Finding Stillness in the Waves.

This morning, I went for my Saturday Walk. I sat at my usual place on the paseo here in Altafulla, breakfast by the sea, a little journalling. But today the sea was something special. Completely still. Barely a ripple. Just this beautiful grey mist where the sea met the sky, so calm you could hardly tell where one ended and the other began. I sat there and just looked at it.

Nature has a way of pulling me in. It’s where I do my best thinking, my processing. And this morning, that calm sea was the most perfect metaphor for what so many of us are searching for when we sit down to meditate.

The Stillness We’re Chasing.

That moment of stillness, the one you sometimes experience in meditation is so beautiful when it comes. And it does come, (with practice). But if you’ve ever tried to meditate, you’ll know that it doesn’t come easily, sometimes rarely, and this moment of perfect stillness, you could call it serenity, or blissful, doesn’t stay long. Only a few moments before you notice it, and then you’re back in your thoughts.

More often, our minds are like the crashing waves. Busy, restless, one thought tumbling into the next. And so many people give up on meditation because of this. They think their mind is too busy to meditate, or they’re doing it wrong because they can’t settle their mind. That it’s not for them.

The waves are not the problem. The waves are the practice.

When you jump into the sea, you don’t try to stop the waves. You move through them. Sometimes you get knocked about. Sometimes you fight the rip, as we say in Australia, but actually, the way through is to relax into it, almost surrender to it. And eventually, you get to the stillness on the other side. This is a lot like the process of meditation.

What’s Happening When You Meditate.

The thoughts will come. They always do. Sometimes it’s the same thought patterns on repeat, sometimes you are re-living past events or playing out future conversations. This is not a sign that you’re meditating badly. This is the process of meditation, and it’s during this process where you learn a lot about yourself and the patterns of your mind.

I read a fascinating piece this week from Carnegie Mellon University researcher David Creswell, published in Psychology Today, which confirmed something I’ve always believed and what the Yogis and Buddhist meditators have known for centuries. Even advanced meditators report frequent mind-wandering during practice, and difficult or uncomfortable experiences during meditation outnumber pleasant ones by nearly six to one. And yet those same meditators showed measurable changes in brain networks linked to self-regulation, and reduced markers of inflammation in the body months later.

So, if you’ve ever sat down to meditate and found your mind racing, your thoughts wandering all over the place, and feel frustration setting in, that’s not failure. That’s practice doing what it’s supposed to do. With one pointed awareness meditation, each time you notice your mind has wandered and gently bring it back, you are building something. Resilience. Awareness. A little more capacity to meet what feels hard.

The benefits of meditation genuinely outweigh all the struggles or barriers you might put up to prevent yourself from getting started. Research consistently shows that a regular meditation practice reduces stress and anxiety, improves sleep quality, supports immune function and builds emotional resilience over time. You don’t need hours a day. You need consistency.

Meditation and Being Mindful Doesn’t Have to Mean Sitting Still.

One of the biggest barriers to meditation I hear is this: “I can’t meditate. My mind is too busy to meditate. I can’t sit still.”

But meditation doesn’t have to be a formal sitting practice. This morning, I drove to the beach without the radio on. No podcast. Just quiet. And when I walked, I left my phone in my pocket, connecting in with the sights and sounds of my environment. Today, this was my meditation.

A quiet cup of tea on the sofa without any screen. A slow walk where you actually notice what’s around you. These are all forms of what we call active meditation, bringing awareness to what you’re already doing, rather than adding something new to an already full day.

It’s through these quiet moments that creativity comes. That the inner voice starts to get a little louder. That intuition finds its way through. Without the quiet, we simply can’t hear it. And in a world that fills every spare moment with noise and stimulation, finding that quiet is one of the most radical and nourishing things you can do for yourself.

If you’d like to explore different types of meditation and find what works best for you, I’ve written a guide that covers both active and passive practices you can find the link to Which Type of Meditation is Right for you at the bottom of the page.

Where to Start

If you’re new to sitting meditation, or if you’ve tried before and found it difficult, I’d love you to try this free 10-minute guided practice. Find a quiet spot, press play, and see how you feel afterwards. That’s all. Just ten minutes.

Access the free meditation here

And if you try it, I’d genuinely love to hear how you get on.

Something to Sit With – Your mind is not too busy to meditate.

The calm sea this morning wasn’t still because nothing was happening beneath the surface. It was calm because conditions were right. The same is true of the mind in meditation. We’re not emptying our thoughts. We’re learning to let the mind settle.

This takes practice. It takes patience. And it takes showing up, even on the days when the waves are crashing.

“Stillness is not the absence of life or action. It is the absence of mental noise.”  Eckhart Tolle

If you enjoyed reading this, you may also like to read…

Which Type of Meditation is right for you?

5 Ways to enjoy the benefits of Mindfulness without Meditation.

If this resonated, you might like my Sunday emails.

Balance and Breath is a weekly pause for women with busy lives and busy minds who want to feel more present, more balanced and more like themselves.

Every Sunday, I share honest reflections and simple practices from Traditional Yoga, meditation and Ayurveda to help you find a little more calm and space in everyday life.

And when you join, I’ll send you my free 10-minute Yoga Nap to help you pause, deeply relax and feel like yourself again.