Many believe success in meditation means to be able to stop the mind completely and replace the wandering thoughts with a peace of mind. As a consequence, someone may feel discouraged if they experience thinking or anything else but a calm mind. What is meditation and how can it help us deal with the changes in life?
A well deserved break
Meditation is not about stopping the mind, yet meditation can help us slow down so that eventually our mind stops on its own allowing us to experience deeper states of peace and true happiness. This should not be our expectation though once starting a meditation session. We simply sit quietly with our eyes closed; it’s about active awareness, presence, focus, working with our attention and intention. Making some time during the busy days just to close our eyes, breathe and connect with our body is amazingly refreshing. We get into the body and out of the mind, which gives the mind a well deserved break. Thus, a cool head and a good inner balance becomes a daily ritual that can bring this feeling back whenever we choose to connect to it; it is especially useful when experiencing changes in life.
Change is the only certainty
Any individual living in a society has inevitably experienced changes. Changes of the long planned kind, as well as unexpected and perhaps potentially disruptive changes. Here, meditation is to remind us that the only world we can control is the inner world, and all that is outside is beyond our control. We can program the mind to choose what is positive and feeds positive energy into our lives. Our response depends on experience to some extent as well as the ability to develop acceptance of things as they really are. Instead of a series of ups and downs that play with the mood, life can be seen as a series of events that make a wavy line. Knowing how to deal with these changes is a key to good health and happiness.
It starts with a single breath
One can never prepare for changes completely but with a daily practice of meditation you can build a mindset that does not exclude them. Moreover, having a mind that is more prepared for changes will allow more room for relaxation and flexibility leading not only to accepting the changes but understanding them with wisdom. This then is a change of attitude towards vicissitudes of life that starts with an awareness of a single breath. As meditation allows the body and mind to slow down, it allows the breath to catch up with the thoughts. When one connects with the breath, bodily functions self-regulate, and the world is no longer spinning at a fast pace. It has an impact on our personal and social life, professional performance, and health and well-being.
The most important journey we take is the journey inside.
Photo by Håkon Grimstad on Unsplash
