Are you someone that gets told, time and again, to meditate for managing stress better but doesn't really know where to get started apart from sitting cross legged, closing your eyes and trying hard to fight all the thoughts crossing your mind, and just basically opening your eyes in frustration after 5-7 minutes, beating yourself up on why is it so hard and scary trying to be still inside your own head?
Welcome to the gang fellas!
Next, you go to the all knowing - Google, and find that Cambridge dictionary defines Meditation as - "the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religious activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed." Still doesn't help, just adding to the stress with one more thing to be annoyed about in life - not being able to meditate.
Here's a brief look into my journey from struggling to even understand what meditating actually means, to mastering meditation -
I did my 500 hour Yoga Teacher's Training course last year and being brutally honest, the meditation class was the one I dreaded the most! and it says a lot about me, not about the awesome teacher we had. The only solace was that I wasn't alone; a few of us were constantly perplexed, struggled, session after session, used everything from flowers to tomatoes, sounds of flowing water to that of a ceiling fan..but all in vain. Rather, it only got harder and more confusing with every passing day. I used to think there's something wrong with me probably because 90% of the class seemed to be in a state of pure bliss with out-of-body experiences to share. In the back of my mind I knew every person is different but my "overachieving analytical" brain wouldn't agree to believe that I wasn't good at something (so much for practicing Vairagya towards Ahamkara 🙄). I started reading more!
For centuries, meditation was for the mystics, and even when it was spread to the masses in the last century, it was packaged as a practice which required the individual to be in an Ashram, amongst the presence of gurus, and lead a life away from the world to even understand what meditating would mean or look like. And along came Science to the rescue.
The advancement of technology in the wellness space, during the last decade, released the beautiful art of Meditation from the, often rigid, confines of Ashrams to people's homes. The COVID pandemic lockdown only gave people more time with just themselves, their phones and wifi eventually helping increase the adoption of technology for the purpose of wellness. Which is also when I discovered this chic and intriguing ring called Dhyana that measure my heart rate variations to tell me how mindful I was over time, has a built-in algorithm to understand how meditation affects me, and how effective my meditation sessions actually were by measuring my body's response to stress, in addition to having guided meditation based on my mood and intentions for myself.
Meditation is no longer a struggle, but something I look forward to every day. Dhyana has become my bedside essential which I use most nights before sleeping, relaxing in my bed, taking a guided meditation session on Dhyana, completely unwinding and calming down of a good night's sleep.
The great folks at Dhyana offered to extend a 25% discount to everyone reading this blog. Use promocode KARNICA on this link to let science heal you and make you a happy vibrant human.