’d (being a kinesthetic person: more on this later) choose to shift my focus from my future goals to the fun and relaxing things around me..
..And how they make me feel: the nice lighting, the way people laughing and relaxing together, probably the music as well.
I’d move my thoughts and feelings about my work and my purpose to the background and bring my awareness to the present moment.
The concentration skills I develop through meditation make this transition much easier. They allow me to make this transition in 10 seconds rather than 10 minutes.
Now – is this forcing myself to be something I’m not?
I’ll cover this in depth in a later post, but – in short – no. It’s not. You’re not forcing yourself to be anything you’re not.
It’s simply allowing you to choose more effectively from the states you have available to you.
LoGun
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