Meditation

The Purpose of Rest in Meditation: Connecting to the Divine Feminine

By Alana Fairchild | Posted: October 03, 2019

It’s fairly easy to notice when your meditation practice - whatever it may look like - is working for you. This is because meditation tends to yield swift results. Those results certainly accumulate over time, bringing about purification, which helps us to let go of outmoded behaviors as we grow spiritually. However, there are short-term benefits noticeable almost immediately after beginning meditation, too. Those benefits increase as we commit to our practice.

Such benefits could be summed up as follows: we become a truer and more aware version of ourselves, have more compassion for when we witness our own struggles and the struggles of others, and become more skillful in managing our own life journey with kindness, love and wisdom. We will often become cheekier and have more fun too - always in a sense of inviting others to join in, rather than at another’s expense.

Meditation is like taking a spiritual shower

Meditation is so valuable as a life practice that I compare it to taking a spiritual shower. Imagine if you stopped bathing. How would your attitude change? Your experience of yourself? Other’s experience of you, perhaps? When we meditate, we are bathing ourselves spiritually and the difference in our lives and our interactions becomes palpable. It gives us the capacity to empty out rather than rehash and hold on, and in that emptying out, be tuned in to life energies such as vitality, playfulness, goodness and authentic presence. This is not only better for us, but for every being that comes into connection with us.

The keys to success while meditating

In a recent Salt Lake City gathering I was asked if it was bad if you fell asleep during meditation. My response was that it likely meant that you were tired and needed more rest! It is also important that when we sit (or stand) to meditate, we don’t judge or assess our practice. We show up. We commit. We understand that some meditations will feel deeper and more connected than others. That’s fine. The magic is in the practice, not in chasing perfection. Results do accumulate. We need to trust that, like with any action, we don’t give up on ourselves. This is one reason that I have made so many recorded meditation albums. It can give those that want to explore a seated or laying down practice a sense that I am with them, that my voice is supporting them. They have a friend that recognizes that they deserve a spiritual practice and is willing to be there with them, encouraging them to invest in their own soul journey. Like an exercise training buddy, it can make it easier to commit. Group meditation classes are another version of this principle.

Meditation, rest, and the divine feminine

But what about our sleeping yogini in Utah? I explained to her that as I see it, rest truly is misunderstood and underrated in Western culture. Those of us who are seeking to honor the divine feminine usually have a greater grasp of the necessity of rest, not only for enhanced productivity in the long term, but also as a way to enjoy life, taking stock, smelling roses and so forth. We need to remember that.

The divine feminine wisdom teachings of the Earth Mother shows us that every year, she creates winter. Obviously the degree of winter varies dramatically depending on your location in the world. However, the fundamental premise is there - to manifest life, one requires not only dynamic activity, but restful replenishment. If we want an abundance of springtime energy, bouncing around like a lamb frolicking on fresh green grass, then we’ll need some divine downtime of a soul winter.

What does that look like in everyday terms? Our soul winter might show up as less eagerness and energy than usual to engage in the outer, extroverted, social ways of the world. We might need more solitude, more therapy, more time in reflection, or just to be without stress of excessive demands upon us at an emotional or psychological level. We may crave meditation. We need time to shed what has been, regroup, and emerge only when we feel we have had sufficient time for inner renewal.

If we honor this, live this, we are meditating in another way - we are learning to recognize and embody our inner truths. It takes courage to set time aside for soul-honoring practices such as reflection, journaling, meditation and the like - especially in a mainstream collective culture that doesn’t tend to understand the value of such inner work. Yet when we are rested, not only are we somewhat less likely to fall asleep instead of meditating, but we also tend to be happier and healthier humans. And meditation is not only a spiritual activity - it is a human activity that involves the human body. To make progress in the practice requires that we connect with and play with aligning body, heart and mind in this moment. Such a sacred intermingling is an empowerment of the goodness inherent in human beings, allowing us to step forward in this world as a gentle and powerful, much needed light-bearers.

The purpose of meditation

Put simply, meditation is what brings all parts of you together, into present moment awareness. The method is less important than one might imagine. Humans have largely been conditioned to focus on appearances, on what we are ‘supposed to do’ rather than to embrace our individual experiences and allow those inner experiences to guide us along our path. I always encourage my spiritual students to explore and figure out what works for them. The best meditation practice is the practice that works for you. That may change over the course of your life. What suits us in the beginning may not be so suitable once we make some progress, but you cannot get to the progressed stage without the beginning stage.

May your exploration of meditation be comforting and joyful. May you reach out, turn within, and recognise, be and express the divine beauty that you are in truth.