Today I will be sharing with you something that is very close to my heart. This one thing has transformed my life in more ways than one. It has basically changed who I am. I am not the same person anymore that I was 10-15 years back. This is the most impactful thing that I have ever done and motivated people to do with incredible results. In fact, you can say I get a lot of satisfaction when I see people taking it up in their lives. So then finally I thought let me share this with my dear Aligned Souls as well.

In this article, we will be talking about meditation. My intention behind this article is to motivate you to meditate because I believe that this is the ultimate gift one can have in this lifetime. I have been meditating for many years now and the journey has been miraculous. In the Initial years, meditation was just a means for me to relax. I didn’t know much about it then. I used to do brahma kumari sister Shivani’s 15min guided meditation whenever I felt tired. It used to recharge me in just 15 mins, as against sleeping for a couple of hours or more. And that started my meditation journey.

Slowly and steadily I kind of just got pulled more and more into the practice. When my daughter started kindergarten, after dropping her off, I would rush back home to meditate for straight 2hrs. It was very very peaceful. It helped me stay calm the whole day. The time we usually think is very exhausting with young kids and a busy household turned out to be a blessing for me. Any time gaps I got, I would meditate.

In the past few years, I got to know different kinds of meditations and started enjoying them. I noticed changes in my external world and my temperament towards things and situations. I learned some valuable lessons along the journey which I will be sharing with you in this article.

First, let’s understand What is Meditation?

In today’s time, our mind is never still. Either we have anger or sadness for the past or we worry about the future. We are never in the now. Never in the present moment. We always keep thinking and have about 60 to 70 thousand thoughts going on in our heads in one day. Meditation helps us to experience deep relaxation and be fully present in the moment. This helps to calm the mind, increase mindfulness, and improve concentration and awareness.

People usually confuse meditation to be a thoughtless state whereas it is just the opposite. You observe your thoughts and become aware of them. While you are meditating you get a thought and you just say ok…this is my thought and get back to your meditation again. So eventually you become aware of your thoughts which otherwise go unnoticed. With practice, this becomes a habit and you are able to catch your thoughts even when you are going about your daily chores and are not meditating.

It is a very profound experience actually. Let me share one with you. In the middle of a discussion, suddenly I would ACTUALLY START HEARING what the other person was trying to say. It was like a small voice in my head telling me – He means well. He means well. Listen. Usually, when we are in an argument, we are so engrossed in proving our point that we fail to understand the other person’s point of view. Listening to that little voice in my head saved me many nasty arguments. I started loving this new me. This is just one of the many pleasant changes I observed.

Though I love all types of meditations, my personal favorite is the simplest Anapana meditation where you just sit cross-legged and focus on your breath. I also like to go for walking and grounding meditation. I have a few guided meditations on the channel. I will share the link in the description below. Staying in the present throughout the day while doing all the regular tasks is another way of being mindful and becoming aware of your thoughts on the micro level.

The ideal time to meditate is a very personal choice I feel. Some people prefer early mornings while some prefer the time before going to bed. Early morning the energy of the environment is very positive and this favors your meditation. So if you are a beginner and trying to establish a meditation practice then I would suggest choosing early morning. Otherwise please don’t fuss about the time. In case you struggle with busy mornings then do it any time of the day. Being comfortable with the practice is of utmost importance. I know a very sweet guy who got rid of his incurable disease using meditations and prefers to meditate in the evening as he says that he is unable to focus in the morning and keeps thinking of action items/to-do list for the day. So just meditate. anytime, anyplace. IT really doesn’t matter that much. Consistency is what will give you results rather than the time of the day.

Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence. – Jiddu Krishnamurti

How does the journey look like when you start meditation?

Initially, it is a little bumpy ride as expected. Whenever you start something new it takes a while to get used to it. Meditation is no different. I am telling you this, not to discourage you but to brace you for what’s coming because I have seen many examples where initially the person has a lot of excitement when starting to meditate but gradually it fades away. And then they don’t want to meditate any longer because they didn’t see any results. Meditation is not a magic pill that you will have today and all your worries, health issues, relationship problems, etc will just disappear the very next day. Having said that, I can assure you that if you are consistent and don’t give up then meditation is the only thing you will ever need to end all your problems. Trust me on this.

The hiccups that you might expect are:

• A rampage of thoughts. The moment you sit to meditate you will remember all the things that you could be doing in place of meditating. All the pending work, office work, exercising, cooking that needs to be done, grocery shopping, presentations, yoga, etc will start showing up in your head. Understand, it is ok to have these thoughts. Just observe them and get back to meditation. I won’t be sharing how to deal with these thoughts in this video as I have created a separate one on that – How to meditate for beginners. I have shared the link in the description below.
• Sleep – You will find you are going off to sleep more often than not, especially when you do the lying-down meditations. The first thing to keep in mind is that – you are not supposed to lie down on your bed and meditate. Your mind and body associate sleep with the bed and that’s why by the Law of Association, every time you try to meditate on the bed you doze off. It is advisable to have a dedicated place in your house to meditate. It’s okay, even if it’s a small place like your meditation corner or a small room. Doing so will enhance your practice because again by the Law of Association, your mind and body will start associating that with meditation. Secondly, nowadays our rest and sleep are forever competing with social media, phone calls, Netflix, late-night parties, etc. Our bodies and mind are tired and the quietness gives them deep rest. But then sleep also acts as an obstacle in our meditation practice. So please keep attempting, learning, and growing. Some days you will succeed and some days you will fall asleep. It is ok. The Universe loves to see our attempts and then it supports us.

Now let’s see the stages you go through once you decide to meditate consistently

1. The first stage is Meeting your Light self – After a month or two of meditating regularly, you will experience a feeling of deep inner peace and calmness. The quality of your life will improve and you will feel happier. You will be more focused and will observe that small things that used to irritate you earlier don’t bother you anymore. You will definitely be a much happier and more confident person. Your sleep will improve, your cravings would go down and you will live a more conscious life.
2. The second stage is Meeting your Shadow self – Once you meditate long enough, you will discover some ‘not so pleasant’ aspects about yourself. This is your ‘shadow self’. We all have one. Meditation helps calm the conscious mind which is otherwise always chattering. This allows us to see what we carry at the subconscious and unconscious levels of our minds. You may unearth fears, anger, some negative beliefs, etc. The enormous cosmic energy that flows through you once you meditate helps clear all these thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It is like weeding and as you keep clearing you feel extremely light. These emotions weigh heavily on us and drain our energy. I am currently at this stage.
3. Meeting your true self – Once you unearth all the crap that does not serve you anymore you will discover pure bliss. That is your true self. You will know that you are not your body or your mind. You are the soul. A pure being of love and light.

But you might say, my life is going great. I have no issues then why should I meditate? Why should I take the trouble of going through all these stages when I don’t need it?

Meditation is for everybody. It is not necessary that you have some crisis in your life and then only you meditate. Which is actually what I find most people doing in real life. They start meditating when life hits rock bottom. But, can you, for a second, imagine the mental state of a person in turmoil? How easy do you think it would be to learn a new skill with that state of mind? Extremely difficult. I have seen people break down due to their struggles and are unable to imagine that something as subtle as meditation can bring them out of such extreme situations. So please, don’t wait for the right time or for life to give you a need to meditate. Just do it. It’s the only thing that’s most important. As OSHO said – “ Meditation is actually the highest, everything else is secondary. You will not miss much by missing a few days of sleep, food, or water. But usually, people give much importance to such petty things. You will not gain anything by doing them, and neither will you be a loser by not doing them. But God is attained through meditation. If you do not meditate, you will not know what you were to gain and what you have missed. The greatest misfortune that can befall upon people is that they never come to know what they have lost.”

So please, devote time space, and energy to meditation. Give it a try and trust me you will not regret it.

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation. – Milarepa