Technology in the twenty-first century has paced faster than what humans can cope with his emotional quotient. Although technology has made our life more comfortable, it has at the same time made it more stressful in the recorded history. To maintain a decent lifestyle, we need to work for hours that leave us fatigued and exhausted. This is the time when meditation is all the more important, to maintain a healthy and contented life.
Meditation is all about “being mindful”. It aims to quieten our minds. This is an essential prerequisite for true relaxation. Relaxation ultimately means being de-stressed. We must realize that stress of all kinds, whatever might be their source, is the root of all life-style related diseases like diabetes, High pressure, anxiety, etc. By practicing meditation, we can calm our mental constitution, and deal better with life-style related diseases.
The benefits of practicing meditation are as follows:
- The mind moves faster than the light, and crops up thousands of thoughts at the same time, as we experience chaos of thoughts on the surface of our consciousness. As you sit quietly in a meditational pose, we simply watch the thoughts, whether they are comfortable or uncomfortable, and try to be mindfully detached from them.
- Thoughts come and go on the surface, but deep down there is a calm of thoughtlessness into which we must dive in the process of meditation.
- Meditation may be considered as an important tool or technique developed thousand years ago in maintaining our sanity amidst chaos and commotions of our surroundings and our mind.
- Meditation does not consist of any esoteric practice but consists of certain simple practices, which when adapted and learned properly would help you to find inner happiness. You must realize that if you are not inwardly happy in your mindfulness, no object can satisfy you as such and make you contented in the long run.
Meditation is as much difficult as any other yoga poses and can be learned with practice and patience.
- It helps to ward off addiction towards objects like gadgets, or substance abuse, with which millions of individuals are now addicted. Meditation is being practiced at the rehabilitation centers for individuals suffering from substance abuse problems.
- It is all about steering the variegated thought that come to our mind, to a call center, which is at the basis of mindfulness.
How to do meditation
There are various types of meditations being practiced in India and abroad. Some meditation techniques insist that the beginners sit in a comfortable position and focus on a particular object. Some meditational practice insists on repeatedly chanting a sacred word, that would help in the calming of the mind. In some of the practices, you may need to ponder over something, while in some others you might need to focus on a divine word.
Some meditational techniques stress your capacity for imagination when you are asked to concentrate on a divine and sacred being. Some others use the sound of the word chanted continuously, which would weed out the unwanted thoughts, and helps you relax your mind.
You may try different forms of meditation as a beginner to know which kind of meditation suits you the best. Some with the religious bend of mind would like to concentrate on their favorite deity. Those who do not believe in gods, or do not entertain any particular religious dogma, can practice meditation as a means to calm the mind by different techniques.
Techniques common in meditations
The sequence of actions to be undertaken for any meditation:
- Sit in padmasana or any comfortable position that might help you to calm down the tension and stabilize the lower person of the body.
- Sit with your spine straight, but comfortably oriented.
- Close your eyes and try to watch your thoughts.
- You will find your stream of consciousness wobbling with myriads of thoughts. The thoughts coming out of depth without any rhyme or reason.
- Initially, as we sit in a meditative position, we would encounter the chaos, the crisis at the surface. But deep down as we practice meditation for some time, you would gradually get access to the contented calmness at the center of our being.
- Gradually, as you practice meditation for some days, you would realize that you do not need much to be happy The object does provide us with comfort, but the means of procuring it might become fraught with stress and too much tension.
- By practicing meditation for a longer period of time, our attachment to objects is gradually loosened, and we realize that we need so little to make ourselves happy and contended.
Meditation in different forms and techniques are being practiced in both the east and west of the earth, with different forms and technical differences. Whatever might be the deity you are concentrating on, or whatever might be the word you are asked to chant inwardly, you ultimately get into the center of calm that resides deep below the surface of the chaos of thoughts and anxieties that assails the surface.
Meditation is not just a bundle of techniques, but a whole new way of life. It teaches you to covet objects less and less, and rely on your inward happiness that is akin to the happiness of a child that feels joyous with or without the aid of entertaining objects and gadgets. Gradually you acquire the spontaneity of a child, who wakes up; plunges into the day with all the spontaneity and boldness- goes through the routine of life lightly, and then sleeps like a child.
Therefore, in the last analysis, meditation is a method that everyone should learn in this world where stress and anxiety are so common. Technology has made us more comfortable and given us god-like power; at the same time, it has increased the stress related to work and relationships as never before in recorded history. Meditation is like a counter-balance that returns us to the earth, its deep calmness, and being contented with expanding the roots into the depth of the being.
