Member-only story
Meditation Doesn’t Eliminate Negativity — And It Shouldn’t
If you thought meditation would magically make life nothing but rainbow and roses, I’m about to disappoint you.
There’s a lot of talk about positivity these days. People will tell you to think positive, to be optimistic, that they’re sending you positive vibes, and so on. I talk a lot about being positive, as well. But I want to be clear that meditation isn’t going to eliminate all negativity from your life, nor should it.
I meditate every morning. I teach it to others. I have local classes in person and online students. Even so, I get frustrated when I get cut off in traffic. I get irritated when my kid asks me what’s for dinner for the 50th time in 20 minutes. I get sad when someone gets sick or passes away. And sometimes I just have a generally bad day, where lots of things go wrong and I’m just in a cruddy mood all day.
Meditation doesn’t make us perfect. We’re still human, and as such, we’re going to experience human thoughts and emotions — all of them.
What meditation can do, however, is make your emotional experiences easier.
