Meditation is easier than you think (4)
Myths of meditation
Myth 4: “Meditation is a great way to fall asleep.”
Oops. Nope. Meditation is not meant as a gate-way for sleep. That is not to say that sometimes we might fall asleep when we are meaning to be meditating. But meditation is not meant to be a sleep aid.
If you are looking for a way to fall asleep, and find that you can do that easier when you “meditate”, then congratulations. Except you would want to call what you are doing to help you sleep, “mind and body relaxation”. Not “meditation”. If you were to keep thinking it is meditation when what you are actually doing is relaxation, you would miss the other benefits that come when we actually meditate. Now I could go down the list of benefits here, like, stress reduction, increased positive feelings, greater sense of emotional mastery, increased positive relationships.....but here is the deal: all of the positives listed with meditation seem to come about by exercising and thereby increasing, our ability to become aware of our awareness's. It is as if with meditation practice we get the opportunity to develop another layer of our perceptions, so that we can perceive our perceptions. And when we are perceiving our perceptions, we are no longer living IN them, and letting our perceptions rule our lives. We get to be the captain of our own ship. A calm, curious, compassionate, captain. Hmmmmm....sometimes that sounds even better than sleep.
Further Resources: The Sleep Solution, By Chris Winter, M.D.
