How do I ensure that I am meditating effectively?

"You wash your hands before you sit down to eat lest the food get contaminated and enter your body. So should you also cleanse your heart before you sit down to meditate, for meditation is food for the soul."

- Divine Inspiration, May 17, 2021

"Go and wash your hands" was the familiar chime that rang out when as children we sat down to eat. The constant emphasis on hygiene was dinned into us as a first defense against germs, and rightly so as it had a direct bearing on our physical health. But can we say that there was an equal emphasis on our spiritual health? 

The common reason for this discrepancy is that physical health is tangible and easier to gauge whereas spiritual health is intangible and hard to fathom. Just as food revitalizes our body and makes it grow, meditation strengthens and develops our character.

Meditating with a heart filled with negative emotions is akin to eating with unclean hands, we contaminate our soul to the point where we become 'immune' to the consequences of our negative qualities. This could result in the 'silencing' of that little voice deep within our heart, our conscience.

A simple way to cleanse our heart is to recall the previous day's negative feelings, thoughts, words and actions and try in some way to make amends or at least mentally apologize (with all sincerity) to those who have been on the receiving end of our negativity. Heart cleansed, we may then sit down to nourish our soul with no fear of contamination. 

This daily cleansing of the heart leads to a constant awareness of our negative qualities and results in a conscious effort to avoid indulging in them. This awareness empowers the soul and paves the way to purity.