Get In Between Your Thoughts For Peace of Mind

How I broke the cycle and found infinite silence: meditation techniques

I like to use a visualization when I meditate. I get comfortable, I close my eyes, and I breathe. The visualization is different almost every time, but it reaches the same goal: to step out of my busy mind and go into stillness. I want to pass some meditation techniques for peace of mind to you, dear reader.

Sometimes I imagine that I am amid a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings pushing me and blowing me around, pulling me in directions I didn’t expect, and instead of continuing that way, I step into a glass room and close the door. I can still see all the thoughts on the other side of the glass, frantically trying to grab at me, but I am out of reach. And this is how I begin to go deeper, into a place where there is nothing distracting or pulling at me. Maybe I go through more doors in succession until stillness is reached, distancing myself more and more from the busy mind. Maybe it’s enough to just absorb the peace within that room. Ultimately, I must put mental effort into that goal.

The most ironic part is that the goal is lack of effort and lack of doing. If I am putting in effort, that is a thought.

Finding that silence is so detoxifying.

My Meditation Journey

I learned to meditate on my own. At least, this is the story I tell about this one life. Perhaps in other lives, I have meditated and learned from gurus, and even taught stillness to others. I am trying to do the latter in this life. But I haven’t learned from any gurus here.

I simply read about Buddhism as a teenager and wrote history reports on it, fascinated by its power to heal and solve humanity’s problems. I was captivated by the idea of Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree for days until he reached enlightenment. Something about it called to me. I grew up in a very un-Buddhist place, very capitalistic, attached, and full of suffering: the United States. Nothing around me ever suggested that I should try to meditate besides a book from the public library describing the life of Siddhartha.

I took the knowledge of the Buddha’s teachings with me. I knew in the back of my mind through my twenties that the only real goal in life is to reach enlightenment, but I was having fun with my ego and set that goal aside until I was about thirty-two years old. I was finally living in a Buddhist country — South Korea — and finally felt the connection to this lofty goal. This is when I meditated deeply. I came home from work (I was teaching at the time) and sat on my bed and just went into it. I remembered all the things about Buddha’s teachings and read some more. It didn’t take long before I stepped into a completely silent, wonderful, expansive space where expectation and judgment did not exist.

Do trust me on this: a state of bliss is not that far away at all for you.

Finding Yourself

Within the space that is stillness and silence, you can find yourself. There, where the distractions of your mind are removed, and where the layers of conditioning, trauma, emotions, and thoughts are set aside, you start to clearly know the universe. You start to see yourself as part of it.

The edges of yourself begin to dissolve. The boundaries you set up in your mind to create separateness fall away. The rest of the universe and you are one.

This is how you start to know, hear, and see the truth. Your truth. Why are you here? What must you be doing? You can ask this and hear an answer that finally makes total sense.

It’s part of the human experience to have a busy mind and believe in separateness. It’s hard when this world has pulled your mind in directions that aren’t your truth for so long that you become disillusioned and depressive. There is no one, not a single guru or enlightened person in this world who has ever reached a heightened state without some kind of trauma or suffering in their lives. This is what it means to be human. It’s something that happens commonly; suffering is a thing that unites us all. But don’t for a minute believe that a state of depression is essential to your true being. No; it is only a stepping stone to a higher state.

It is part of being human to find your own way out. No one can do this for you. No matter how many therapists you go to, they will never be your true savior, because it takes a change in your mind — under your control only — to lead you out of suffering and into salvation.

Meditation can help you. I strongly believe in it for my solution to all things — balance, healing, and return to oneness. By harnessing the powers already inherent in your beautiful mind, you can pull yourself out of any problem that your senses can manifest.

It’s a Transformation

What I am suggesting for your health and wellness isn’t small. It’s a total transformation. It’s not a subtle shift. It’s a new way of thinking. You must be focused and you must be willing to re-arrange all your habits around meditation and mindfulness. But it’s worth it.

When you look deep inside yourself, it will be clear. Your searchings and longings on this Earth all really pointed to one thing for all of your life: to return to oneness. To listen to your true inner voice. To embody your highest self.

Get there.

For more meditation techniques for peace of mind, please check out my other posts on meditation.