Why should you meditate?

1. What is Meditation
2. The Technique
3. Outcomes

The natural tendency of the mind is to descend into stress. The mind either hangs on to the past (regret, anger, despair) or projects the future (anxiety, worry or even hope). The mind constantly vacillates between the past and the future and this is stress. Let us look at how people deal with stress. People come up with different defence mechanisms for stress. Some may immerse themselves into work at the expense of everything else that matters in their lives (e.g. Lack of balance leading to poor family lives, or poor health). Some may avoid work to the detriment of their work life. Some indulge in binging (Eating, drinking, holidaying). Some do extreme sports like climbing mountains, running marathons. While some of these activities do have a lot of positives (e.g. sport), the issue is when these are just a form of escapism. Because whenever the activity undertaken to take your mind of the stress ceases, the very stress that you are running away from comes back with all its vengeance. Remember how it feels after you are back from that refreshing holiday? Or Monday blues after a particularly exciting weekend? I read somewhere that the most heart attacks happen on a Monday.

Meditation is the art of being in the present moment totally. When the mind is well and truly in the present moment (not hanging on to the past or worrying about the future), there is clarity, energy and joy in living. You see the past for what it is – just a dream. The future is just an imagination. And anything that needs to be done for the future can only be done when you have clarity and energy in the present moment. Have you seen children enjoy their moments fully and be totally engaged in what they have to do right now? Now it is possible for us to be like children full of joy and enthusiasm while shouldering the responsibilities we have without being burdened by them. Meditation makes us lighter while eschewing negative emotions and giving us the clarity to work for the future we desire.

With time through meditation our mind drops the tendency of clinging on to the negatives in our life and looking at life in a broader perspective. Meditation allows us to look at our lives beyond the roles we play and roll with the punches that life inevitably throws at us, live life without losing that smile. Because it is not the hard work we may have to put in that takes our smile away but the worry and anxiety of what lies ahead that does.

Now how can we learn to meditate? Every time you sit to meditate thoughts bombard you, restlessness takes over and you are unable to feel any refreshed than when you started. Thats understandable for the mind is very intangible. The more you tell the mind to relax the more difficult it finds itself stuck in whatever bothers the mind. Fortunately the solution is the breath. Through the breath, we can control the direction of the mind. The Art of Living Happiness Program teaches a beautiful rhythmic breathing technique called Sudarshana Kriya that through the rhythms of the breath releases stresses and toxins from every cell of the body allowing the body, mind and our very being to return to their natural rhythm. The outcome of the Sudarshana Kriya technique is a mind that slips into meditation, for it is easier to control the breath that in turn controls the mind.

Through the practice of these techniques, not only do we regain our physical health, we also appreciate life with its contrasts, we are calmer in the face of challenges or unpleasant external situations, we are not swayed by events and opinions and we live life truly in the present moment building a more beautiful future.