A lot of people these days have realized that the ancient wisdom of sages works wonders. And there are many such techniques. Yoga is in the same context now recognized as a way to find our fitness – both mentally and physically.
But, I am not going to tell you about Yoga here. Probably, you may be knowing about it already. Or may be, you should go to the blogs and sites of experts who are the exponents of Yoga. But, you are on my blog and you expect me to say my mind on this topic.
So, here we go!
I have always felt that Yoga is so vast. There are so many postures and traits about Yoga that one needs to spend a fair amount of time to learn it. But where do I begin?
Few days back, I attended a small workshop. This workshop was about Transcendental Meditation. It is supposed to be one of those meditation forms that helps you to transcend. How ? I am still clueless. But, I really enjoyed the overall experience.
Not that I could learn a lot from the session. The TM or the Transcendental Meditation teacher told that this is a 5 days course. And there are lots of theories that we need to learn to get the full benefits. But we (there were other folks I had taken along) did attempt to learn what we could in that 2 hours of duration.
And this is what I learned that I am sharing below:
Meditation is about focus
When you meditate, you focus your mind on something. What is that something? They are your thoughts. You can not live without thinking. No matter whether you are physically active or not but your mind is always active.
So much so that you are thinking even while you are sleeping. Meditation is about dissolving your multiple thoughts. It is about taking your mind away from the distracted state to a peaceful and restive mental state.
Do we even realize that our mind is active all the time. And thinking so much. Meditation can help you to put this mind to rest for sometime.
So, Sit quiet
So, what do you do to attain that status where you can put your mind to some rest? Different forms of meditation prescribe you different processes. But almost all of them have one thing in common – Sit quiet.
Sitting quiet is difficult. just try asking your little kids to sit quiet for 5 minutes. They would not be able to do that unless they are sleepy.
Switch off distractions
As long as we stayed at the meditation center, we were kept away from the distractions. Thoughts have the outside stimulus.
These days, we have so many distractions. The social media present on our smart phones is just one of them. So, cut your distractions and reduce them to the minimum.
Keep it Simple
I love running because it is the simplest thing to do to begin with. Anyone and every one can run. So is the case with meditation. Though there are various proponents of meditation. But the simpler you keep, the better you will be able to begin.
I have run many formats of long distance running. 5k, 10k,half Marathon and Full marathon. Then park runs, city runs and trail runs etc. But I started with the simple act of putting one foot over the other. And repeating it day after day after day!
So, just keep it simple. No need to dig in a lot of information and drown yourself in the maze of info and details. Doing it is more important than knowing all about it!
So, practice it often
If you find sometime every day, it’s great. And for that you don’t need to find extra time or an exclusive time. You can do meditation anywhere. Simply detach your self mentally from all kinds of thoughts and sit quiet.
You can sit quiet in a moving train, in your car(if your driver is driving), find some space of time during the office hours. Just switch off your mental state from thinking. And this would come by practice.
Keep a tracker to track your daily progress
Just be mechanical and keep doing it. Keep a tracker to note down your daily progress. Have a note book in which you can write your experiences elaborately. Or have a tracking sheet where you can note down the time and the part of the day you were able to sit down quietly.
Tracking will help you to monitor your pursuit of meditation. Meditation can help you distill peace and tranquility in your life. And before you can be happy, you need to be peaceful.
Great introduction!