Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 28 seconds. 

What’s in My Cup? How Meditation Helped Me See It

Funny thing about meditation—I’ve been trying to pick up this habit for the longest time, but let’s be honest: it’s so boring. Or at least that’s how I used to feel. Until recently.

The other day, I was listening to a podcast and something shifted. Okay, maybe I didn’t fall in love with meditation overnight, but I became curious. And now, I actually look forward to it.

🎧 Listen to the episode that changed my perspective:
Spotify – The Mindset Mentor , How to Meditate Step by Step

There’s this story I’ve always loved:

You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee?

"Because someone bumped into me!!!"

Wrong answer.

You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been water in the cup, you would have spilled water.

Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled.

So we have to ask ourselves... “What's in my cup?" When life gets tough, what spills over?

Joy, gratitude, peace and humility?

Or, is it anger, bitterness, blame, frustration, victim mentality and quitting-tendencies?

Life provides the cup, YOU choose how to fill it. That bears repeating: YOU CHOOSE. You GET to CHOOSE.

Today, let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, resilience, positivity, compassion, kindness, caring, drive, proactivity, excitement, and love for others.

That story always made me think: What’s in my cup? And honestly, for the longest time, I wasn’t sure. I thought I had an idea… but I didn’t want to wait until life shook me to find out.

But through that podcast, I realized something: meditation might be a way to gently discover what’s in my cup—without needing a major life shake-up to do it. Maybe I can start by noticing if it’s coffee, or tea, or orange juice. Maybe I’m still figuring it out. But now I see that with practice, I can even choose what I want to fill it with.

Not gonna lie, sometimes it's still tough but at least, it is easier to look forward to meditating now. It’s no longer about doing it "right." It’s about listening. About seeing. About noticing what’s already inside—and slowly deciding what I want to add or remove.

Right now? I still notice anxiety. My brain still jumps around: what to do next, what to eat, what I forgot to finish… aiyo, aiya. And again. I gently call it back. And again. And again.

Maybe one day, what spills out will be more peace, more calm, more presence. But for now, I’m just glad I noticed there’s a cup to begin with.

 

If you enjoyed this, there's plenty more to explore on the blog:

→ What Skipping Showers Taught Me About Self-Trust

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