15. Meditation for Mindful Living: Identifying your control state and finding your center.
In science, a control subject serves as the starting point for experiments. It acts as the "normal" version against which everything else is compared. For example, if we wish to study how plants grow under various conditions, the control would be a plant growing in ideal conditions—receiving just the right amount of sunlight, water, and nutrients. We then compare this to plants that receive too much or too little sunlight or water, allowing us to observe how these variations affect their growth. The control helps scientists pinpoint what is truly influencing the results by providing a stable reference point.
In meditation, your centre acts as your control state. Once you identify your centre, you will be able to recognise when your mind, body, or emotions have taken you away from it. For example, if a troubling thought triggers difficult emotions, that thought has pulled you away from your centre. Similarly, if a social situation causes you anxiety, it has also disrupted your centre.
By now, you should be familiar with the process of detaching from any experience that doesn’t serve or enlighten you. In Lesson 5: Learn Meditation in 5 Steps, you discovered how to use your breath as a tool for detachment. In Lesson 4: Breathing in Meditation, you explored the power of breathing and how it can fuel the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that pull you away from your centre. And in Lesson 6: Creating a Safe Space for Your Mind, you learned how to create a "centre" that you can return to whenever you need to detach. However, there is an even simpler way to identify and establish your control state whenever you find yourself feeling unsettled or attached to a difficult experience.
Steps to Finding Your Centre:
- Close your eyes.
- Inhale and exhale gently through your nose, allowing your breath to settle into a natural and relaxed rhythm. This is your control breath.
- Once you’ve found your control breath, remain here for a moment until you feel calm and in control. When ready, you can return to the experience in your mind, body, or beyond with greater clarity and control.
- Take an additional step by assessing whether the experience is valuable: Does it serve or enlighten you? If so, proceed mindfully; if not, move on.
Meditation need not be difficult when you understand the process. What you’ve learned in this lesson forms the foundation of the transcendental journey.
Coming Up Next Week:
Next week, I’ll be starting a series of lessons on meditation for neurodiversities such as autism, ADHD and aphantasia to name a few!
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Please note: Esoteric concepts are not meant to be taken literally or as absolute truths. However, they can provide valuable perspectives and context, helping our limited human minds grasp complex ideas.
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