Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

A half-century of neuroscientific research has concluded that meditation is as important to your mental well-being as exercise is to the physical health. If you exercise regularly, you build stronger muscles, denser bones, and increased stamina. If you meditate daily, your attention span, memory, and patience increase. You learn to manage negative emotions and situations more efficiently and strengthen sense of calm, resilience, and interconnects with others. 

The moment we were born, the breath was with us and the moment it leaves, we die. Wherever we go, our breath goes with us. It is our anchor. It is perfect the way it is. We need not speed it up, force it, grasp it, push it away or control it. Simply pay attention to its natural rhythm, letting it continue its work without making a big deal out of it.

If we can breathe, we can meditate.

The fact that we don’t know how long we’ll live should coax us to live each day as if it were the last. Savor the whiff of hyacinths, first sip of morning beverage, taste of wine with our loved ones.

Being attentive and aware each moment leads us to mindfulness. It requires clarity of purpose. We learn to be committed to any activity wholeheartedly. Such work feels effortless and is one of the most pleasurable and valuable experiences we can have. 

In the early stages of meditation when we sit still with eyes closed, the thoughts and images we face are chaotic, negative, and petty. We can’t stand our own mind and complain, “Why am I confronting junky thoughts?” This is so because we have accumulated such thoughts for years without any attempt to daily clearing the way we clean our home. What comes out of our mind is what we have been putting into it… thoughts, actions, and words. We may succeed in keeping them at bay consciously, but we can’t cheat the unconscious. The negative stuff keeps floating up. On the other hand, when we begin to feed our mind with nourishing thoughts of kindness, curiosity, truth and wisdom, after a while that’s what surfaces. 

Meditation and Journaling Practice simply makes you aware of what you have been mentally ingesting. Fortunately, it also lets you know what to avoid and what to digest. So, guard your mind as the mind’s gatekeeper! Learn to accept the reality of petty thoughts that keep floating in your mind and make deliberate intention to not to let them in. In silent meditation, witness your mind. Keep letting go of the accumulated junk, forgiving… forgetting… Eventually the layer of junky froth will disperse, creating space for new, benevolent and creative ideas. By the end of the year, this practice will help clear the mental cobwebs, cleanse your mind and bring it to the position you cannot imagine.