5 lessons I learned after meditating for 37 hours
I completed 37 hours of meditation today and I want to share the learnings I have had during this journey
37 hours may sound a lot to some or too less to others. It’s not something unique about the number and there are people who have spend way more time than me doing this. But the point is not to compare myself with someone else, just with me, the past me. So, for someone like me, who didn’t believe in meditation, thinking that it’s some kind of voodoo, spirit-related thing way beyond my capability, thinking that I could never possibly fit it into my “busy” schedule, 37 hours seems like a long way forward indeed. Headspace has been a life-changer for me and there’s no better way to start off the day or end it, than hearing Andy’s soothing voice. Bill Gates himself endorsed Headspace and mentioned that he uses the app everyday as well for his mental well-being.
I know, however, that there are many people who have their doubts regarding meditation: whether it really works or not, or they are too “busy” to make time for it, etc. During this journey which started 18 months ago, including many on and off periods, I have learned a lot of things, not just about the right way to meditate, but also about life, mental health and the importance of taking time out just for yourself — no laptop, no cellphone, no TV shows. I hope that by sharing them I can lower the bar to enter for someone, anyone, already thinking about it or make the case for doing so.
1. Consistency beats intensity
When I was starting off, I thought that, for meditation to be beneficial, one has to meditate for hours, if not days, on a continuous stretch. That’s a natural thought considering the fact that the only place we generally hear about meditation is in movies and stories of monks or devotees. However, that’s as far from reality as it can be. The best part about meditation is that even taking out 10 minutes of your day can really transform your life. You might not feel the difference in the first 1–2 weeks and even feel that you are not doing it right, but the key is to not give up. Compounding works everywhere and it’s the same with meditation. 10 mins of bliss — every single day. And this throws out the excuse of not being able to adjust it into your schedule.
You can always take out 10 mins for yourself, no matter what you do.
2. You need to find an anchor.
During meditation, we are constantly advised to focus our attention on one thing, most often, the breath. Breath plays a very important role in our life, one that is highly underestimated. Apart from the fact that it is the reason that we are alive, it is representative of our thoughts and emotions as well.
When you are angry, what changes? When you are sad, what changes? When you are stressed what changes? — Your breath. The only thing that stays with you from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is your breath.
— Jay Shetty
So, breath serves as our anchor during meditation. Everytime we are distracted, as long as we realise that we have been distracted and come back to the breath, we are doing okay. And it’s important to note that it’s okay to be distracted, it’s normal to be distracted, you are not doing anything wrong. This part is really important. As long as you are able to realise that you have been distracted and you are able to let go of the distraction to come back to the breath, you were successful. Just like the breath serves as the anchor during meditation, I believe that we all need our anchors in life, something or someone to turn to, whenever we realise that we are going off-course. This anchor can take different forms for different people — exercise, family, friend, partner, work — anything. The important part is to realise who/what your anchor is and hold on to them/it tightly.
3. You can decide what success means for you
Towards the end of the last point, I talked about this idea of being successful if you are able to realise that you have been distracted and come back to the breath. But that is just one form of success. Meditation enables us to define success in various ways. Success could mean meditating for 3 days in a row, it could mean meditating for 20 mins instead of 10. It could even mean just showing up every single day, even if you are not able to do it for the whole 10 minutes. The important part is that YOU define what success is to you, no one else. And this helps us see that the same goes for life. You don’t need to rely on or score yourself based on someone else’s definition of success. Define what it means to you and keep working towards it. Achieve success every day if you want to.
4. Don’t be part of the traffic, be the observer
We all have hundreds of thoughts going through our minds every single day. These can stem from things that we care about, things that affect us directly or indirectly, feelings, emotions, and what not. We have two choices here. We can place ourselves in the middle of this “traffic” of thoughts:
This creates a lot of emotional toll as we are trying to balance all the various emotions and trying to understand what we are really feeling, or what we should feel depending on the situation, etc. Nevertheless, it always leaves us exhausted.
The other choice we have is to behave like an observer sitting at the side of the road:
Now, we are not trying to control any emotions, or achieve peace for the war going on inside the head. We just take a back seat and simply, observe the various thoughts going through our head. We don’t need to take any action, we just sit there and observe. This, too, applies to life in general. Every day we feel that we are faced with too many choices, we feel the need to control so many things, but maybe, the best approach is to just take a back seat and let things unwind themselves. Be the observer.
5. You are always better off with a coach
The world’s best athletes need a coach to succeed and you think you don’t?
— How Google Works
This is a topic that is not talked about enough. You might think, “Sports team need coaches to train them, why would I need a coach?”. For precisely that reason, to TRAIN you. Whatever it is that you do, there are definitely people who’d have already experienced what you are going through right now and have had a lot of learnings. No one teaches us the importance of having a coach, having someone who has your back, someone whom you can go to with your doubts and come back with real answers or atleast pointers to find the real answers. Without the guided nature of meditation that I practice, it would have never been possible for me to get started in the first place. I would have always thought that I’m making too many mistakes, that I am not capable of doing it. But the fact is, we all see outcomes, we all see achievements, but rarely does anyone talk about the grind that goes in, the failures that led to the victory. Coaches do that. Coaches remind you when you are stressing too much to take it easy, they remind you when you need to up your game. Coach or mentor, whatever you call it, whatever it is that you are trying to achieve, a coach will always help you reach there faster and better.
Mental well-being is equally, if not more, important than physical well-being. If your mind is not in the right space, you cannot focus on anything in life. You cannot do anything meaningful if your head is always juggling with thoughts, if you’re always on the edge with your emotions. I used to struggle with these feelings, and I still do, when I forget to meditate for long periods of time, but meditation has been the anchor that restores my inner peace and here’s the thing:
It’s not only you that benefits from your mental well-being.
I hope this fulfilled the promise I laid in the beginning of the post and if there’s any way in which you feel that my timid experience can be of help, please feel free to reach out to me.
If we can make just 1% of the population meditative, this world will be a different place.
- Sadhguru
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