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The Truth About Why I Left My Meditation Community: 5 Ways To Avoid Spiritual Bypassing As A White Person
We were taught, by the old white man, that by meditating we are establishing ourselves in Being, in pure consciousness, which is preparing us to ‘perform action’ in the world. We aren’t renunciates; we are ‘householders’, meaning that we have families and jobs and we live out in the world. We were taught that just by expanding our own consciousness, we were expanding the consciousness of the world around us. As we ‘perform action’, any action, in the world, we are making it a better place. And I believe it, to a point. We’ve all encountered people who brighten up a room just by being in it. And conversely, we’ve all been around those people that suck the energy out of a room as soon as they enter.
This all worked for me. Until a year or two after my teacher training.
Until it all started to unravel.
Take Your Time
I used to practice hospital-based Internal Medicine in Chicago. I took care of people who were sick enough to be admitted to the hospital with diseases like pneumonia, kidney failure, HIV-related complications, and liver disease.
You know it’s time to learn to meditate when...
1. You are experiencing burnout at work. Work burnout occurs from a number of things, including fatigue, constant stress, and not getting meaning from your job.
6 reasons you don’t have to change your belief system (or have to have a belief system at all) to be a Vedic meditator
1. Vedic meditation works whether or not you are religious, or an atheist, or anything in between. It also works if you are tall or short, young or old, an athlete or a couch potato, gay or straight, democrat or republican. Sit comfortably for 20 minutes, twice a day, enjoy your meditations, and reap the short and long term benefits.
Leap! And don't look back.
5 years ago, I was a burned-out, stressed doctor. I felt totally powerless against the burnout. Enter Vedic meditation. I attended a free introductory class that my (soon to be) teacher held in Chicago one Sunday night. I sat there for an hour, completely mesmerized yet somehow waiting for there to be a hole in his argument that would allow me to leave without signing up for the course.
New Beginnings
At my introduction to Vedic meditation class this past weekend in Atlanta, I totally lucked out. Not only did 15 people come, on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon, to learn more about Vedic meditation, but they asked the most AMAZING questions.
You do you
I’m on vacation now with my family- we are all staying together in a lovely beach house in Hilton Head. My niece and nephew are with us- twin almost-11 year-olds, and they are the loves of my life. It’s funny, though, how being around almost-11 year olds can remind us of some of our own childish behaviors that have survived into our adult lives…
Drama
Our society is obsessed with drama. We’re drama junkies. Even (especially) those of us who proclaim that we hate drama and want nothing to do with it. We see it all the time- friends who always date the wrong kind of person, gossipy co-workers, people who party too much and regret choices they’ve made. We see it in the news, in tabloids, in the entertainment industry. We see it everywhere but within ourselves.