Probably like you, I received parent advice when I was a child that I did not fully understand.
On one of our family road trips I became bored, and positioned myself to look out the car's rear view window.
My father had noticed me doing this and directed me to turn around and listen.
My father told me never to look behind me because I would miss the great things in front of me.
At that time, I thought he was talking about an animal or other wildlife that our car might scar away.
I immediately put my full attention on the road ahead of us so I would not miss seeing those animals or birds I was sure he had seen, but I had missed.
How many times have you been so focused on what you or someone else did or said yesterday that you do not even notice today's sunshine until someone pointed out to you it had been present? Remembering someone or something that touched us in some way is good, but that is different than positioning yourself so that your back is to the present moment.
When your attention is focused on yesterday, your back is turned to what you could be fully enjoying today.
Would you ever ride in a car with a person who drives by always looking in the mirrors to see what is behind him or her instead of paying attention to what is in the road in front of the car? Focusing on tomorrow can again take away your enjoyment of today.
Long-term goals and affirmations are great, but if you are always looking through binoculars, you have no idea of what is right in front of you.
What you see, hear, feel, smell or taste on your journey is often more satisfying than the destination.
Sometimes to let go your focus on your past was or should have been, and worry or anticipation about tomorrow brain rewiring needs to happen.
In meditation you are in the moment, and your energies are not consumed by the emotions of yesterday or tomorrow.
Daily meditation can rewire your brain's navigation system, so that you can enjoy each of the present moments that comprise your life.
Guided meditations, where you are in control, are an easy way to rewire your navigation system your way.
With all that said, the question that then pops up is, how can I enjoy the present moment when I am walking on eggshells all the time.
Walking on eggshells is simply an idiom expressing that you must gingerly choose your words and actions.
The awareness that each word you choose and each action you take must be the correct, engages your fight of flight response.
You fight or flight response creates stress.
I doubt you would argue that it is extremely hard to enjoy the present moment when stress is your 24/7 companion.
Thoughts are excellent at creating those eggshells that require you to walk as gingerly as possible.
Thoughts come from all that we have experienced through all of our functioning senses during our lifetime to that point.
No one has figured out how to stop thoughts, and there is not needed to try to do so.
In meditation your thoughts do not own you, but rather you own your thoughts.
In those present moments of meditation you are in charge, and can go beneath your thoughts.
In that space beneath your thoughts those worries that create the eggshells you do not want to step on do not exist.
Therefore, in that space there are no eggshells and no worries about stepping on any of them.
Going into that space thoughts through guided meditations is an easy way to escape from your thoughts held captive by your current problems.
Imagine coming to the fork in your path.
The path to the right has eggshells scattered on it that might get stuck in the soles of you feet, or at best make a mess.
The path to the left has patches of sunshine on it.
Which path are you most likely to take? The next question is how do you find those paths void of eggshells, but peppered with patches of sunshine? In the peaceful stillness of meditation with no past or future, you have to reason to worrying about what you might loose or the bad luck that might come to you.
So, you have no reason to feel like you are walking on eggshells.
In guided meditations you are told when to come out, so you can let go any worry about how much or how little time you spend in the stillness.
You can also let go the worry that you might miss something while in a guided meditation because you are always in control, and can come back to your Beta level any time you desire to do so.
In today's world there are so many activities for people of all ages that your preconditioning to meditation might be no I cannot just do nothing.
This is when guided meditations are perfect, because your mind will accept listening to the voice guiding you as an activity.
You probably have heard the common statement that meditation is not what you think.
Thinking requires energy so when you are thinking you are doing; in meditation your brain is reorganizing so you are also doing.
You go into deep relaxation during meditation but it is a place void of the negative rather than a place or laziness.
Guided meditations are also an easy way to let go/release/liberate from the past.
In meditation you are aware, but only of the deep relaxation from focusing on either one point only or the voice guiding you.
When you let go of all the days that have passed you make room for the new that comes Today.
As far as the eggshells, they might not even be there when you come out of meditation.
Benching your thoughts during meditation gives your mind time to reorganize, so that you can move forward in your day in the best way.
You can waste a lot of time and energy worrying about the future or you can put your energy into the moment, which can unfold in the best way toward your goals.
Anyone that has studied any style of Usui Reiki Ryoho knows well the second line of the Gokai, let go of anxious or fretful worry.
Worrying is one of the things most people learn to do early in life, but learning to let go fretful worry allow us to be free.
In that safe stillness of meditation there is no worry.
If going beneath your thoughts is a challenge, than guided meditations are a way to be guided to that lull without worry.
Read this paragraph and then close your eyes to experience being in the present moment with your analytical thinking on pause.
With your eyes close see, feel or simply know that you are standing on the deck of a safe large ship on the open ocean.
There is nowhere that you must be, and nothing that you have to do.
The ocean looks the same this day as it did the day before Columbus sailed on it to find a new world.
The ocean looks the same this day is it will on the day when there is public transportation into outer space.
Evolution has and will always continue, but the ocean itself remains timeless without visual evidence of the past or future.
Standing or sitting on this safe deck enjoying the smell of the salt air and the feel of the warm sun is enjoying the now, rather than worrying about what happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow.
There is no one to judge you and no need to judge yourself.
In that present moment you are aware of the essence of the life around you, and you may even hear the sound of the seagulls soaring overhead.
Nevertheless, in that present moment you do not analyze the seagulls, and there is never any need to feel like you are walking on eggshells.
In the present moment of meditation, like on the deck of a ship, you are surrounded by what is timeless.
In meditation there are no emotions putting the left side of your brain on alert.
In that peaceful lull your creativity is allowed to surface, and you can begin to feel your own rhythm.
Feeling your own rhythm is like walking on sunshine, which is much better than walking on eggshells.