We shop around for many things in our lives – cars, homes, clothes – pretty much everything we need.

And shopping is often a combination of things. It’s about looking at various options, many times trying each option out, deciding if the price justifies the value and so on. Sometimes shopping is driven by social status, peer pressure or suggestions and at other times, it is just plainly impulsive. For many, shopping is a pastime and active part of enjoying their lives.

Unfortunately, meditation doesn’t lend itself all that well to a typical shopping experience. Unlike other shopping experiences, we don’t benefit by shopping around and trying out multiple different techniques. Something like Sahaja meditation is very deep. With any technique, you need patience, perseverance of several weeks – sometimes even months – before you can explore the full benefits.

Here’s why we may feel the need to shop, but shouldn’t.

True meditation is hard to find and understand.

Most people don’t know what they are looking for and in many cases, discover everything that meditation can offer as they go along. A lot of people try to read and research and lot and try to look for reviews as they would when buying a product, but such a process hardly lends itself well to meditation. What you may experience is hard to glean through reviews or analysis of pros and cons.

True meditation requires lots of patience to understand, configure and experience.

True meditation is a lot of work. Obviously, this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people expect magical and quick stress relief or an on-off meditation switch that unleashes benefits. When this doesn’t happen, they’re tempted to try other options, often in parallel.

True meditation should not be commercial.

Many of us make our value judgments based on how expensive something is. In that same line of thinking, we’ve been programmed by the advertising industry and media to think that expensive meditation courses produce better results or a better experience. Unfortunately, there’s no correlation with price when it comes to meditation offerings. So, shopping around with a price comparison hardly works. Quite honestly, with Sahaja, we face the issue the other way around – most people think that something that’s free is probably not going to do it for them. They’d like to sign up for something that has a “premium plan” or subscription. Some people even add a “paid meditation course” to supplement Sahaja because they can afford it!

You cannot pay your way to a better meditation experience. Meditation defies the common world paradigm of “You get what you pay for”. As we like to say “You can sometimes get what you cannot pay for”.

True meditation experience is highly individualized.

There’s no such thing as a typical or standard meditation experience or outcome. This makes it difficult for a person new to meditation to compare his or her experience with that of others. This also invalidates reviews by others. It’s entirely possible that one person out of ten may experience the deepest benefit of a form of meditation while the rest have not. Deeper benefits are harder and rarer to experience quickly.

There’s a vast amount of misinformation out there about what true meditation is.

New offerings spring up almost every day and there are any number of people trying to make money by exploiting the demand for meditation and taking advantage of eager people. Sifting through the mess requires patience, maturity and having an open mind.

Most practices don’t go far enough to provide everything on the spectrum of meditation.

Some provide basic stress relief and mindfulness, others like Sahaja are full spectrum offerings – you can use it for stress relief or the highest spiritual pursuits in your life. You will need to be clear about what you are looking for. Fortunately, Sahaja Online gives you the exhaustive resources to understand everything that meditation can do and you can then get a better idea for what you are really looking for.

You do more harm than good to yourself by trying out different types of meditation for short spans of time.

Quite naturally, many of us want to get to the final decision on what works for us as soon as possible. So, some people almost end up doing a speed dating exercise with different forms of meditation – much like the process they would go through when buying a home. Meditation only works by giving time to one at a time and being patient.

Convenience may not always be a part of true meditation in your life.

In fact, the opposite is likely to be true many times. There’s that saying that you have to sacrifice something to gain something. The meditation that causes you to drive 45 minutes across town may be more suited to you than the one down the street. Also, if you’re trying to fit meditation to times convenient to you, it may not always work out.

True meditation is inside you and must work from within.

It’s not in a beautiful yoga or meditation studio near your home that you can drive to. Or for that matter, even in our beautiful blog or website here at Sahaja Online. You have to discover it within you. If you’re continually searching for meditation outside without actualizing it on the inside, there’s a chance that you’ll never find the right one.

Conclusion

You cannot forever keep shopping for meditation. You need to stop when you find the right one. Trust your instincts. If you’re clear about what you want and have a strong inner urge, you will ultimately find what you are looking for. When you find it, you’ll need to persevere and be patient without switching rapidly again to other forms of meditation. And you have to discover and experience meditation from within. Dig deep within yourself and you’ll have the answers you are looking for. What works for others may not work for you.

Do you feel Sahaja meditation might be your last stop? There’s only one way to find out. Try our introductory session and then persist with it for a few weeks. You can also reach out to us for help and even a coach who can help you. Meanwhile, here’s our guide on how to choose the right form of meditation.