Just being

Today I happened upon another book I had forgotten I have. It's called Developing Intuition: Practical Guidance for Daily Life by Shakti Gawain. Here's a passage I really agree with:

Our culture conditions us to believe that we must always be doing something outwardly productive. Many of us are extremely driven and feel that we must be accomplishing something at every moment. We have lost the value of being - taking time to rest, relax, contemplate, explore the inner realm, and generally replenish ourselves. We are terribly out of balance in this respect. I believe this is one reason why so many people develop chronic fatigue syndrome and other related illnesses. Sometimes our bodies have to force us to stop driving ourselves.

I'm convinced that this is also why many people throw in the towel on meditation before they even give themselves a chance to experience its benefits. They think they're not accomplishing anything when they meditate so they lose the motivation to do it.

I recommend that you question that value, that conditioning that says you must be accomplishing something all the time. Look at little children and animals that are content just to be. Learn from them. Let it be okay just to sit and be with yourself in a state of loving attention. When you think of it, that's one good definition of meditation!