How to Meditate when Life is Too Busy

One of Jivan Mada’s students is asking a question about meditation.

Q: I find it hard with the distractions of the world to stay focused on my healing and meditation. How can I stay committed to my inner work while working and raising a family?

You may think you do not have any time for yourself when you are working and raising a family. However, if you examine how you spend your time, you will discover that you can always find twenty minutes to an hour a day to focus on your spiritual work. Reading, introspection, meditation, and sometimes participating in personal growth groups is how you can do your inner work.

For example, if you usually watch TV for an hour or two a day to unwind, try meditating instead. Even if it’s only for ten minutes, just sit silently and watch your breath. If you find that silent sitting is difficult because you are stressed and you have many thoughts racing in your mind, try the Osho active meditations.

If it is difficult for you to allocate time for meditation, then turn your work and chores into meditation. For example, when you are washing the dishes, watch your breath, watch your body movements, feel the water on your hands, watch the thoughts and emotions you are experiencing. Be fully present and aware of everything you are doing and whatever is happening in the moment, both inside and outside of yourself. You can do the same with any task or activity, whether it is cleaning the house, gardening, grocery shopping, cooking, sitting in front of your computer, running, playing sports, or walking your dog. Whatever you do, do it with full awareness.

If you keep practicing breath awareness during your daily activities and during meditation, eventually you will see that everything you truly need to do happens naturally and effortlessly out of your inner silence and emptiness. If you can live this way, your home and work life will become more balanced and relaxed.

You don’t have to renounce the world to be true to yourself and your journey. What you need to renounce is your attachment to the world and your identification with it. The world needs only to be renounced in your mind. Everything in your life, including your work and family, is here to help support the goal of you finding your being. If you are presently working and raising a family, then this is what your soul and existence needs you to do.

Although the world can distract you from your introspective work, it can also help you by forcing you inward. If rightly used, every life situation can help you become more aware of your inner reality. Don’t miss any opportunity to look inside in whatever situation you are in, no matter how mundane it may seem.

Excerpt from the book In Search of the Miraculous by Eliza Mada Dalian (Jivan Mada). Book reviewed in Osho News by Roshani.

Related article by the same author: 5 Tips for Creating Harmonious Relationships

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Jeevan Mada came to Osho in 1978. After taking sannyas she was part of the communes in Pune and in Oregon. Thanks to her many questions to Osho, we heard him speak about Gurdjieff, Russia, surrender, and “Let Go.” In 1997, Mada developed the Dalian Method to help people heal their physical and psychological blockages and ailments. She gives tele-classes, online courses, retreats, intensives and private sessions. madadalian.com