No mud, no lotus

I’ve been meditating for almost 10 years now. I started practicing when I was at my first job working for one of the world’s largest firms. I was working long hours, stressed, and just overall in a weird place in life. If I had to single out the most positive habit in my life, meditating is likely first.

There’s a big misconception about meditation in that it makes you calm and not think about things. In reality, meditation just helps you deal and accept those thoughts. It doesn’t make them go away. A good analogy is like laying in a park and watching the clouds go by. The clouds are still there just like your thoughts, but you’re just watching them go by and acknowledging them.

This morning my Calm app had a daily meditation called “no mud, no lotus” which has been one of my favorite ones over the years. In short, the idea is that suffering will always be part of human life and won’t go away. We can learn how to suffer better which makes us suffer much less.

This concept has been one of the biggest benefits of meditation for me. Over the years, I’ve acknowledged that our world is uncontrollable and that suffering is present in everyday life. I’ve learned to embrace the ups and downs in life like watching a cloud pass by. Everything eventually passes, even if it goes slowly.