Meditation 101

I recently attended Robin Sharma’s conference in Bahrain, “Lead without a title” and he blew my mind away. I am not the biggest fan of his book, The Monk who sold his Ferrari. I found that I got bored rather quick and off it went to join the list of books I have yet to finish on my bookshelf. But after his inspirational lecture at the Crowne Plaza I went to dig it back up and am giving it another go.

Towards the end of his dynamic lecture, Robin stressed and swore by mediation, advising thousands of the lecture attendees to make it part of their daily routine. I was skeptical. Almost every self development book and business guru has consistently stressed on both mediation and exercising as a means of sharpening ones saw and I began to take it a lot more seriously after hearing Robin explain how much value it has added to him and his work.

A week after attending the conference, I was having coffee with my very own self development guru and healer, Robin’s Sharma equivalent in Bahrain, Kelly Armatage and we started discussing meditation.  Kelly has always crept mediation in our conversations and is a strong advocate of it. She always suggests starting her sessions with her clients with a few minutes of mediation.  She recommended I try it for 10 minutes everyday until it becomes a habit and we discussed the benefits of meditation. I left her office, and went on mumbling and grumbling to my friends about it. I was still skeptical. I mean what else would it offer me that praying daily didn’t?

My friend recommended I download an app called headspace. Headspace was an app that was all about allocating 10 minutes a day to meditate from any place I pleased. It provided short videos that introduced the concept of meditation through colorful animations, making it look and sound fun and breezy.  All I need was a chair and the app.

The very next day I downloaded the app and sat cross legged on my bed. I rested my hands on my knees, closed my eyes and started following the instructions given to me by headspace.  

My first session was incredibly hard. I was moving around a lot, scratching the sheets, toying with the AC with one eye open, trying to get comfortable and trying sit still.  My mind was running at 100 miles and hour. I found that when I tried to sit and focus on my breathing, my mind started going in different directions. It almost felt like I have created a vacuum for a million and one random thoughts to plummet through. I could not switch all the noise off.

I must say I was not impressed. Day two wasn’t a lot easier, I knew I only had to sit still and follow headspaces instructors for 10 minutes and I managed to do that but I was not necessarily feeling relaxed or at ease. I stuck out the course. I was going to do at least 10 days of the free trial.

Day 3, 4, 5, and 6 were a lot more enjoyable, I started to feel a little more fresh after each session, I was more aware of my surroundings, the sounds around me, the conversations I was having, the TV in the background, and I found myself a lot more productive and less distracted at work. I found that for 10 minutes a day I was forced to sit and focus my mind on myself and my internal environment and I was learning to choose my thoughts rather than have them run through me. I was able to let my concerns drift away and I was better able to control my emotions. Every time I found my mind drifting off, headspace asked me to bring myself back to my body and focus on counting my breaths.

Now I am on day 25, and have purchased the app for the year and the changes in my mind and behavior are immense. Meditation has taught me to control my procrastination periods; I am constantly bringing my focus back to my tasks when I find myself getting lost doing something else. I have also found it easier to switch off all gadgets and finish massive chunks of work in block periods with clearer focus.

Living and working in a city, it is easy to get lost in the day to day activities and get distracted by technology. There are so many daily noises that I am better able to block out to get priority work done.

I am hoping to reach my goal of meditating from 5 to 6 am everyday, which requires discipline, a whole other muscle for me to master.

I am highly moved by the act of mediation, it is so simple but effective especially by using a step by step app like headspace. Much like when I tried Pilates and started practicing it on a daily basis I could barely feel the affect of it during the time I was doing it, it was only after I stopped was a I able to notice the positive affect it had on my mind and body. I look forward to finishing the year with headspace and mastering meditation purely because I am curious to see the affects it will have on my body, my mind, and discipline.