Meditation: The Art Of Doing Nothing.
Updated: Jun 19, 2020
As an avid meditator and faculty with the Art Of Living foundation, I have been facilitating meditation workshops for over a few years now. Here are some myths and misconceptions that I would like to debunk about meditation.
Illustration Credit : iwera Vera Ivanova. Dribbble
Myths:
Meditation is concentration: In most of my programs, before I get started, I often ask people this question -"What is meditation?" & most often I hear, people say - "Meditation is concentration". They often give examples such as staring at a point on the wall or looking at the candle flame, etc. But as Gurdev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar put's it - meditation is the art of doing nothing. The result of meditation is concentration.
Meditation is effort: Meditation is a happening. You should let meditation happen. The more you try to meditate the harder it is to slip into meditation. Let's understand why. At the level of the body we need to make an effort, for example if you wanna loose weight you need to go out for a run, hit the gym, follow a diet etc. But, the mind works on the principal of efforless. The mind is like holding sand in you hand - the more you clench your fist, the more sand slips away. The more effortless you are, the easier it is to meditate.
A Quiet Environment: Most often people think that they need to be in serene environment to meditate. But that's not true. I have experienced deep meditations in a Bus Station, Airport and many other crowded places. The key here is to accept the chaos. With the right techinique, you can meditate anywhere and everywhere.
How has meditation personally helped me?
Hit Reset: As a startup founder, you experience more failure than success. One of the easiest ways to keep your spirits high is to meditate. A 20 minute meditation is your reset button. If you are a founder yourself then, I strongly suggest that you meditate twice a day.
Energy: There are days where I get up in the morning and feel very blah. One of the reasons could be that I haven't rested well. I might have slept for 8 hours, but if my body and mind didn't get the rest that it was looking for, then I don't feel as good. To give my body andmind the rest that it is looking for - all I need to do is pull out my yoga mat stretch for a bit, meditate for about 20 minutes. Research says that 20 minutes is equivalent to 2 - 4 hours of deep sleep.
Improved Intution: In this world of numbers, intution is highly underrated. Intution can be defined as getting the right thought at the right time. Many a times as a early stage founder, you just don't have enough data to make the right decision. If this is the case, what are the options that you would have? The other option is you use your learning from the past to make the right decision. But, if you are faced with a situation that you are experienceing for the first time, what do you do ? This is where intution (gut feeling) can help take the right decision.
Our mind is like a silk cloth that is stuck in a thorn, to remove the piece of cloth stuck one cannot just pull it out, that will then destroy the piece of cloth. You need to skillfully and carefully remove that piece of cloth. Similarly, meditation is the that skill that helps us free our mind from all it's negative tendancies.
A lot of people find it difficult to meditate for the first time & that is perfectly normal. One just needs to keep at it. It's like loose weight, if you are consistant with your exercise and your diet, results will show. Also, as a qualified instructors, we will also be hand holding each one of you along the journey.
If there's one skill that you should learning during the lockdown, that should be the skill to manage your own mind. Join me for the Breath Work & Meditation workshop starting tomorrow.
Register: https://karthikaol.typeform.com/to/RlzXcD
