Mastering Your will

I want to warn you about a very common stumbling block for people who are starting a meditation practice. Any time you start to change something in your life your body as the mind will signal your brain to be in control again. The next thing you know you might start to hear negative voices in your head like why don’t you start tomorrow? You are too much like your mother! what’s wrong with you? You will never change. This does not feel right. That’s the body trying to unseat you so that it can be the mind again. You may have unconsciously conditioned it to be impatient frustrated unhappy victimized or pessimistic to name a few examples. So that’s how it wants to subconsciously behave

The moment you respond to that voice as if what it is saying is true your consciousness immerses itself back into the automated program so you return to thinking the same thoughts performing the same actions and living by the same emotions — but still expecting something to change in your life. If you use feelings and emotions as a barometer for change you will always talk yourself out of possibility. When you instead free the body of the chains of these emotions you are then able to relax into the present moment and you will be liberating energy from the body — going from particle to wave — so that it becomes available to create new destiny. To get to that place to teach your body a new way of being you have to sit your body down and let it know who the master is

We have a ranch with 18 horses and mastering the will to stay focused in meditation reminds me of what its like to ride a favorite stallion after I have not been on him in a while. When I first climb up into the saddle that stallion could not care less about me. He smells the mares on the other side of the property and that’s where his attention goes. It’s a thought he saying to me,” Where have you been for the last eight months? “I got into some bad habits while you were away the girls are over there and I am not concerned about what you want to do so I am going to throw you off. I am in charge here”. He gets mad temperamental and I pay attention to him and when his head starts to turn toward those mares, I take control of him

So, the moment I see him start to move away from my lead I slowly but firmly grab the reins and pull them in and I just wait. And before long he stops and lets out this big snort and I stroke him on the side and tell him, “That’s right”. And we take two steps and then I see his head starting to turn just slightly again and I stop him and wait. And he lets out another big snort and once he knows I am in charge we start to move forward again. I just keep following the same procedure until he ultimately surrenders to me

That’s kind of gentle but firm refocusing is exactly the same approach to use with your body when you sit down to meditate. Think of your body as the animal that you as consciousness are training. Every time you become conscious that your attention has wandered and you bring it back like that you are reconditioning your body to a new mind. You are mastering yourself and your past

So, let’s say you wake up in the morning and have a list of people to call a list of errands to run 35 texts to responds to and all these emails to answer. If the first thing you do every morning is start thinking about all of those things that you have to do your body is already in the future. When you sit down to meditate your mind may naturally want to go in that direction. And if you allowed it then you brain and your body would be in that same predictable future because be anticipating an outcome based on your same past experience from yesterday.

So, the moment you start to notice your mind wanting to go in that direction you just pull the reins in settle your body down and bring it back to the present moment –just as I do when I ride my stallion. And then in the next moment if you start thinking Yeah but you have to do this you forgot about that and you need to do the thing you did not get to yesterday just bring your mind back to the present moment again. And if it keeps happening and that brings up the emotions of frustration impatience worry and so on just remember that whatever emotions you are experiencing is merely part of the past. So, you just notice it you become aware: Ah my body-mind wants to go to the past. All right. Let’s settle down and relax back into the present.