Meditation

In my opinion, it would be easier to delve into one's daily extended meditation in the evening or at night. I can see that by meditating first thing in the morning, one is supposedly setting one's Self up for an improved quality of daily life. Unfortunately for me, I get out of bed -- usually after spending some time in various forms of contemplation, transitioning from dreams to physical reality, and pondering gratitude -- invigorated and ready to launch into the tasks of the morning. It is challenging to put this forward motion on hold after spending a number of hours in the motionless and quiet state of sleep, to become motionless and quiet again in order to meditate. By evening, when the daily chores and the immediacy of tasks is behind me, it is much easier to lapse into a meditative state. In fact, I often find myself for extended periods of time falling into a state of no thought and simply being, and it happens naturally, as if an aspect of Self is taking its own break from thinking.

Many mornings, more than I like to admit, I find myself struggling to quiet my mind and drop into the thinkingless state of meditation. Sometimes, I might get a few seconds of calm, but it really doesn't last and I find my mind visiting the tasks ahead and my emotional system vibrating with desire to tackle them. Oftentimes, I give up with the meditation, and then I feel as if I have failed my Self, somehow. I even give myself a mental lashing for being so undisciplined at allowing my Self to give up on this important activity. In fact, I have been known to wonder what I am lacking that makes meditation so difficult for me. And then evening comes, the hectic pace of doing that which has to be done is behind me, and I find I am able to meditate easily and it is so natural. I wonder if those people who get up at 0300h and 0400h to meditate, do so because they too find that once they get up in the morning and confront daily life, it is difficult to still the mind.

Namaste