Remember those “aha” moments you’ve had in the past?

Maybe they’ve been moments of clarity about something that you said in a discussion, or perhaps you were struggling to make a decision about your career and a different, unique and creative idea sprang into your mind.

While many of my formal meditation moments may be focused on working with remaining in the present moment and resting, as best as I can, in a state of non-distraction, without altering my mind, there are times when I’m suddenly presented with an idea worth noting or taking down for use later on, after my session is over. And, sometimes these ideas are more than just worth noting, they’re actually pretty darn good insights – they’re AHA moments!

The aha-moments of meditation, especially if we’re struggling to remain mindful and aware and are finding ourselves distracted and anywhere but in the moment,  can bring us solidly back into our practice.

I remember one particularly trying period of meditation, where every time that I sat down to meditate, I became distracted beyond belief. I was really trying, really! But, no matter how hard I tried, I kept on returning to one recurring cycle of distracting thoughts, over and over again. Finally, in desperation, almost at the point of tears, I shouted out, “Help me cut this chain of distracted thinking!” At that point, a voice inside my head, in the form of a wise old teacher, said, “Sure, show me where the distractions are, and I’ll cut them.” I burst out laughing; all of the pressure that I felt and the solidity of my thoughts simply dissolved. Of course; why was I so stubbornly holding on to the belief that my thoughts and my way of thinking was something that could be cut? There was no “where” to cut my thoughts; there were no solid objects called “thoughts.” They were all a product of my mind, and my focusing on them simply made them more “real,” or as real as they could be. I still laugh when I think about how tightly I was holding on and how ridiculously simple it was to simply let go of what I thought was distracting me…and how hard it was!!

For me, this experience was a dramatic and profound AHA, opening me up to the realization that the apparent solidity of my thoughts was very illusory. Since that time, I’ve used that realization countless times to bring myself back to the moment and to help free myself from patterns of distracted thinking.

As we practice meditation more, we’ll gradually find more of these gems, more of these ahas, that we can use to help ourselves in times when our mind is less than cooperative.

For more material on working with thoughts and using the breath as an anchor for our meditation practice, you can refer to the previous four-part series that was posted – Challenges (and Solutions) With Learning to Meditate. Also, you can refer to Related Posts (at the bottom of this post) for more information.

You may also want to download the free ebook, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World?, for more helpful tips for your meditation practice.

NEW – this site has a new page, Meditation Resources, where you can find articles, MP3 tracks for downloading, and videos on the subject of meditation.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment, especially if you have any great AHA moments. Let me know how this works for you. Is there anything else that you need to know or that would be helpful? If so, please contact me.

(It’s funny, I found an internet site touting the magic of “aha moments.” Sponsored by Mutual of Omaha, it’s a site devoted to individuals who’ve had aha moments that have changed the courses of their lives. I wouldn’t have guessed that I’d find this site’s sponsor to be an insurance company. But, even that realization was a bit of an “aha” for me.)