I'd like to discuss something new here. Do you participate in any physical activity or exercise and how has it helped your ability to meditate and become your highest potential?
In my experience I find that movement not only affects muscles and physiology in a positive way, but also your emotions, psychology and spirit. The world is all too prevalent with sick, sad, and depressed people that live sedentary lifestyles.
Here is where I bridge exercise and meditation. I personally love to do explosive exercises such as strength training and sprinting (100 m or less). I find that when I challenge myself enough, I get to a point where I'm so close to my perceived limits that I get a TON of resistance in my body mind which makes me want to give up and quit. At this point, if I can go a little bit further, this is where a deep inner transformation spontaneously happens. In this moment I experience a massive energetic release and immediately it feels as if my spirit is lifted. I feel weightless yet grounded at the same time. My self created problems disappear and I feel limitless. This energetic release allows me to relax and sink into the tenderness of meditation where I can receive that inner wisdom and insight. This is how I've learned to bridged the gap between physicality and spiritual transcendence. I practice the calm abiding meditation from this website daily and it highly resonates with me, and I find that strength training and the emotional release associated with it does the same thing for me.
Many people in the spiritual and self help community say that we must transcend the body and ego in order to attain enlightenment, but that statement in itself creates resistance to and suppression of the very thing we want to transcend. I'm beginning to realize that sometimes pain is necessary for growth because it is potential. If you can release resistance to it, it will lead to deep healing and expansion in all dimensions of life.
By the way here is a 3 min video I found called "The Transcendent Rep" that beautifully describes what I've experienced through strength training
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52eTlKDBgBA