The Power of Meditation in Real Life
The below excerpt is an honest experience of my journey and the people around me who have been meditating regularly for many years. It was important to meditate before the pandemic began, but now, it is absolutely beneficial to do those breathing techniques and yoga! And a life changing story starts now....
I started meditating when I was roughly above the age of 12 and it has been almost 13 years of meditation until today (I'm 25 now). Though I wasn't quite regular till the age of 18-19, but the teenage blood-rush got me into mediation again and I haven't missed a day of meditation since. Living in a foreign country is challenging and fun at the same time, but daily 30 to 40 minutes of meditation has helped to keep all the anxiety and excitement at bay and stay in the present moment.
Day-to-day Treats
You feel cool like a cucumber in really anxious situations, fierce like a tiger when it comes to grabbing opportunities at the right time and laid back like an elephant when the world is showing complex emotions. Self confidence is at another high, you attract people with your positive energy and also get the gift to deflect situations and people who give out negative vibes. Be it 30 minutes before a job interview or 10 minutes before asking someone out, the throat doesn't feel tightened and the willingness to execute the task and get over with it is already done in the mind. I have observed that homework or cooking some delicious dish takes lesser time than your previous record.
You break your comfort zone daily to go out and talk to people about complex issues with a brave heart. The quality of rest increases with even a mere 6 hours of night sleep. Health remains in shape, your mind keeps running like a treadmill with increased acceleration. Boring things become more appealing and the sense to accept both happiness and gut wrenching sadness becomes easier.
So What!
Multiple setbacks and questions come to us daily, but the mind becomes so tough that the self is able to solve all of them. Job rejections, heartbreaks, loss in family, unfulfilled goals all start feeling very small, literally very, very small! This doesn't mean you become hard as a rock in terms of emotions, you will still tear up but with a sense of gratitude. You are unmoved by the worry-storm and instead swoosh and transform that storm into a blessing. So remember, come what may, the monologue should be So What!
Anxiety and Depression
I personally feel sad that depression being such a serious issue and people giving up their hopes and lives is not given a permanent solution, instead it is being glamorized in pop culture. It is not at all important to live in depression to understand the true meaning of life, why reach such a stage when there are meditation techniques to counter it. After a meditation session, you rise in love with yourself, you enjoy your lone time which the world sadly describes as loneliness and ponder over deeper concepts like dharma and consciousness. Giving back to the society (seva) and not expecting a paycheck in return works wonders for a depressed state of mind. Even Arjun faced depression, but it was Shri Krishna who made him valorous.
Cool Swag
Gone are those days when we used to consider meditation as a post retirement activity. No use turning milk into a porridge when the milk has gone stale. Implement yoga and meditation as the new Cool instead of discarding it completely. Majority schools and religious institutes fail to imbibe the act of breathing and hence there is very little devotion when it comes to academics and God. When the mind is tough and strong, even a weak body can be handled but I can't say the same for the opposite. There are so many secrets in this multiverse which even science hasn't touched yet, but most of these were already spoken in the Vedas. Meditation helps to tap those mysteries and unveil them to the humankind. What secrets, onto the next one....
Magic for the world, Normalcy for the inner self
Reading the energy of other people is not magic. Getting your intuitions right is not magic. Having your desires manifested and become a reality is not magic. Blessing other people and seeing them shine is not magic. Having brilliant ideas and knowledge come to you at the right time is not magic. Marvel movies like Spider Man and Doctor Strange talk a lot about the spiritual energy and multiverse concepts. These are concepts borrowed from our ancient texts and are pretty scientific. Imagine you have a headache and you have the tool in your pocket to cure it without taking any medicine. In earlier days, disciples used to do a lot of tapasya in order to learn spirituality, now we have free mobile apps, lol, so blessed we are! Again, it is difficult for a non-meditator to believe this, but once you start it, you will discover your own comfy world!
My Ingredients to Meditate
There are many meditation techniques introduced by India, there's a whole bowl of fruit salad presented and designed for you, it is one's own choice what fruit to pick up. I practice the Sudarshan Kriya/ SKY Breath Meditation and various other techniques designed by my Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. I follow a strict well balanced vegetarian/ vegan diet and am a complete teetotaler. I'm often surrounded by my near and dear ones who consume meat and alcohol, nothing against them, but I stick to my core principles. I can easily get up at 5 or 5:30 am and hence sleep early at the 10 pm mark. I give myself 30-40 mins of time to meditate and exercise, mandatory 10-15 mins afternoon nap, hobby time and timely meals with lots of water. My only addiction (a strong word) is Chai!
But other than these, life is a fun filled roller-coaster ride with more lows and less highs, to be honest. It is the calm act of the mind to happily accept these lows as a push and score more highs. And along with all the worldly pleasures, meditation coupled with a gorgeous smile is the future.
- Pralhad