If you start a meditation practice, it shouldn’t be with the goal to be perfect. Life isn’t perfect. Humans aren’t perfect. This is all messy. Meditation can be merely a clean-up of the mess, but it also can be a mess itself sometimes. I aim to teach meditation for all levels, including meditation for beginners – something that takes into account your whole being instead of aiming at perfection. I want my students to enjoy the practice and learn something that is sustainable in their real lives.
It’s different every time, it’s fluid, and it cannot be defined. Meditation is an exploration of your true existence and mind, and these things are far from perfect. Your mind may be all over the place, and that’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be.
Don’t be afraid of the mess inside your own mind. Forgive yourself for the mess.
Meditation should be comfortable. It should feel like something you look forward to. It should bring you joy. When you’re trying to meet expectations of it going a certain way, you’ll frequently feel like you’ve failed because the mind wants to be free. It doesn’t want to be put into a box. Sometimes it wants to be scattered, sometimes it wants to be heavy, and sometimes it wants to focus on things that don’t make sense. If it doesn’t want to calm down and clear itself of distractions, don’t be hard on yourself about it.
Know the Mess
Be messy. But do it with the intention to understand the mess. Allow your existence to be whatever it needs to be, and get to know it for what it is.
We all have childhood trauma. We even carry karma from past lives that causes our inner worlds to be challenging. We have emotions all over the place — even those of us who have meditated regularly for years still get caught up in the mess. Anger, sadness, and fear all come up for us all because we are all human. The key is to find the beauty in the mess rather than trying to reject it.
Love the Mess
We’re all learning. We’re all going toward bliss and enlightenment. The path isn’t always clear. There are inner barriers to total transcendence. There are things that cause us suffering in life, and they stand between us and happiness. It’s the acceptance of this that is important, not the elimination of it. Become friends with your mess.
When we are starting to meditate for the first time, it can feel daunting if there isn’t some amazing feeling of bliss right away.
I’ll tell you a secret. Sometimes you can find bliss by fully surrendering to the mess. There are no real rules with all of this.
Surrender to the way it is, and love it. This is how meditation should be.
Allow the Mess to Heal
If I could teach meditation in a way that gave everyone steps to a totally calm and blissful mind, then I would do that. It’s not supposed to be mysterious. Yogis meditating thousands of years ago didn’t want to be gatekeepers of bliss. Anyone who’s found the great benefits of meditation wants to spread that to others. But it’s not that simple.
Meditation is hard. The mess within us sometimes prevents us from understanding why meditation is important, and sometimes it causes blockages for meditation to become a regular part of our lives. Meditation for beginners should be about facing our imperfections and understanding that healing can be painful – and meditation isn’t always perfect.
The more you meditate, the more the mess inside you will naturally become cleaned up. It will become effortless to see it subside because you’ve integrated it into your self-awareness.
It’s my belief that we must know the mess before we can get past it. It’s all you — you must know yourself in order to heal yourself.
Start Your Practice
I teach Deepak Chopra’s Primordial Sound Meditation, which is a style that uses a mantra for inner focus. To know more about this style of meditation, I recommend reading Total Meditation, a book he wrote in 2020 on the topic.
Deepak Chopra’s teachings have inspired me for many years, so I became a certified Chopra meditation teacher in 2022. In my meditation classes, I try to focus on oneness and self-love, as I weave together his teachings and my own wisdom. This is a great way for beginners to start their journey in meditation. Check my upcoming class dates here.
Hi, I’m Emily. In addition to writing, I also teach meditation for beginners, read tarot, create podcasts, and I’m a spiritual coach. For more about me, have a look at my website. If this writing helps you, you’re always welcome to buy me a coffee.
The divine in me recognizes the divine in you.
Tarot Readings
Emily offers tarot and psychic readings to help you understand your life’s journey. These are done by Zoom, phone, or email. Ask questions on any topic you like!
Buy the Book
Emily’s latest book, Messy Meditation, is all about the struggles of any meditation practice. This is a realistic path toward inner peace, embracing the darkness and the light.
Manifestation Meditation Course
Meditate, journal, interact, and learn about creating your reality with your mind in this Manifestation Meditation Course with Emily on Zoom. As a group, this is so much more powerful because we can pool our energies!
