How to find joy in being still

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Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass. –Owen Feltham

Being aware of my unawareness. The above photo was taken, myself in a ‘pretend meditation’ pose, a few years back when I went cycling with my friends in Punggol and came across this beautiful empty driveway. We randomly decided to do a meditation pose! Little did I know I would fall in love with meditation many years later.
I never used to like meditation because my mind would wander endlessly, and I could never sit still. I’ve tried countless meditation ‘techniques’ through Youtube videos, online tutorials, but still, once I was alone by myself and had to practice stillness in my mind – I would fail miserably.
On deeper research, I found that our mind has two basic parts – Firstly, the conscious which processes current awareness and makes decisions. (12% of our mind). Secondly, our subconscious mind contains our memories, values, habits, personality, self-image. Emotions are generated from the interactions between the subconscious and conscious mind. By using meditation to control our emotions, we can program the subconscious for greater mindfulness and to form positive judgments of the situation.
Through meditation, I have learnt that I can control my emotions (both subconscious and conscious) through my breath, instead of letting my breath control me. Whenever I feel stressed, I take shorter breaths. Once I am aware of my breath, I regain control and breathe longer, slower breaths, and I naturally see a shift in my emotions – from anxious to peaceful. I have found peace and acceptance through meditation. I now begin to be able to take stock, organize and process my conscious and subconscious thoughts instead of letting them cloud my mind in my everyday life.
I believe that the point of meditation is to bring about a greater degree of mindfulness and presence, and to bring that to every step of our lives.


 
Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose. –Eknath Easwaran

Om Shanti,

Clara (200hr YTT Hatha/Ashtanga, Jul/Aug 2015)