The Secret Formula to Meditation

Over the years, many studies have demonstrated the benefits of meditation to people in all conditions and walks of life, from cancer patients to professional athletes. Meditation has been acclaimed for restoring balance to your system and in getting in touch with your higher self. In fact, one of the most remarkable aspects of meditation is its power to encompass seeming disparate states of mind in a single experience that Deepak Chopra describes as restful alertness. Our minds are always working. One thought leads to another during every moment of our wakeful time.

Why are you unhappy? This person made me unhappy. Which means unconsciously that person is actually controlling the way I feel. Now I’m a victim to that circumstance. So to change that you need to be greater than that environment so that you’d have to reprogram the way you think, and the way you feel, to no longer return back to the same state of being. It isn’t about having a great meditation and then bitching away in traffic or judging every Tom, Dick and Harry you think of. You got to be able to maintain that state the entire day.

When you start seeing that, you will actually get excited and start believing in yourself, believe in possibilities. When you stop believing in possibilities you stop to believe in yourself. So people are waking up. Doesn’t matter how rich or healthy you are, even if you haven’t meditated before, it doesn’t matter. It’s a formula. You don’t need 40 years of dedication to meditation. You just got to understand the formula like playing ping pong. You got to figure it out sooner or later.

“Meditation is offering your genuine presence to yourself in every moment" – Thich Nhat Hanh

If you are not in the present moment, you are running on a program. And paying attention is being present. And it’s a skill like anything else. The more you practice it the better you get at it. Where you place your attention is where you place your energy, so if you have all your attention in the present moment you conserve a lot of energy to create with. If I am talking to you and you’re doing your thing about where you are going and how you are going to get there, you left the present moment and your attention went to some future. And your energy will go down and you won’t be able to comprehend what I said.

The stronger the emotions that we feel to certain problems and conditions in our life the more we pay attention to them so we give our power away to that problem or that person. That is creative energy that we should be able to use to create a new future. So when sitting in meditation doing absolutely nothing at 8.30 am, the body that has been for the last 10 years used to sitting in traffic getting frustrated, that body is now going to say, “You are off schedule.” Body is going to start looking for that emotion, that thought. Now the person is back in the past, but if they become aware that they are siphoning energy from the past and they settle the mind in the present moment, it’s a victory! And those victories add up. And you are telling the body it is no longer the mind. So you are doing it right.

Become aware that your body wants to do something else. You tell your body “No,” come back to the present moment. Now you execute a will that is greater than a program. Now you tell the body, “I’ll tell you when to get up.” Sooner or later the body will surrender to a new mind. The body is free from those habituations. Dialling down the vigilance, body is being conditioned to the new mind. You forget about you. You are not your past. You are basically just an awareness, in the unknown and that is the perfect place to create from.

So when people do this properly they heal themselves of anxiety when they find the present moment. When they heal from their depression because they are not hopeless any more. When they overcome themselves, when they step back into their life they can connect; they are more patient, more loving because they overcome the animal part of themselves. They are not predictable. This is where the magic happens.

How I Started to Meditate

During my time of living in Cologne, Germany in the 1990s, I befriended Sandy. Our husbands were colleagues and we’d get invited over to their home for vegetarian meals. I enjoyed our time together and Sandy’s sharing about her guru, the Maharishi and their practice. Sandy is also a TM teacher and offered to teach me meditation. After a few coaching sessions I was initiated into the technique of Transcendental Meditation on 24th January 1993. My teacher gave me a mantra to chant mentally and advised me to practice meditation twice a day for 10-20 minutes.

Initially I experienced a headache during my meditation; however, I persevered. There is no such thing as a bad meditation. You are just overcoming yourself. Three decades and three yoga teacher training courses later, I have come to value meditation as an indispensable tool! Anyone can learn it. It is no doubt a challenge to calm the monkey mind. The breath is an instrument – bring awareness to the breath to master the present moment.

How to Meditate: Simple Meditation for Beginners

• Try beginning with 10-minute sessions every morning shortly after you get out of bed. If sitting still for even 10 minutes sounds overwhelming, then start with just five minutes.

• Sit or lie comfortably. You may even want to invest in a meditation chair or cushion.

• Close your eyes...

• Make no effort to control the breath; simply breathe naturally.

• Inhale and exhale…

• Focus your attention on the breath and on how the body moves with each inhalation and exhalation.

• Ease into the Mantra, a vibration word your teacher gave you or one that you resonate with. Repeat the Mantra silently.

• Let the Mantra draw your attention and allow thoughts to float by.

• You may experience moments of transcendence, a pleasant feeling of restful alertness.

• Meditate for twenty minutes. To come out of the meditation, release the Mantra, take three minutes before you open your eyes.

• Practice twice daily, ideally before breakfast and again before dinner.

The present moment is where we create from. And when we are there we disconnect from our bodies. We become no body. We are not thinking about our cell phone or computer. We are not thinking about the predictable future. We are in no time - the unknown - and that’s where the magic happens. Meditation to become familiar with. The process of change is unlearning and relearning. Whatever people experience, something happens to them biologically. They are freer, more whole and they are less separate.