How to Know the Meditation is Working

The other day I arrived home to a messy house.

I’m pretty understanding when things get disorderly, but this was different.

The back sliding glass door was left open, food was left out on the kitchen counters, and now flies were landing on the food. In the corner I saw a paper towel on the floor. I picked it up to find cat vomit underneath it.

My first instinct was anger, “What happened here??” I reached for my phone to send a text, but then I paused.

I watched the part of me that was triggered and felt disrespected. I noticed my disgust and the voices saying this was unacceptable. Then I noticed the inner victim that wanted to clean up the entire house and then be angry at everyone for having done it. And I also watched the part of me that was calm, taking everything in.

My husband had been watching our four year old daughter. I had headed home excited to see them both, and also to offer my husband some relief after a full day of caregiving.

I took a moment to remember the appreciation I was feeling for him on my drive home.

Instead of rattling off a text from a triggered state, I chose to act differently. I released the blame and resentment. I put the food away in the fridge. I shooed away the flies and closed the back door. Then I got down on my hands and knees and cleaned up the cat vomit. 

I saw myself in that moment choosing peace.

I decided not to make assumptions. “There is probably more to the story than I know.”

My husband came home with my daughter a few minutes later. I gave them both a big hug. I thanked him for spending the day with our daughter and shared how much I loved the workshop I attended.

In his own time he shared that in the middle of preparing food for our daughter, she had run outside. He ran after her. There wasn’t time to close the back door or clean the kitchen.

They ended up walking down the street to a nearby park.

We continued the rest of the evening in peace.

Meditation is more than being calm and peaceful in the pose.

It’s bringing the peace of meditation into our daily life. Into every interaction.

It’s being able to witness the impulse to react and creating just enough space to choose how we want to respond.

I once heard that when the authorities came to arrest Gandhi he was completely calm, even cheerful.

He was sleeping in the corner. The police woke him up, told him he could have a few minutes to gather his belongings before bringing him to the police department. He gathered up the few belongings he had, and went along with the policemen, chatting with them peacefully the whole way.

He was not the one who was a prisoner. He was free in his mind, heart, and consciousness. Even when about to be locked behind bars.

How much power do external circumstances have over the state of my consciousness?

People say it’s hard to notice the changes that happen from meditation day to day. But year over year, we begin to notice the incremental shifts. How we treat others. How we treat ourselves. What thoughts are looping in our head. How we slow down, and sit with our impulses before acting on them.

Just that day my yoga teacher shared a story of being kind to a flight attendant who had just announced a four-hour delay for a full flight. When she got to the front of the line, hoping to change flights, she started with, “I’m imagining what it must be like to be you right now, having no control over an outcome that is making so many people upset. It must be pretty hard. Are you doing ok?” The flight attendant was so shocked, she ended up coming around the desk and hugging her.

When we look at the world through someone else’s eyes, it’s easier to imagine we are all doing our best.

It was so simple, yet profound to notice my own internal shift happening before my eyes.

It helped me recognize every moment I spend in meditation and at the feet of my teachers, is life-changing. These moments are all contributing to my future reactions, actions and karma.

So if you’ve been struggling to know if your meditation practice is working, know that it is. The shifts may be minuscule day to day. But if you keep at it, you too will have these kinds of moments.

Moments of surprising yourself in how you respond to life…

The world changes when we shift our consciousness.

Just like a candle emits light to every corner of a dark room, we too have the ability to spread light to our family, our neighborhood, our city and the world.

To be caring and kind, even in the moments that feel like they don’t matter.

Every moment we choose love over reactivity, we're shaping the person we're becoming.

That, to me, is the work of the priestess: becoming a living embodiment of the Divine. A vessel of love. Here to serve a shift in consciousness.

I’ve dedicated my life to this path of spiritual evolution, and to sharing what I learn along the way. This, I believe, is how we make fundamental shifts in the world. 

If you'd like to explore this path more deeply, I'd love to invite you to my free masterclass, The Role of the Priestess in the Modern Age.

Together we'll explore what it means to cultivate this way of being and bring it into our relationships, our communities, and the world.

I’ll be sharing more stories and wisdom of what we can hold and do to make a meaningful impact in this time of awakening. 

With love,
Meredith