Nothing Lasts Forever

Nothing lasts forever. Sound pessimistic? 

Think about it. Do you look today like you did a decade ago? Are those pretty flowers you received for Mother’s Day still fresh and alive? Do you still have the headache you woke up with last week? Nothing lasts forever.

When we think of mindfulness, we primarily associate it with the ability to see things clearly with awareness, perhaps notice things we didn’t notice before or be more present to physical and emotional sensations. We also understand that a dedicated meditation and mindfulness practice reduces stress, can help us sleep, lower our blood pressure and help us become more responsive and less reactive. 

While these meditation and mindfulness outcomes are indeed accurate, there’s actually a hidden agenda to the practice of meditation. 

The mission of meditation is really to help us put our ego into perspective. 

One of the most profound ways in which this happens in meditation is through its basic principle of impermanence. 

How can we possibly stay attached to the way things are if we begin to understand that everything is ever-changing? That nothing lasts forever?

Why would we cling to wealth, our spouse, pleasure or even our opinions when we understand that nothing lasts?  

The good news with impermanence is that we can shift our perspective on those things that are occurring in our lives that we don’t like and understand that they won’t last and will change. The bad news is that the things we love about our lives will not last either. 

When we understand that nothing lasts, we become far more accepting of the things we cannot control; old age, sickness, death.

This is why no matter what form of meditation you practice, whether it’s mantra meditation, breath meditation, visualization or another, the fact is that your mind will wander to a thought. But that’s the key to meditation – noticing that your mind HAS wandered. 

Your thoughts too are impermanent.

We cannot escape impermanence when we are practicing mindfulness. 

If meditation is new to you, consider joining me for A Course in the Basics of Meditation. I’d be delighted to journey with you as you discover and deepen the shifts that are waiting to take place.