Meditation and Surrendering to the Present Moment

When I sat down to meditate the other day, I closed my eyes, took a breath and immediately started crying.

Like really crying…

…Sobbing, shaking, crying.

Initially, I tried to stop the tears from flowing or understand where they were coming from. Then I realized that I needed to allow these emotions to flow through me. So I surrendered to them. Stopped judging and questioning. And within a couple of minutes, the emotional storm passed, I returned to my breath and finished out my meditation feeling calm and centered.

I think there's this expectation or misunderstanding that meditation is supposed to be a state of quietness which often translates to nothing. No thoughts, no emotions. Be still, don't think, don't move.

In reality, meditation is the state of presence; is to Be. Be with your emotions. Be with your thoughts. Don't hold on to them, but acknowledge that they're there. Be with your body. Move if it feels natural. BE with yourself.

Meditation isn't about resisting or pushing away thoughts and emotions in order to achieve internal silence, it's about allowing them to come up and flow through you and surrendering yourself to the present moment, over and over and over again.

And then, there you are.