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Real Growth:  Reward Yourself!

by lemortedeben

It is very easy, particularly for students of meditation to get
lost in austerity and ascetic practice.  There is something to be
said for learning to accept and transmute discomfort and pain,
but it will drastically increase the momentum of your practice if
you learn to reward yourself.

Ultimately, no learning will take place without the subconscious
mind getting involved.  The subconscious mind handles long term
memory.  Typically, the conscious mind tends to bounce around
day-to-day rather whimsically.  Naturally, the subconscious mind
doesn't take much of this scattered thought seriously.  What the
subconscious mind does take seriously is repetition and emotional
content.  Most of us have heard the saying "Repetition is the
mother of skill."  But how many of us know that we have to get
emotionally involved (passionate, joyous, etc.) in order to
develop a skill quickly?  One of the easiest ways to do this is
with 'feel good' rewards.  
  
We tend to be very good at rewarding children, but not ourselves
(or other adults for that matter).  The subconscious mind still
responds very favorably to this, though, no matter how old you
are.  When you are doing well, it is important to acknowledge to
yourself that you are doing well; this reinforces the drive to
learn the new skill.  Appropriately rewarding yourself will get
the subconscious mind involved with learning the new skill
quicker and more completely.

The most important time to reward yourself is immediately after
practice or a successful performance.  When there is time, it is
good to go back and review the specifics of what went well, and
also look at what needs to be improved.  You can test different
rewards to see what seems to work best for you.  The easiest
thing to do immediately after practice is to feel good about
yourself and the skill.  Associating good feelings with the
practice and application of the skill will bring your entire mind
into the learning process.

This is the same with meditation.  You will have to get the
subconscious mind 'onboard' in order to maintain the practice and
experience the really powerful states.  Particularly in the
beginning, you will want to at least mentally pat yourself on the
back every time you remember to practice.  You can just smile
into yourself and say "Nice Job!"  Whenever you reach milestones,
a larger reward is appropriate.  Every time you meditate for a
significantly longer period of time (you will have to decide what
constitutes 'significantly longer'), you will want to do
something special for yourself to acknowledge your
accomplishment.

You don't want to take the rewarding too far.  Rewarding
yourself with 30 minutes of personal time to do whatever you like
is good, but if you aren't cautious and somewhat disciplined,
this can easily turn into the rest of the evening.  Be certain to
maintain some level of control with the reward.

When you really develop the habit of rewarding yourself in
meditation and other areas of your life, growth and success will
become much more natural for you.  When you feel good about it,
your entire mind will be supporting the new skill.  And the more
you enjoy the experience, the longer you will stick with it!

Benjamin Langley has been studying and training in meditation,
yoga, and other sciences of the mind for over 10 years.  He
regularly writes and shares powerful insights on his own blog. 
Come take a look: http://peacefulprosperity.com/blog

Syndicated by Top Gazebos - www.topgazebos.net

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