The gifts of meditation

In meditation this morning I felt my attention immediately drop into the heart and I allowed my awareness to rest there. What a gift to rest in the awake awareness of the heart. I followed the breath as it moved in my chest, expanding and opening the energy there. After some time, I followed this awareness as it moved into the belly and experienced what I would describe as an eternal state of being. The felt sense was that I could stay here forever. That maybe I was always here. That the truth of my being was right here in the center of it all.

What a gift meditation is. Before I went on my first meditation retreat, my five year old asked me, “What is a meditation retreat, mama?” Before I could answer (and really how was I going to describe this?), he said, “Oh I know! You meditate a lot and get lots of treats!” He was right. There were so many treats. The remembering of stillness, of timelessness, of home, of truth. The magic of meditation is that when you truly allow yourself to surrender you never know what is going to happen. You simply receive the gifts. You acknowledge the treats.

There isn’t much space for silence in our lives, is there? Something always seems to be pulling our attention away from this magical unfolding. What happens when you get still? What gifts are waiting for you? Practicing allowing and receiving in meditation is simply a reminder to do this in life. As I move through my day, I return to the spacious awareness that opened in the heart and the belly this morning, rediscovering these gifts again and again.