I Can't Meditate!

"I can't meditate because I can't switch off."

To anyone who has ever said that, I reply. Yes, you can. You just need to get your ego under control.

I first learned about the human "ego" whilst reading Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now.

It is an impressive, if challenging read, and looks at the theory of living in the moment, and letting go of fear and negative emotion.

It suggests that we can all live in love and happiness if we can only get our ego under control.

The ego is the conscious part of your mind. This is probably what you think of as "ME", because it tells you what to do and chatters away like a monkey all day, everyday, making you think it's in charge.

It makes decisions for you, warns you away from things it is afraid of, and is pretty hard to control.  Most of us don't even realise it's there until we attempt to meditate for the first time or partake in a similar spiritual practise that requires quietening of the mind.

"I just can't switch my mind off" is the common phrase you'll hear.  Well actually you can, it just takes practise.

Unfortunately, your ego is a necessary evil. It keeps you alive and looks after you as best it can while you're growing up.  The problem is, unless you've been taught how to make it keep quiet at will, you wont have heard any of the other, wiser voices, like that of your subconscious mind and higher or spiritual self.

"Uh-oh, she's talking about voices in her head"  I hear you say "she must be crazy!"

Not at all, we all have an inner dialogue and some parts of it are more helpful than others.

The ego, which is similar to the monkey mind that the Buddha spoke of, is simply a servant that has run rampage in the castle, and made the king believe he is in charge.

Get your ego under control, and your thoughts will be under control, you'll feel happier and meditation suddenly becomes a whole lot easier.

There's no quick fix, but music designed to put you in a meditative state of mind helps, along with deep breathing. It takes practise, but the more you meditate, the easier it becomes.

So keep at it, and hush that ego up!