It is said that we do YOGA to prepare us for MEDITATION.To get the body flowing so that we may sit still.

More often now we hear people saying “I need to do yoga,” “I need to meditate,” in the same tone as “I need to drink more water, get more sleep, exercise more, recycle, get a new job, get a new life…” But why? The assumption is that yoga and meditation calms us, relaxes us, reduces stress and offers us a sense of peace.

It is said that we do meditation to prepare us for PRAYER.

If you are recovering from your religious upbringing.. whoa!..this may stop you. You’ve heard this: God answers our prayers. So we pray, “God give me good health.” Then we go about our day and our mental chatter goes something like, “I’m getting old. This is what happens when we get old, ” or “I am genetically predisposed this way..”

New age wisdom says that our THOUGHTS are prayers. We just canceled out our conscious request with our unconscious one. And for those of us that don’t believe in the traditional God, then we are, in essence, God, setting our thoughts into motion. And if our thoughts are driven by the seat of our pants, of course our experience will feel more random.

Meditation connects us to infinite intelligence that lies within us. It helps us to expand out of our existing matrix and shift our thoughts in a way that inclines us towards greater possibility and audacious optimism. How it works is, with practice, it begins to develop our capacity to stay in Pure Presence. In the NOW moment. This is why when we are children we have access to an uncanny stream of wisdom and angles with which to negotiate that impresses or stumps the adults that are paying attention. And as children, time is more generous with us. Children have harnessed the power of  Pure Presence where full engagement and PLAY is infused into everything. Fear of making mistakes and looking silly becomes less an obstacle.