Daily Meditation a Non Negotiable
It amazes me that not very many people I know have a daily meditation practice, and I am not surprised living in a Western culture. There seems to be an epidemic of anxiety and depression in today’s world, one that did not exist when I was growing up. What happened in those short years? I look back and it occurs to me that everyone is “Doing”, ask or overhear a conversation and people will say “I am busy, busy busy…” like it is some Cub Scout badge of honour. I like to refer to them as Humandoings and not Beings.
How did we get here? It is if the masses in the West have or are trying to pack into their life as many things as possible or is it a deeper rooted problem of “if I am busy, I am distracted from what is really going on in my life”. We do suffer from “Comparisonitis” where one sits on social media scrolling through feeds that make oneself feel fully inadequate. People try to portray busy, busy, busy.
I recently put a poll up on Linkedin “How many people have a regular 20 minute or more meditation practice?” I got 0 yes that is Zero results, on Linkedin. Mind you my network is not large but…Zero!
What really got me is I noticed another poll in my feed later, it went as follows… “Have you had a bath or shower during company time when working from home?” By the time the poll had closed 3984 votes had been cased.
This gave me a little insight into how meditation is not really used in the Corporate world or in general. Perhaps there could be a stigma attached to it and no one wants to come forward?
Corporations That Claim Mindfulness
I notice, like Greenwashing, Mindfulness is the latest catch phrase for work life balance being thrown out to attract candidates that suffer from anxiety or depression, yet no one answers a poll on Meditation, the corner stone of all Mindfulness. Do Corporations even know how to embrace Mindfulness? Does the management incorporate meditation into a daily practice? I think not, or the rate of unhappiness in the work place would be different. Imagine that you actually had a Boss that did yoga, meditated and really practised mindfulness?
We All Want Change
“I want change!” that is what everyone is crying out for in these Covid times, and Covid is forcing us to change and adopt. Unfortunately we seem to be changing in the wrong direction. We had a few months of cooperation and compassion, but as Covid continues more and more are becoming unbalanced and separation and me’ism is at all time highs. To cope I am sure liquor sales and streaming services are seeing all time sales as most choose these escape routes.
Change happens internally
This is where change begins, it starts with a daily meditation practice. People always say they do not have enough time for it. I say look at your life. How much time does one spend on social media? 20 minutes, 30 minutes, longer? How about binge watching the latest? Or having a glass or two as an unwind in the evening?
Meditation for me is the first thing I do every day, before I get out of bed and after. My day always has a minimum of 20 minutes, my first meditation is usually a Japa meditation with mala beads, 108 breaths of I AM love, joy and gratitude. I then take some time to do a nit of Yin yoga stretches followed by a Soma breath work. Getting into the breath work really opens me up and I feel the divine bliss throughout my soul, what a way to start the day!! And Thank you Niraj….
I change my frequency inside and it reflects in my outer life, I Zen my way through the day, I have deep love and gratitude for my partner. Because my vibration is on peace and bliss my day goes into flow, everyone is super nice to me, great things happen, magic is always around. Healing inner wounds start to occur, self realization happens, deep deep change in character happens. Anxiety, depression, anger, negativity all fall away. Who does not want that?
So I ask, Do you want change? Change yourself first. Do you have time? Get off social media, the glass of wine, the next great Netflix series. Slow down be a human being and “Be”. The human doing is a sign of mental illness that seems to be accepted in our Western society. Try meditation, even ten minutes a day to start. There are tons of Apps to help you out, try Insight Timer and browse through the hundreds of meditations. Try a guided one until you can create your own. My best advice is do not try meditation at the end of the day. To much has transpired throughout the day and the monkey mind will be active. It is best first thing when you wake up as your are still in Theta brain waves.
Start tomorrow morning before you get out of bed, see how your life will change……