Re: Meditation

On New Year's Day, I began meditating again. It wasn't a resolution, it just happened.

I did an hour that day, and cumulatively about an hour every day, mostly in 30 minute sessions. One at the start of the day, and one at the end of it. I haven't been perfectly consistent, but that's not necessary to feel a significant effect on my mental health and clarity.

Of course, I've known that meditation is useful as many people do, but it turns out knowing about it and doing it are two entirely different things.

As a result of me resuming this practice, I've become much calmer and adept at controlling my mental state, no matter what happens.

So let me take you through the impact of meditation on my day-to-day life.

You notice stressors and tension

Every day, situations come up: someone cuts you off, someone asks you an uncomfortable question, you get a strongly worded message from your boss...

These situations cause all sorts of emotions—and those emotions manifest in the body, usually as some kind of tension.

“Muscular emotions. - Every emotion expresses itself in the muscular system. Anxiety is tremendous excitement held, bottled up.”

—Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts

What meditation made me realize is that I've been ignoring these muscular emotions. I walked around every day, accumulating these little tensions bit by bit, without any conscious awareness of this mechanism. This tension then impacted my every interaction.

You better understand how to deal with the tension

Once you're aware of it, tightness and relaxation are like indicators of direction. Yes or no, right or wrong,... The body will tell you how you really feel beneath all the analyzing and thinking your mind is busy with on the surface.

You think about making a choice, and you see how you feel. To sum it up:

If you feel serene, go, the light's green, if you feel tight, the choice is not right.

The body and the subconscious mind offer guidance for any decision, but we need to be aware enough of how we feel about something when we think about it for it to register in our conscious mind. Otherwise we ignore it and act on autopilot.

If you notice tension, then ask yourself a series of questions: What if I did X? What if I did Y? How do I really feel about Y?

As you pose the question, scan if the tension is there or not

I think this is what the phrase "meditate on it" describes. Through a combination of questions and scanning for tension, I believe you can work through any dilemma in your mind. And while this process does not guarantee success in the external world, it does guarantee a greater degree of personal integrity and conviction in the decisions you make. Which brings us to the next point...

You get inner peace

After you work through the various tensions, decades old and minutes old alike, you get to a place of peace.

You just are, here and now, and you feel like there's nothing you should be doing or should be thinking about.

This doesn't mean you don't take care of business and it doesn't mean that you don't think about your future. It just means that for a certain period (15, 30, 60 min) in the day, you are content to simply be, without any expectations. As you sit, you know that everything will wait for a moment.

And when you do that, when you breathe deeply and relax, you get a profound sense of calm. You can then try to retain that calm throughout the day by accessing that meditation state at various times by pausing for a few moments. If you manage that, people will notice, you will project an entirely different energy, or vibe as the kids call it these days.

Bonus point: you might feel like you've drunk Felix felicis

If you're not a Harry Potter fan, let me give you a brief description of a potion mentioned in the 6th installment of the Harry Potter series.

Felix Felicis (also known as Liquid Luck)

a magical potion, when consumed, it grants the drinker an extraordinary run of luck, making everything they attempt succeed magically. Essentially, it enhances the drinker's decision-making and actions to lead to the most favorable outcomes.

When Harry consumes the potion things just seem to work out.

While this potion is not real, intuition is. Through meditation, I've become more aware of my own intuitions—how I feel about a situation. Once aware of an intuition, I act on it, and good things come of it. Weird coincidences seem to happen that lead to interesting interactions. It's fun.

In short, serendipity comes more easily when you are serene.

I'm not saying this will happen for all who meditate, but I thought it's interesting enough to mention.

Closing thoughts

If you've been thinking about meditating, I'd say it's worth it. Since writing the introduction to this piece, I've reduced the time I meditate to a minimum of 15 min a day, which is enough for me at this point to maintain a sense of calm. However, if the day presents me with more stress or anxiety, I ramp up the meditation to compensate and get back to a baseline of calm.

Now I have just one question for you:

What would happen to your daily life if you started to meditate consistently?