Meditation – Vejen til at beherske sit sind

Imagine that you could choose which emotions, thoughts and psychological states affect your inner life. That you could master your mind as if it were a radio, with which you choose which stations you want to listen to. Yes, not only that, but that you could actually create the content in your consciousness that you want!

By Kenneth Sørensen, MA, author and psychotherapist

I have been meditating daily for 30 years and it has become an indispensable part of my life because I have found a tool with which I can change my psychological states from day to day.

It may sound like a utopia to most people, but nevertheless, the goal of meditation is to be able to create and shape one’s psychological life from the inside out. You have probably heard the statement that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. This is exactly the philosophy behind the science of meditation, because it is actually a science based on clear cause-and-effect mechanisms.

Anyone can sit down and experiment with the psychological law that energy follows thought . Sit down for a moment and spend 10 minutes imagining the most disgusting thing you can visualize and then observe the effect in your mind. Then spend 10 minutes imagining the most wonderful thing you can visualize and now evaluate the effect. You will probably experience a significant difference in your mental climate because you have consciously tuned into two different psychological frequencies. In other words, our imaginations (thoughts, images and mental intentions) affect our psychological states and this is what is popularly called the power of thought.

Meditation finds its strongest application in connection with a desire to develop as a person. Self-development is of course about getting to know oneself, but it is also about being able to master one’s life, that is, being “master of one’s own house”. Our personality is like an inner house that is often at odds with itself. That is, most people experience that they have conflicting energies or “voices” inside that fight against each other. Fear arises when we challenge ourselves instead of simply going with the flow. Often we can experience it as if we are being thrown this way and that by psychological forces that we have no control over.

This is especially true when we are under the influence of strong desires for power, influence, control, to be loved, popular, secure, etc. These desires or wishes will invariably dominate and control us as long as we are too strongly identified with them. They are often linked to other people or things, which we become dependent on and, in the worst case, controlled by. We are not free or master of our own house, and certainly not when we begin to listen to our deepest potentials.

In our deepest being we have a love, a power and an intelligence that holds unimaginable possibilities if we have the courage to open our hearts and listen. However, it takes great courage to act on who we are, because we often have to break with the social conventions and expectations we were born into. Therefore, the personal development journey is a hero’s journey that takes us down into the darkest corners and into the innermost layers of our being. It is in this context that meditation is man’s best self-development tool.

When I began meditation in 1988, I was in the midst of a profound crisis and transformation process. I was beginning to understand or wake up to why my life was so difficult. Most of my youth was marked by loneliness, inferiority complex, and a deep-seated self-hatred that I didn’t understand at all. I felt extremely limited in my development because I was hampered by vulnerable sides that I had to protect and aggressive forces that I had to control. A few years earlier, I had become interested in astrology and self-development, which gave me hope that I could do something about my situation. I had started going to psychotherapy, but I also wanted to free myself on a daily basis from the dark psychological smog that lay like a suffocating fog over my consciousness.

Creative meditation

I was advised to meditate on a sun in the center of my chest, which I was told contained all the psychological qualities I needed: love, trust, acceptance, courage, honesty, etc. The meditation was simple enough for me to understand and it was like coming home when I first sat down. It was meaningful even though I didn’t immediately experience any major changes. However, the very idea that I could change my consciousness from the inside out through a single positive visualization appealed to me strongly. I knew with myself that this was what I would be good at. This would be my salvation.

Meditation is no more difficult to learn than playing the guitar. It requires practice, a good teacher, and patient discipline every day. The first weeks and months of practicing playing the guitar probably don’t sound very good. The same goes for meditation. It’s hard to control your mind, to maintain the visualization of the bright sun in your chest area. But gradually you start to feel that something is happening if you are persistent. I meditated specifically on trust and acceptance because I was having a hard time with myself. I had analyzed myself to the point that those were exactly the qualities that were the medicine or consciousness medicine for the self-condemnation I suffered from.

I gradually began to feel an openness in the heart area in the middle of the chest. A pleasant warmth and loving atmosphere that spreads inside. It was like a revelation to me, it was a revolution in my self-experience that I could actually influence my own mood. Meditation on the sun has the same effect that the sun has on a fog out in nature. Gradually, as the sun gets stronger, it illuminates the fogs in the mind. This is not a question of faith, because it works even if you don’t believe it, but of course faith gives a stronger energy to be persistent. Tuning into the same channel every day for a long time will eventually create a permanent trace in the consciousness, so it becomes easier to evoke the states you meditate on.

Meditation on a sun is a so-called creative meditation . It is based on visualization and although you can support it with music, incense, mantras and yoga positions, they are basically not necessary for the benefit. It is creative because it can contribute to creating a completely new personality, through which you can unfold. Of course, I still have many difficult states in my mind, I am by no means enlightened, but I have found a tool with which I can enlighten my mind every morning. Today, I can relatively easily evoke the psychological qualities in my mind that I need. Sometimes meditation changes my psychological environment significantly, other times it contributes an important nuance that makes it easier to maintain a positive mindset throughout the day.

Of course, you can visualize other images than a sun, a mountain, a diamond or the surface of a silent forest lake where the moon is reflected are also good objects.

Observing meditation

Creative meditation is not the only type of meditation that exists and I will therefore briefly present two other types of meditation that I consider to be fundamental. Observing and reflective meditation. Our task as developing people is to discover ourselves on deeper and deeper levels and then bring those insights into our lived lives. Creative meditation especially helps us express ourselves authentically because we gradually build new qualities into our personality that we perceive as authentic. In other words, we gradually become a better version of ourselves. Observing meditation, on the other hand, is more about discovering new aspects of our nature and the very foundation of our conscious existence. It is about self-knowledge. When we begin to observe the nature of consciousness itself in meditation, we begin to discover that we can observe everything that arises in our consciousness of thoughts, images, feelings and sensations. We gain a stronger realization that we are not the body, the emotions, the thoughts, but rather the observer, the awake self that can observe these states.

This form of meditation is also known as mindfulness and there are many ways to practice it. But one of the most important is to direct the observation towards consciousness itself. That is, to examine what is conscious within. Ask yourself the question: who or what is conscious and observe it?

This observing presence will gradually create a stable center from which we can always withdraw and study what we are under the influence of. It will also give us a realization that we are first and foremost consciousness, the awake, present and knowing center of our being. But it will also create a quiet place, an inner peace behind the many moods of the personality. Observing meditation will enable us to rest more within ourselves, because we do not become so entangled in all the forces that affect us.

In a sense, observing meditation is probably the most important form of meditation we can start practicing, because it establishes a clearer perception of who we are. On the other hand, it is also one of the most difficult types of meditation to practice, because we are not used to being focused on the source of presence. Nothing happens at first and it is challenging, and yet there is precisely in the silence and wakefulness, a place where one can calm down. Self-knowledge is the starting point for choosing in which direction we want to develop. Therefore, this meditation also brings the will into play, as the ability to choose on a conscious basis which purposes, goals, desires and needs should govern our lives. Not just long-term but on a daily basis.

Reflective meditation

The last type of meditation I want to write a few words about is reflective meditation. It is a kind of deep thinking about important questions that can provide new inspirations, insights and realizations. It is especially suitable for the more mental types who like to use their intellect, and yet it also leads into a quiet contemplative phase where you keep your mind open to new impressions.

You can meditate on many questions you want deeper insight into. Let me give you an example of a simple topic: Reflect on, for example, “What is love?” Use the questions below to get all the way around the topic.

What is the real meaning of love? – What is love? – How many and what types of love are there? – In what ways am I able to love? – How do I try to love? – Who do I love and who do I succeed in loving? – Have I always succeeded in loving as I wanted? – If not, why not? – What have been and are the obstacles, and how can I eliminate them? – To what extent does my love depend on the people it is directed towards, and to what extent does it depend on my own nature?

If you include all these angles in your meditation and go deep into answering the questions, you will gradually gain deeper insight into your perception and expression of love. It will also develop your intellect, making it sharp and insightful.

In such a short article it is not possible to go all the way around meditation, so I have only given you some hints of what meditation can be used for. If you would like to know more about the subject, I would recommend that you visit my website www.kennethsorensen.dk where there are more articles about meditation. Here you can also buy my book Integral Meditation and sign up for my newsletter, which gives you access to 7 different types of guided meditations, including the ones above.

I wish you all the best on your meditation journey.