Meditation - a deeper experience

Meditation recap

In my previous article about Meditation (Meditation - an Introduction), we got to know the concept of conscious & subconscious mind and the various levels of subconscious mind. We saw how meditation helps us to move from the daily cluttered conscious mind to the subconscious mind thereby increasing our awareness. It also helps us stay better in the present moment thereby increasing our efficiency to do a particular work.

The subconscious mind is super powerful. It works on the level of Energy of the universe i.e. it communicates at the level of energy. If we are able to touch our subconscious self in some way, we impact the energy of the universe in a way beneficial to us, also called manifestation.

Meditation is an excellent method to touch at the energy level. Energy is a very powerful tool which can not only be used to heal self or others but also to heal events from past, influence future events and manifest abundance in life. Reading my previous article on Energy [Energy Article] help understand things better.

Let us look at what happens in our day-to-day life, which many of us do not realize.

Understanding our mind

We are all busy in our daily lives. The lives in city today are very hectic and keeps us on toes. Whether we are in a job, running our business, or even a being a full-time super mom at home, all have become so demanding. It may not be so physically challenging but a load on our heads. The brain although is only 2% of our body weight but consumes nearly 20% of energy, wow that is a lot. All that brainwork tires us out badly especially the pre-frontal cortex region of the brain which is responsible for most of our ‘human’ behaviour. What happens when we start losing it? We tend to let go of the control and follow towards our old animal instincts. Physical pleasures like eating, drinking, etc. are all associated with such behaviour.

Aren’t you more susceptible to smoke or drink when you are tired? Just need that small puff or drink to keep up the mood. Aren’t we less likely to stop at the local unmanned traffic light in the night after a hard day? Aren’t we more likely to binge on the junk food after a tiring day? This makes me wonder, why are there more crimes & accidents in night, is it only because of darkness?

Our anger, shouting, irritation, anxiety, breakdowns could all be result of an overworked brain. Most of the time we are not even aware of our action. Only later when we break, we realize it was something we could have absolutely avoided. That anger at the subordinate/spouse, shouting at the waiter/maid, rage behind the wheel, scolding of the kid who just wanted to be with you after a long day and wanted you to know about his day at the school. It feels bad, doesn’t it?

What can we do about it? Do you want to do something about it? Let’s see how.

Opening our perceptions

Brain is also a muscle in our body like our biceps. What do we do to improve our biceps? We exercise. Similarly, we can exercise our brain to improve it, exercise our awareness which can help us know our emotions, exercise our empathy to understand others better, exercise our consciousness to make us more aware of our actions, reactions & life.

An overwhelmed mind just cannot think logically or understand the situation. It is running everywhere and doesn’t give us any time to really think through of actions. What we need is something which helps us keep our cool, keep our logical thinking in place, help us understand our emotions better and help us to act appropriately. Meditation is just the right tool for it.

Let us understand, how we can take our first step towards meditation and take advantage of its exceptional benefits.

Can you meditate?

When I think of meditation, a picture of Buddha crops up in my mind. Sitting in a crossed leg position, a serene face, peaceful mind without any thoughts and sitting in the position for hours.

Have you ever tried meditation? If you have, you will know it is just impossible to keep your mind still. It just jumps from one thought to another. The thoughts just come pouring in full force. May be because we don’t give them the time to come. Normally, we are either busy doing something, like watching TV, playing with phone, talking to friends, etc and just don’t allow these thoughts to come.

Does it mean, if we cannot keep the thoughts out of my head, I can’t meditate? That is what earlier I used to believe. I tried making mind thoughtless a few times but failed miserably and so almost gave-up meditation for good. I would always wonder how is it that so many people can sit for so long?

After reading many books, articles, following various online meditations and completing courses from Art of Living India & Vipassana, I finally realized the reality of meditation for a common person like me. It is in no way difficult and allows you to choose whatever way connects with you.

Ways of meditation

Meditation is a way to take you from your conscious mind to subconscious mind. This implies taking your mind off any of the past thoughts and future thoughts. It is living completely in the present moment. The most effective way, for general people like us, is to keep our mind busy in something which is happening in the present. What happens with this? Our brain slows down, it reduces the impulses in brain thereby taking us to a slower brain activity (or brain wave) called Alpha brainwave state from our usual day-to-day Beta brainwave state. Interestingly, all of us experience the Alpha state when we are drowsy just before falling asleep. Meditation in a very simple terms could be seen as staying in this Alpha state without falling asleep. ??You don't need to feel guilty about falling asleep during meditations, body just needs rest.

There are numerous techniques to do meditation and they are not all related to spirituality but some are purely scientific. Here are few of the techniques for your reference.

Meditation Techniques

I’ll start with the popular & one of the oldest techniques Vipassana. Many have heard about it. A technique from the vedas, was re-discovered by Buddha and was used for his (& many others’) enlightenment path. Today, it’s taught in a controlled environment, where we are not allowed to communicate, except self, for at least 10 days. The meditation requires you to continuously observe different parts your body thereby directing the energy to that part. I saw great results in the people from my meditation batch, like curing their mental stress/fatigue, one person cured his back (was doing physio from last 1.5 years), a night club owner now rarely drinks and has his business much better sorted out, etc. If you can disappear from Earth for 10 days, please go ahead. It is available in many countries.

The Art of Living (beginner) technique (and so I heard the Isha foundation technique) rely on specific breathing patterns. Here you are required to put focus and follow the guidance to breath in-out in specific ways. I attended the 3 days program to learn and experience it. I could feel the high force of energy flowing throughout my body. Many followers, whom I talked to, vouch for its exception benefits. These are a little intensive so require close guidance.

Our heart is called as the seat of our soul. There is a beautiful ‘Heartful Meditation’ by heartfulness organization. It is a simple & very effective practice of Sahaj Marg which takes you to your heart, your soul. You can follow its free lessons online.

Furthermore, there are numerous other guided meditations. You can try them out online or in Apps. What are these techniques doing? More technically they take you from your current Beta brainwave state to a relaxed Alpha brainwave state in scientific terms. Let us now look at some of the science-based meditations for you, if you are a person with not so much spiritual bend of mind ??.

José Silva, born in Laredo, Texas, began experimenting with psychic abilities and brain wave activity in the 1940s, eventually developing “The Silva Mind Control Method”. This method simply asks you to count backwards from 300 to 1 initially, thereafter reducing the counting. You can read this method in his book or join an online course.

“Solfeggio frequencies” refer to specific tones of sound that help with and promote various aspects of body and mind health. These frequencies are reputed to date back to ancient history and said to be the fundamental sounds used in both Western Christianity and Eastern Indian religions, chanted by the Gregorian Monks and in ancient Indian Sanskrit chants. You can find various sounds in Apps & online to listen to these.

Binaural beat therapy is an emerging form of sound wave therapy. It makes use of the fact that the right and left ear each receive a slightly different frequency tone, yet the brain perceives these as a single tone. One of the best binaural beat meditations I found was “Free Hemi Sync Guided Meditation” from Munroe Institute. You can search & find it on YouTube.

Results

Yep, we all want results from our work, why not, but these may not be so immediate. The real results are for you to experience. I can only show you the door, but you will have to walk through it. Few of the side effects could be you getting better at everything, your all six senses (yes six) getting better, de-aging start for your body, disease reversal, attracting happiness & good people around you, living effective & more fulfilled life with a higher purpose. Not so bad, why not give it a try.

Good Luck