The Joy of Meditation - Making Mindfulness Fun While Doing What You Love

By Joe Bailey

Meditation is not a sterile practice that is done off to the side or in a dark room all by oneself, compartmentalized away from everyday life. 

Meditation is fundamentally about getting more out of life rather than less. 

Meditation teaches us to cultivate awareness, and with this awareness comes peace of mind, an objective perspective from which to face life’s challenges, and an appreciation for all that life offers. 

This appreciation is a source of delight, humor, and creative flexibility. 

And it lets us enjoy fun all the more. 

If you can learn to meditate while you do what you love, your life will be filled with more joy, more energy, and more possibilities than you can imagine. Your life will be full of gratitude and meaning, vitality and purpose. 

Meditation will reinforce the sense of fun and positivity you already feel while doing your favorite activities. 

This idea—that meditation can be enjoyable and enrich what you love—is a gift that can be regiven every day. 

This book is about learning how to do what you love mindfully, fully present and alive. 

Let’s meditate!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Bailey
• Release date: Feb 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386600039

Book preview

What is Meditation?

‎Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit.

― Jeremy Taylor

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Meditation is the practice and cultivation of awareness.

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Meditation is that simple.

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From this basic framework—working with, exploring, and involvement with consciousness—the entire range of religious, spiritual, and meditative experiences and practices arise.

That is the beauty of the mind and the world through which the mind finds its reflection.

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Whether a practitioner is sitting or standing, moving or still, silent or chanting, visualizing or empty, focused or detached, praying or supplicating, object-full or object-less, absorbed in emotion or calm, all forms of meditation arise from engaging the mind.

Meditation is a form of mental exercise, and, like exercise, it comes in many forms and styles.

As you read this book, and as you practice meditation while doing those things you enjoy most, keep this perspective in mind. The meditative process can be adapted and adjusted just like physical exercise. As you learn, you will discover which techniques are most beneficial to you, which ones facilitate your practice, and which ones are more challenging than others.

Be open to this process of learning and discovery, for you are the only one in control of your mind.

Why Meditate?

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end — you don’t come to an achievement, you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.

― Jiddu Krishnamurti

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What type of world do you wish to live in?

What person do you wish to be?

How do you wish to live?

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The answers to these questions are all a matter of conscious choice. Meditation is the direct experience of consciousness. Meditation, through the cultivation of awareness, gives the opportunity for choice, for the freedom to move from reaction to creation.

Much of what we do day to day is programmed or habitual, the outgrowth of past behaviors and experience.

We glide through events. We react or feel but don’t know why. We are angered or hurt easily by trivialities. Our thoughts dictate our responses in an endless chain, one linked to the next with little regard for context.

We move but do not fully engage or participate.

We flit from moment to moment without immersion in the instant.

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Living in the present, aware of your self, your inner nature, and your relationship to the world allows you to become a vibrant, active participant in reality.

In your life.

In your being.

In your possibilities.

Meditation allows you to actively create the self, the world, you wish to live in now and into the future.

How to Meditate

"During meditation a silent mind is very important, but ‘silent’ does not mean closed,

the silent mind is an alert awakened mind; a mind seeking the very nature of reality.

Also, the joy of silent wisdom comes from your own mind and is always there.

Constantly wherever you go, you can experience the joyful wisdom energy of the silent mind."

― Lama Yeshe

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Meditation is simple.

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Just watch.

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The challenge is in the maintenance of attention.

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Watch without object.

Watch without judgment.

Watch without attachment to the endless phenomena arising in the present moment.

Watch with panoramic attention.

When awareness drifts, come back.

When awareness wavers or dims, rekindle.

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Meditation is the dynamic activity of being fully present.

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Just sit.

Just stand.

Just be.

Meditative Techniques and Practices

"Awareness is the greatest alchemy there is.

Just go on becoming more and more aware, and you will find your life changing for the better in every possible dimension.

It will bring great fulfillment."

― Osho

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Whether you