My first encounter with some sort of meditation was in school when I was 14 years old. One day, while in class, our Religion teacher thought it would be a good idea to have a meditation-session. She asked everyone to form a circle and lay on the ground. Then we had to breathe in for 4 second, hold our breath for 2 seconds and breathe out for 8 seconds. Of course, as a young male adolescent I was quite skeptical of meditation at the time. I associated it with middle-aged woman and hippies, and I was neither one of them. So I did the exercise like I was asked to do, but didn't expect much from it. At the end of the exercise I had to admit though that I felt more calm and relaxed.
Years went by and I mostly forgot about the exercise, until I went to high school and I experienced levels of stress I hadn't before. My exams took a toll on my state of mind and I was looking for things to relax, to ease my mind a bit. I started my breath exercises again and I felt it could reset my mood. It feels good to focus on something completely different for a few minutes, distract your mind from the things that you worry about constantly. I tried to implement it in my daily structure but life sometimes is too fast, too busy to find a moment to relax completely.
Meditation is about finding balance and a moment of peace in our busy and fast lives. I wrote about this already in previous posts, but I think this is something we need more of in our modern societies. Everyone is always rushing: Get the kids to school, go to work, make healthy meals, take the kids to their hobby, quickly do the dishes, clean the house, finish work at home, ... You get the picture. We are constantly looking for the next thing to do. Time not being productive is time wasted. Can we even take to for ourselves without feeling guilty about it? Is it socially acceptable to forget about obligations for 30 minutes a day and meditate, or lay on the couch and do nothing? People need moments of rest and calmness in their lives to be able to reset from the busy and sometimes overwhelming pressure life can put on us. I feel like we need to focus more on that aspect of life.
Nowadays I use the "Primed Mind" app. It's a free app which had a lot of topic-related meditation courses. It covers daily habits, social interactions, sleep, business... and has different "primers" for every topic. If I feel unmotivated, lazy or unfocused, I only need 12 minutes to reset again. The first 7 minutes it helps you to relax completely, focus on breathing and forgetting about everything else. The last 5 minutes it gives advice and dives a bit deeper into the topic you chose. It works wonders in my opinion. Meditation for me is not only about relaxing and being calm, but also about "getting in the zone" again. It's about pushing against barriers and regaining the believe you can overcome the things in your path. Everything feels effortless and fulfilling, totally lost in the act, intuitively feeling what needs to come next. It's about taking full advantage of your capabilities. Getting in the zone isn't an easy task, and meditation is in my opinion a good auxiliary to get there. And whilst "in the zone", nothing is impossible.
Thanks for reading. I would love to engage with you guys in the comments, so let me know how you think about this topic, what your experiences are with meditation and so fort.
See you next time!
