By now most of us must have heard of the Law of Attraction and thanks to the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Larry King we may even have been introduced to the The Secret.

So we know the big "secret", and we're keeping a positive, open mind and trying to feel good. Yet, we're still here. It's been a few months, and nothing has really changed. Why isn't it working? I don't think there's anything wrong with the concept or what the teachers of the secret are saying. Only, it's not as easy as they claim it to be. Really getting into the 'feeling place' takes a lot more than artificially trying to maintain or attain a good mood. A lot of people claim to have the answer, but so far I've not found it. I've been experimenting with and researching meditation and I think I may just be onto something. I believe to really attract the life we want, we need to change the way we think on a fundamental level. Superficial affirmations and visualisations are getting us nowhere!

So this weekend I've taken the time to experiment as promised, and so far my actual experience with meditation has not been especially fruitful (yet!). Patience and persistence are great virtues!. I've done 3 sessions so far by trying some free guided meditation samples on the internet.

To compensate nicely for my current limited experience, I stumbled across some very interesting clips on YouTube. There's altogether twelve 10 minute clips. Here's the first of the series: Down to a science, Meditation 1 of 12. This is a recording of a presentation and informal discussion on Mindfulness Meditation at the Down to a Science Cafe by Philippe Goldin, clinical psychologist and neuroscientist at Stanford. I definitely recommend seeing it when you have the time.

What I've realised though, is that my expectation of what meditation is and what it could achieve was completely wrong. It is not like self-hypnosis at all. In my opinion, mindfulness meditation is about becoming conscious of those things normally handled by the subconscious mind (e.g. breathing) with the aim to get ourselves off of auto-pilot. Meditation does not allow us to tap into the power of the subconscious, instead it re-empowers the conscious mind to have the option to intervene during habitual thinking and behaviour.

Let me recap, the aim of meditation is to become aware of that which is normally subconscious.

So hopefully that makes sense, but why is that meaningful at all?

Imagine if we could re-gain control (of ourselves) by training our brains to get used to not being on auto-pilot. So, effectively, by getting into the 'habit' of being mindful (more conscious) we create spaces (if I remember correctly from what Philippe Goldin was saying) in our thinking, thereby allowing us to choose and therefore think before we act. This may not sound like a significant achievement, but to someone who has realised how hard it is to change themselves (especially deeply ingrained ways of thinking) it can be very powerful. My article, The inflexible brain touches on exactly this topic.

It's quite unbelievable, but after my initial experiences with meditation this weekend, I honestly could not see the point and thought that maybe it just wasn't for me. But that was only because I didn't really understand what I was trying to achieve.

What I've realised, is that meditation could be the missing ingredient I've always looked for. I see myself as an individual who are very interested in improving my character and although I've never actually gotten as far as throwing in the towel, I have found making progress painfully slow. On many occasions I've drawn the conclusion that I just cannot change certain parts of myself. I've come a long way, but not even close to what I really aspire to achieve.

Could meditation really be the key to becoming a more flexible individual? Someone who sees their flaws and simply changes their behaviour with no self-limiting beliefs standing in their way? If meditation is the key and if the Law of Attraction is in fact a powerful universal law, life could turn out to be very, very interesting indeed!

Further Reading:
Science Explores Meditation's Effect on the Brain