Meditation: A Gateway to Exploring Your True Nature

While these are valuable results in and of themselves, a meditation practice can also facilitate a deeper exploration of who you really are and your true nature. This truth can be obscured by one’s ongoing and repetitive mind chatter. But in the stillness of a quiet mind, you can connect with your true nature—the eternal witness who observes all experience without expectation or judgment.

There are many ways to meditate. You can work with a mantra or focus on your breathing. You can also enter a meditative state when doing yoga or tai chi or spending time in nature. There are also a variety of video and audio recordings as well as apps available that can provide you with guided meditations or relaxation techniques that can help calm the mind.

If you find your mind wandering during your meditation, a common practice is to just bring your attention back to the focus of the meditation, such as your mantra or your breath. Some styles of meditation ask you to just observe your thoughts as they drift by, without attaching any significance to them.

Over time, a meditation practice can help you recognize that you are not your thoughts. You are the one observing them and you are the one who chooses whether to act or react based on these thoughts. This realization often prompts a pivotal question: If I am not my thoughts, then who am I?

As you explore your true nature, you come to experience yourself as the one who is witnessing your human journey while simultaneously being aware of your connection to all of creation. You are a field of energy, seemingly contained within a physical shell. Some postulate that your energy field extends far beyond your physical body. You can use your meditation practice to help you experience this, by expanding your awareness of your true nature on a more visceral level.

Exercises for Exploring Your Energy Field

• Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.

• Imagine creating a ball of energy between your hands. Slowly bring your hands closer together and then further apart, repeating this motion in a series of pulsing movements. What do you sense or experience as your hands come closer together?

• Focus on the energy at the bottom of your feet. Envision yourself expanding your energy through your feet to connect with the center of the planet. What do you sense or experience?

• Focus on your heart. Envision yourself expanding your energy through your heart center so you become more aware of who you really are. What do you sense or experience?

Your experiences with these exercises may evolve over time, especially as you clear the pathways within your energetic system. Beyond quieting the mind, you may also experience the flow of energy through your body or field in new ways.