For years, meditation and I had a love/hate relationship.

Ok that sounds too negative. Here’s the thing: I’d hang out with meditation for a bit and somehow the relationship just wasn’t going anywhere. Blame it on my mind chatter, I just couldn’t seem to get it together.

I mean, not that you need to listen to everything you hear people say but folks would always tell me, “You and meditation would make such a great couple!” … and I truly, truly know this.

Meditation has such a good heart.

Meditation is everything I’ve been looking for.

Meditation and I would be *so* good for eachother!

Yet every time I hung out with meditation, I would get bored. And I know it’s ok to get bored. I know that, I do. Life isn’t always all crème brulee and hershey’s kisses but even so, we just weren’t clicking. I’d be with meditation yet thinking a zillion other things … I’d catch myself over and over again … bring myself back … and wait to get better at it.

But I just never got past that stage and on to The Good Stuff.

So me ‘n meditation. A tenuous relationship. A respectful relationship but not all that I just knew it could be.

Now this morning, I was listening to Buddhist Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield. Put the “Buddhist” part and the “beginners” part aside for a minute, k? Let’s take a peek at the meditation part. Because he mentioned some things which open up space for a whole new relationship with meditation.

Jack talks about people saying, “I’m lost in thought so much of the time … What should I do?” In insight meditation it’s called “seeing the waterfall” … how much thought there is inside.

Don’t be afraid of whatever arises in meditation … just let it be part of the practice. It’s fine. In fact, it’s more than fine … it’s perfect.

What matters is not how many thoughts we have or how long we’ve been lost in thought … that is not so much in our control … what matters is the moment you notice and in that moment you can choose to continue to be lost in thought or to come back again and say, “Here I am, alive in this present moment.”

Softly come back to the awareness of what your breath feels like or what your body feels like.

It’s the returning which is the training for awakening to living in the present, in a mindful way.

The “top ten tunes” is your list of repeating stories. If something comes back again and again, you can name it softly and accept it in. It could be something which needs to be felt … and it’s knocking on the door saying, “Hey, I’m important, feel me, acknowledge me.”

So we name it softly.

“Oh, here’s remembering. Thank you for your contribution.”

“Worry, thank you.”

“Aah, planning.”

Meet whatever arises with kindness and balance and wisdom … and whatever comes to you can be a part of your meditation. I sense a peaceful new relationship unfolding!

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Order Buddhist Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield at Amazon.
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Buy “Inspirations: Dream” art print.

Affirmations can either help you attain your dreams or keep you from them.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with an affirmation. Affirmations are my buds. Thing is, you need to get the right ones. Ones which will make the best friends. You and only you will know which ones are just perfectly right for you.

How will you know? By your feelings.

Here’s what I mean …

Would you hang out with someone who makes you feel like crap? Uh, no. Well, don’t hang out with an affirmation which makes you feel like crap. You want to find an affirmation which lifts you up and makes you feel good. Not one which feels so implausible that you feel terrible about yourself every time you hear it.

What happens when you hear the sentence “I have ten million dollars in my bank account”?

Does that feel good? Awesome! Then that affirmation is your friend.

But maybe, just maybe, when you read that sentence, you feel repelled. All sorts of doubts pop up in your head like, “That’s not true. That’s bs. I have ten dollars in my bank. I just bounced a check. I need to pay the rent.”

Then this affirmation, for you, is not a friend.

Now maybe down the road, this affirmation will be your friend. But right now, not so much.

Because you see, your hopeful thoughts are like a train taking you to the right place, a magical, mystical place where all your dreams come true. But first you need to get on that train. And how you go about doing that makes all the difference in the world.

So you are standing next to the train tracks on the ground of your current reality. On that ground is “I have bills” and “I have ten dollars in the bank” and “I bounced a check.”

Just say you *do* want piles of money in your bank account, you want to be able to pay for things with ease and to have more than enough money to be generous with people and to take good care of yourself and your family. Well, ok, great … That is your train, your hopeful thought. And your friends will help you get on that train.

Let’s take a look at these potential friends you’ve got lined up to help you here.

Friend One: The affirmation “I have ten million dollars I the bank.”

This one represents an affirmation which may be too far away from your current reality to be believable. If it brings you joy, great. But if not, that would be like trying to get onto a moving train from a point of standing still. Can you just stand there and jump on as the train rolls by? You’d get creamed.

You’d be better off running beside the train and then jumping on, right? Affirmations which are your friends will run alongside the train with you and lift you up to get on. That’s the most effective way.

So you need to think of an affirmation which is somewhere in between the speed of the train and the speed of standing-still. Uh, the non-speed of standing still. You get the point.

What sounds better than where you are currently at … but not so far away as to throw you off the train?

Maybe it’s:

• I’m grateful for my paycheck which comes every week.
• As I express gratitude, it opens the flow of prosperity to me.
• I am getting better at managing my money every day.
• My prosperity serves the world because I add value to people’s lives.
• I always have enough money to meet my needs.
• I have an abundance of good in my life.
• I look forward to focusing on my dreams and moving towards them.
• I am lucky to have a roof over my head and food in my mouth.
• I notice that there are little daily miracles in my world.
• I am the source of my abundance.
• I am an unlimited being. I can create anything I want.
• Everything is perfect and I am moving towards my higher good.
• I know that my dreams are reachable.

If any of these feel good, adopt them as your friends. Write them down to repeat to yourself each day when you get up and before you go to sleep. Do that for a month and then next month make them even bigger and brighter.

And as they begin to come alive for you, you can begin to move closer to that train and jump on.

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A very special thanks to Morgana Rae for the fourth money mantra on my list. Morgana is an expert on wealth manifestation and money magic! She guides clients to attract more than they chase and to enjoy success without sacrificing their humanity.
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