Dropping Judgments and Embracing the Unknown

While I love the idea of exploring new meditation techniques and I truly love learning more about different approaches to consciousness, I will admit that I sometimes have a hard time initially with unfamiliar meditation styles or practices that seem outside my comfort zone. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m usually excited to try new approaches, but when trainers or guides start talking about techniques that seem vastly different from what I’m used to, I’m not always sure I can do them without judging myself and the situation. We all develop judgments and preconceived notions as we go through our lives, whether or not we intend to, and certain meditation practices can sometimes fall under those judgments. It’s the art of dropping judgements that needs to be practiced and learned.

As I began exploring a new meditation approach recently—one focused on expanded states of awareness—I’ll admit that my first experience was rough for me. The guided meditation was so visually driven and themed around concepts I wasn’t familiar with that I had a hard time dropping my preconceived notions, letting go, and allowing myself to explore and play. Even when we want to be playful and curious, it can be hard to live this way when we have been trained to have judgments in our life (which is why it’s so important to keep stepping out of our comfort zones to drop them).

I felt a bit disconnected after this first exercise and even thought, “Hmm… maybe this isn’t for me. I’m not sure I can meditate on these unfamiliar concepts.” But like with any meditation practice, you can have an exercise you don’t connect with and the next one is mind-blowing. And luckily for me, this was exactly the case. Aside from being completely intrigued and, let’s face it, blown away by the amazing insights that I gained through deeper exploration, I also had the most incredible exercise after this. Once I moved into a deeper state of consciousness, I had found my happy place, so to speak. I felt at home in this expanded awareness in a way that no other meditative state had allowed me to feel, and it was just wonderful. Once I was able to get past the visual concepts I was unfamiliar with and started experiencing the feelings and energy of these higher states of awareness, I was able to truly drop the preconceived notions and find myself having one of my most profound experiences yet.

Throughout the rest of my exploration, as I meditated in much deeper states of consciousness, I realized how amazing it was that each aspect of the practice could leave a footprint in my mind and how remarkable it was that each element could drastically provide a piece of who I am with insights that are so very different from one another. I meditated on ideas that we are all connected by the same universal energy and that our thoughts, with that idea in mind, are the universe becoming self-aware. And that’s a strangely beautiful picture that was painted for me. From that, I was able to play with perspectives to get a true view of what actually matters in the world and what doesn’t. It was such a groundbreaking experience for me, and I thank goodness I didn’t let my initial judgments and preconceived notions get in the way of breaking free, discovering, and learning.

I feel like when exploring meditation, practitioners already have this wonderful sense of curiosity and are looking to open their minds, play, and learn—at least in most cases. And this is so important to have as you go into each and every practice. So, the next time you find yourself in a new situation like this or trying out a new meditation technique and you begin judging yourself, the material, or how you perceive the material, I implore you to take a step back, breathe out everything, and allow yourself to look at it again with fresh eyes, expecting nothing. Feel free to jump in and play without expecting anything, and I am sure you will likely come back out of your new experience shocked and excited at what you found. At least, that’s exactly what happened to me. I was able to drop my judgments, embrace the unknown, and reap the benefits for having done so.