Meditation: The Art Of Looking Inwards

Today all of us live in a fast-paced world and no one has time for anything or anyone. Each and every one of us is busy chasing money and success in the process stress has made inroads into our lives in ways we had never imagined People have to deal with tight schedules, heavy workloads, and constant demands from both work and personal life is the main cause for stress these days. While some people manage to handle this stress well, others find it challenging.

Time and again you get to hear about good eating habits and regular exercise to maintain good health but unfortunately, this is not enough because mental health also is equally important for the overall well-being of an individual. If you look at all the chronic diseases that are bothering mankind you will realise that these diseases have their roots in our minds. For instance, the causes of diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are linked to mental stress. Chronic stress can affect both physically and mentally. Long-standing mental stress can lead to anxiety disorders and depression. Long-standing mental stress can affect the physical body in the form of diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases.

It makes all the more sense to understand stress before we decide on how to deal with it.

How do you define stress?

To put it in simple words, it is nothing but a mismatch between expectations and reality. Stress is the mental and emotional pressure a person feels when they cannot handle certain situations. When someone cannot let go of their past or is constantly worrying about the future, they feel overwhelmed and forget to focus on the present moment. Stress comes from constant overthinking and feeling stuck between “what has happened” and “what might happen.”

During a stressful situation, your mind will be busy oscillating between negative thoughts of the past and insecure thoughts of the future and in the process you fail to be in the present moment. All of us do think about our past and future here and there there’s nothing wrong with it but when you’re constantly lost in thoughts of past and future 24/7 or 365 days a year, this is what leads to stress. You may be doing a particular work assigned to you but in the background, your mind keeps getting immersed in the thoughts of the past and future and invariably these are negative thoughts, and eventually this kind of thought pattern in the long run will lead to stress, having physical and mental implications for an individual. By oscillating between thoughts of the past and future continuously you fail to live in the present moment meaning to say you are not mindful. This is what exactly happens when you are stressed. You just stop being mindful.

So what is mindfulness? Being mindful is about fully paying attention to the present moment without distraction or judgment. It involves noticing what you’re doing, feeling, or experiencing right now, rather than being lost in thoughts about the past or future.

It’s a proven fact that mindfulness helps you to beat stress. Let me give you a simple example of mindfulness; when you are listening to your favourite music if you carefully observe your thought pattern your mind will be completely glued to the melody of the music without being bothered by thoughts of the past or future you would have got fully immersed in the melody of the music with your undivided attention which makes you calm, relaxed and stress-free. This clearly demonstrates how being mindful even for a short duration of time makes you relaxed and stressfree.

Being mindful needs a conscious effort and meditation is the best bet to achieve it. Our mind is constantly hooked to events around us but Meditation gives you an opportunity to look inward and clear the chaos inside of you.

Meditation has its roots in the Indian subcontinent but it’s quite unfortunate that it’s not utilised to its fullest potential.
Meditation helps us to become more mindful by teaching us to focus on the present moment. It quiets our busy minds, making it easier to pay attention to what’s happening right now without judgment.

Meditation trains our minds to stay in the present moment instead of worrying about the past or future.

It calms thoughts and helps to feel more relaxed, making it easier to handle challenges.

With regular practice of meditation, we learn to notice our feelings and thoughts without reacting to them, which helps us stay calm and in control. Meditation helps us to be kinder to ourselves and others by encouraging positive thoughts.

There is a saying “what you think you become “and meditation helps you to think the right way.

Life keeps on throwing challenges and difficulties at us time and again you cannot stop it, but with regular practice of meditation, you will be able to handle the challenges of life in a confident way.

Incorporate at least 20 to 30 minutes of meditation practice into your daily routine and see how it changes you and the way you look at the world around you. Meditation is not as difficult as it is made out to be, all it needs is patience, practice and persistence. It costs you nothing.

In short, meditation is like a workout for our mind, helping us live with more focus, peace, and kindness. That’s the need of the hour in this fast-paced world.