When I first began studying Spiritualism, one of the first things I learned was the purpose of meditation is to “know thyself.”
I honestly didn’t get it. I know myself, I thought. I’m Joanna. I’ve been living with myself my whole life.
But I didn’t really.
I knew a shallow layer of myself, the one near the top that my heart and mind would allow me to see. It wasn’t the well of my strength or the truth of who I really am.
And without connecting with my inner self, with the deeper layers of me, I couldn’t connect with Spirit.
FYI, as you read this, feel free to swap the word psychic, intuitive or spiritual for mediumship. Because meditation is also key in developing your spiritual self, intuition or psychic abilities as well. And for the same reasons as mediumship.
Meditation’s purpose in your development
So what does meditation do, exactly? It’s certainly more than a feel-good escape from everyday life. On every level—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—meditation improves your life and your ability to experience it to the fullest.
Your physical self
On the physiological level, meditation has a host of benefits, from reducing blood pressure and anxiety to increasing your immune response and ability to focus. Meditation is wonderfully good for your physical body.
This is good for your development because you live in a physical body, no matter what wonders you may be getting up to on the astral plane or in your spirituality. You still abide in a biodegradable soul sac and you need to look after it in order to not be distracted by it while you do your spiritual work.
Your emotional self
Meditation also increases and clears your emotional energy. It feeds your heart center. It clarifies your emotions. Depending on the type of meditation you’re doing—mindfulness especially—you’ll increase your capacity to experience emotion and remain centered and at ease.
This is helpful in developing your mediumship, intuitive or psychic abilities as you tend to experience a lot of emotions when you use these gifts. That may happen when connecting with your own inner world, just being in the world and being sensitive to the energy around you, or working with others in their time of need or loss.
As humans, we’re supposed to experience and process emotions without getting knocked off kilter. Being emotionally clear, open and connected is vital to be able to do this.
Your mental self
You use your mind a lot. All the time. Modern humans are often overly mind-focused, depending on our analytical minds for pretty much everything and overriding the intuitive parts of ourselves. And our minds are cluttered. There’s such an incredible amount of input we get in our daily lives that our minds are overwhelmed trying to keep up with it all and sort it out.
Meditation gives you a blessed break from the overwhelm. It also trains your mind to simultaneously focus and relax. It’s a brain vacation and a gym workout at the same time. And your mind loves it.
In terms of developing your divine gifts, being able to achieve a relaxed focus is an important skill. When you do mediumship, psychic or intuitive work, you need to be able to focus in on specific energy—whether that’s a person in Spirit, a psychic image or an intuitive feeling. At the same time, your ever-whirring mind needs to be relaxed enough to not kick into gear, trying to make meaning out of every possible thing, so that you can understand the deeper meaning of the message and express it.
If you’re developing your own spiritual self, meditation allows your mind to connect with your higher self, giving you access to deeper truths and inner wisdom. But there’s a certain state of brain relaxation that needs to occur for this information to even be able to come up and into your consciousness.
All too often, our thinking brain kicks in and starts analyzing, contesting and refuting the information we receive. That’s why practicing meditation is vital.
Your spiritual self
Connecting with Spirit takes energy. Meditation builds energy. If you want to connect with Spirit, with the Source, the Divine, the Creator (insert your name for the all that is here), you need to generate enough energy to do so.
Meditation generates the spiritual energy you need for spiritual work.
Meditation feeds your spiritual self so that it’s not depleted and has the healing and nourishment needed to be an active part of your experience in this life.
Meditation helps you know yourself
Finally, meditation really does help you get to know yourself—on all these levels.
As you quiet your body, you begin to notice it more and the signals it’s sending you. You notice an ache or a stillness. Your body begins to trust you’re listening and it begins to communicate with you, letting you know what it needs to be healthy and function well.
As you tune into your emotions, allowing your emotional center to expand with compassion, you get to know who you are and what you stand for as a human and spiritual being. You make friends with yourself as a person, you begin to forgive your own failures and faults, and develop more patience with yourself. This leads to compassion for others, a bigger heart space within you, and a better, more living life.
As you settle your mind, you allow yourself to hear its wisdom. You may also have reminders of the thing you forgot to do 2 weeks ago bubble up to the surface—there’s a lot of hidden knowledge stored in your mind. But you’ll also begin to hear your own inner wisdom, with clarity and deep knowing. You’ll know your own mind.
As you connect in with and nourish your spirit, you’ll tune into your highest good and higher self. There is a whole world beyond this everyday world that’s available to you, with all its knowledge and wisdom, love and healing. Meditation allows you to know your higher self, your purpose in this world and the very next steps you need to take.
Meditation may not be what you think
Meditation is different for pretty much everyone.
Some people use meditation as a means of escaping the mundane and are quite happy to go off into unseen realms and wander about. That’s honestly not my preferred use of meditation, or way to do it. Meditation isn’t supposed to be a spiritual bypass.
Especially when you begin to meditate, stay here, stay present, stay in your physical body. Focusing on your breath is a good way to do this. Your breath is an anchor that you can keep coming back to, over and over again.
You will have thoughts infiltrate your meditation. One day it might be items you need to add to the grocery list. Another it might be people you need to email back but have totally forgotten about until that moment. Still another it might be your health, or your mom’s health or the cat’s. It’s OK. Your brain is wired to think, so it’s just doing its job.
Some meditations will feel better than others. They’ll feel clearer or more connected, you’ll open your eyes feeling more refreshed some days than others. That’s OK.
Every meditation is worthwhile and has its right place in your journey. Every meditation is a success.
Learning how to meditate
Starting and keeping up a regular meditation practice can feel daunting.
If you’d like some guidance on how to begin a meditation practice for your own spiritual development and how to overcome the common fears and resistance around meditating, I invite you to take a look at my online course: Meditation for Spiritual Development.