Why do you Meditate? I have been studying the meditative arts for 27 years. It has become a major part of my life and those around me know how passionate I am about the practice.

Often when family, friends and students talk about me this becomes part of the conversation. So when I am introduced to new people through my personal acquaintances a question I am often asked is “Why do you meditate?”

There are hundreds of benefits you will experience by using meditation. So this could be a lengthy conversation, but often I will say, “There are so many benefits from meditation, but if all meditation offered was the concept of yielding it would make me want to continue the practice.”

Yielding can be used in so many ways. In this article I will list a few to give you an idea of how powerful this practice can be.

The 3 Main Areas of Yielding

1- Physical

2- Mental

3- Emotional

Why do you Meditate? Physical Yielding

Have you ever heard the old Chinese saying that says: “Use four ounces to diffuse a thousand pounds?” This saying is talking about the concept of yielding.

If we were to square off and try to push each other over whoever has the most strength, the best structure and most momentum would win. Yielding is not about seeing who is the strongest it is about being smart and knowing how to choose your battles wisely.

With yielding when someone is pushing you rather than pushing back you move out of their power, letting them fall in to a position where they are vulnerable. Then you are in the perfect position to respond if you choose to take advantage of it.

Someone who is good at yielding will be able to make their enemy become their friend. If you always butt heads with the force or aggression coming your way you will make your friends become your enemies.

In order to be good at physical yielding many things need to be practiced and your awareness needs to be heightened in all of these areas:

• You need to have a good root or solid foundation
• The lower part of your body needs to be mobile and flexible
• The ability to remain relaxed physically is essential
• The breath also needs to be relaxed
• The mind needs to be calm

Without a good foundation your muscles will be tense and struggle to keep you in balance. Without relaxation your breath will be disturbed and without relaxed, smooth breathing your mind will be distracted.

These are all connected and will need to be regulated in order to become efficient with physical yielding.

For all of these things to take place you need to develop a heightened awareness and ability to maintain control in different situations.

Why do you Meditate? Mental Yielding

This is a powerful philosophical concept that will help you navigate many areas in your life. It will allow you to experience the least amount of resistance and have the ability to have a high level of influence on those around you.

Once you have built the foundation and have gained the ability to expand your awareness internally then you will also have the ability to be more aware of what is happening outside your body as well.

This is where it can become a life-changer.

Having the heightened awareness to see these things in other people will give you the insights to guide your interactions in a positive direction.

If you can notice when people are off their center or moving towards distraction, you can guide the conversation in a way that will help to keep them to be at ease and in a positive mind set.

When you are good at this they will not even know what you are doing, but will feel good and develop a desire to spend time with you.

Why do you Meditate? Emotional Yielding

This is similar to mental yielding, in that, we are using it to guide thoughts and emotions.

As we become more in tune with our natural peaceful state it is easier to see our own emotional disturbances. Then we can guide them towards the least amount of resistance possible.

How many times have you had something happen that unsettled you and as you thought about it, it became worse? The more energy you put in to thinking about this scenario helped it to build momentum and cause more stress.

When you develop the skill of yielding you will strengthen your ability to guide your thoughts in a positive direction. The reason this works so well is because when you first have a disturbance it is much easier to move towards a positive solution. If you wait too long and focus on all of the negativity brought from this disturbance it will become a monster and be harder to defeat.

Why do you Meditate?

These are just a few ideas on this topic, but you can see that the possibilities are endless. This is why, if all meditation had to offer was this one of many benefits, I would still be drawn to the practice.

For more information on how to implement these ideas and develop a practice that will fit your lifestyle check out the Meditation Mastery Plan.