My Favorite Meditation
August 24th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Here’s a simple but powerful meditation exercise you may enjoy. Teaching you the basics of meditation is beyond the scope of this blog entry (maybe someone can post a comment with a link to a meditation primer for those who’ve never done it), but if you’re already familiar with it, I think you’ll find this one interesting and valuable.
I didn’t learn this particular meditation from anyone else — it’s just something I made up at one point and have been doing for around 10 years now.
First I get myself totally relaxed and into a peaceful state. Then I imagine a special room in my mind which has two chairs facing each other. I sit in one chair, and in the chair opposite me, I visualize my future self five years from now. He appears as the ideal “me” I’m striving to become. He’s physically fit, strong, brave, confident, driven, passionate, enthusiastic, etc. We have a conversation for 5-10 minutes where I ask him questions, and he willingly answers them. He usually looks at me almost with a sense of nostalgia and compassion, since he knows where I am right now as well as the challenges I’m dealing with, challenges he’s long since overcome.
Eventually my future self leaves. Then I get up and take his seat, and my past self from five years ago enters the room and takes the first seat. So now I’m the future self (Steve 2005) looking back on my past self (Steve 2000). I take a moment to remember what my life was like exactly five years ago, so I can recall what that past Steve is experiencing. Now he’s asking me questions about his future (my present), and I’m providing the answers. I’m often amazed to look back and see just how trivially easy his challenges seem to me today, even though I remember that they appeared much grander when I was in his shoes. I take the time to reassure Steve 2000 that everything turns out well for Steve 2005. I also let him know what things I haven’t yet solved that I’m still working on.
Then I do one more step and fast-forward time by five years. So now I’m Steve 2010, and I’m facing Steve 2005. I’m looking back on my present situation from the future — from a vantage point where I’ve already solved my biggest challenges. Now I see my Steve 2005 asking the same questions I was previously asking Steve 2010, and I’m able to answer them with confidence and certainty.
Then I imagine all three of us in the room together (Steve 2000, Steve 2005, Steve 2010), and I visualize all three of our bodies becoming translucent. We walk into each other and blend into one being in a flash of light. When this happens I’m often overwhelmed by a release of emotion — the feeling is somewhat different each time I experience it. We become an integrated whole, a single being who exists outside of time but has been splintered in order to experience the sensation of growth and change.
As I slowly bring myself out of this meditation, I feel very peaceful and calm. But the most important benefit is a feeling of oneness, a sense that I’m more than just a physical being moving forward through time. I feel like an integrated being who exists at all times but is merely focusing his consciousness on a particular time in order to experience it more fully. When I’m in this state of mind, I see the present moment as something contained within my being instead of the more common perception of being a person contained within the reality of the present moment. This has the effect of melting present-moment concerns and replacing them with a feeling of expansiveness and transcendence. My new perception causes my present-reality problems to shrink, which makes them far easier to resolve, sometimes almost trivially easy.
I encourage you to try this meditation at least once to see if you find it as beneficial as I do.
August 24th, 2005 at 1:36 am
Since you created this meditation for yourself, you must have intended it to be as a means to an end. (not an end in itself). What was that end ? Does it meet that end? Or does it meet a different (but still useful) end ?
August 24th, 2005 at 2:40 am
the frame of time makes it possible to experience change.
wow.
thanks for this step forward to greater awareness.
August 24th, 2005 at 3:37 am
Extremely interesting idea. Does well in integrating the visualization process required to overcome obstacles and poises the hope of answers and solutions to all our daily problems which have always come to pass and seem trivial in retrospect.
Thanks for the insight!
MTenorio
Monterrey, Mexico
Find me at: http://www.pcazul.com
August 24th, 2005 at 4:22 am
This looks wonderful Steve, thanks for sharing. I look forward to trying this myself.
August 24th, 2005 at 4:42 am
Do you ever visualize any of the other beings besides “Steve”? Or is that pretty much the only one you’re interested in?
August 24th, 2005 at 5:03 am
A wonderful idea, I must try it!
And for the primer… For learning meditation many people recommend this book, availble for free: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html. There is also a great thread on Metafilter about it: http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/22579.
August 24th, 2005 at 5:27 am
Wow, that was fun and uplifting.
The only bit that didn’t work for me was the blending and the flash of light. In my version, we all shook hands, wished each other luck and promised to meet again, and left the room via different doors. I felt a sense of acceptance and calm purpose.
This is the most practical visualisation exercise I’ve ever come across. I’m really interested in any other similar exercises you can suggest. Most meditations aim to relax the mind and body by “passive” visualisations. This time, my mind was active throughout, and I enjoyed it a lot more. (I just can’t stop thinking I guess
)
Most meditations of nature and ’special places’ are too … well, boring I guess. They’re relaxing, but I don’t get enough value out of them to make them a regular habit. But I’d really enjoy meditations like this which are mentally engaging and really help me learn about myself (as well as the usual benefits of relaxation). Any suggestions?
August 24th, 2005 at 5:29 am
@Kamal: The “end” is to raise my awareness, to grow, and to help others do the same.
@shadow: You can create any characters you want. I especially enjoy visualizing and communicating with the “higher selves” of other people — imagining one’s future self is a variation on the higher self. In fact, I often find it easier to communicate with my wife’s higher self than with my own.
@Jarek: Thanks for the links!
August 24th, 2005 at 5:31 am
What a gift! Thanks for sharing this, Steve…
August 24th, 2005 at 5:44 am
Thank you for this beautiful meditation exercise.
At first I was confused by the sentence “So now I’m the future self looking back on my past self.” in the fourth paragraph. Maybe this should read “So now I’m my present self…”?
Here’s an introduction to meditation I found – I think it’s very to the point: http://www.abhidhyan.org/Teachings/Beginning_Meditation.htm
The Wikipedia entrance on meditation offers a lot of background information and lots of links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
The Meditation Society of Australia offers free meditation lessons. (Note however that you have to e-mail them for a password for lesson 2 and onwards, but it’s free.) Also they have downloadable MP3s with meditation music and guided meditations – haven’t tried it yet but looks nice! http://www.meditation.org.au/
In a previous post you spoke about audio content. I think this meditation would be great material for a guided meditation in MP3/audio format!
August 24th, 2005 at 6:55 am
Steve,
how often do you do such a meditation exercise? How long does it take?
Thanks for letting us know this. It looks like a powerful tool.
August 24th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
Steve – do you happen to know any meditation or whatever method which can help hard-core insomniacs go to sleep?
August 24th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
Insomniac, try this method for falling asleep.
Lie on your back when you’re ready to go to sleep. Keep your eyes open. Even when you’re ready to blink try to force your eyelids to stay open. It’s okay to blink though, just give it an extra few seconds before you succumb to the urge to blink.
Your eyes will become tired doing this. Your lids will want to close more and more desperately. Every time your lids go to close, snap them back open. Do this for like 10 or 15 minutes and eventually you will be too tired to open your eyes anymore. You will fall asleep. While doing this exercise be sure not to move, keep you head straight, don’t let it fall to the side. Don’t jerk your limbs while snapping your eyes back open, just keep your body relaxed while concentrating completely on your eyelids and keeping them open.
Now, this works for me, and I learned about it years ago, but I’m not sure it will work on an insomniac. So that’s my disclaimer. I wish you luck though.
August 26th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
Brilliant.
Just tried it and it was an eye-opener. The idea of transcendence… really helps one overcome the present. My thanks are beyond words.
Keep up the great writing.
August 29th, 2005 at 7:14 am
This is an excellent technique. I’ve been meditating for years and I have never heard of this. It’s great.
August 29th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
I love playing with stuff like this and reckon that each time we do such a meditation in expands the potential for our evolution in this lifetime
zannie rose
September 10th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
Your future projection visualization (meditation) is one of my favorite submissions to the Carnival of Healing that was published today at http://healing.about.com/b/a/200997.htm – thanks Steve!
September 13th, 2005 at 2:43 am
I am struck by the Cubic symbolism of this blog-entry. The room-like space would obviously possess a ceiling and floor in between which exist 4 walls and 4 corners. And the two chairs facing each other represent static opposites, kinda like the North and South poles.
Furthermore, increase that 5-year interval a little, and one would begin to cover a large portion of the life-metamorphosis: baby, child, parent, grandparent. It is certainly beneficial to one’s 4-corner apprehension to reflect beyond one’s present-time corner. Also beneficial are the websites http://www.timecube.com and http://www.cubicao.tk : check them out.