Foreword
Alright, before I write about this topic, I’d just like to say one thing. As this project was inspired by @visakanv, I approached him for some assistance about how to speed up my process of writing so that I don’t spend an absurd amount of time on this and sacrifice my time elsewhere. So, I have set a target of now completing each of these blogs in 20 mins. And, that’s a challenge man. He replied ‘Write fast and don’t think. No pauses no edits no backspace’. I instantly loved it. And now, we’re 100 words in and I didn’t even pause once!
I did mention that the original purpose for this project was for me to document my thoughts and just write about anything so I am jotting down exactly what’s on my mind with little structure to give you an opportunity to dip into my mind and thought process.
Why mention that? Well, now you know my writing approach and you can probably predict my modus operandi. Let’s see how this goes.
Now, actually about the topic.
A thoughtful morning
This morning, having done my exercise, I sat down to do my daily meditation. Within meditation, there are many types – Zen, Sandhya, yoga, breathing exercises amongst other variants. As I was doing it I pondered – ‘man, this small exercise that I do for a mere 10 mins a day is so relaxing and takes your mind off everything, why doesn’t everyone do/know it?’ I was one of the victims in the early stage where I never fully understood what meditation was and why people do it but, man, it’s a serene experience! And more people deserve to do it.
Recently, I have been thinking about habits quite a bit and I constantly remind myself that doing a simple 20 minutes exercise is surely possible in the 12+ hour days that we have. It’s absurd that we can’t dedicate a small chunk of time for a something like an exercise, or meditation. Our health is the most important thing to us! We gotta treat it with care.
I have been following the meditation practise pretty well from an overall perspective although I do leave a few gaps here and there which are taken with risk as I can lose the habit. So, in order to cover those gaps, I have thought about meditation in the same way as exercise. I’m motivating myself by reminding myself that surely I can spend 10 minutes a day to just, well, do nothing! This is why recently, I have been giving the idea of ‘taking breaks’ much more importance.
I have been taking a lot of breaks in between my screen time and work to just get up and walk around and perhaps lend my mother a helping hand(which feels so gratifying) and I am proud and happy at the same time because I am giving my health some consideration(by taking a break and going ‘off-screen’) and I am also spending time with my family.
I believe as a society, we need to be much more conscious about taking breaks. It’s not about educating it but actually about putting it into practicality. We talk about these habits(meditation in particular) in reams, though, we forget about actually doing them. And it’s actually limiting a lot of people from taking that step from learning to executing. We need to encourage the tips to push the population towards mindful breaks.
Why take a break?
If you take a break that is distracting enough(which is an ideal break), It gives you a sense of relief as you no longer think about the tasks that are spilling into every corner of your mind.
This morning when I did my meditation, I literally focused on the chanting and the silent breathing exercise and nothing dared to enter my mind. It felt serene!
I find that dedicating some time to just lie down, breathe or even let the mind wander is a brilliant way to ‘recharge’ myself and I’m sure you’ll reap the benefits post-meditation too!
Tips!
I don’t want to be a hypocrite in saying that we are not giving enough tips to meditate, so I will try to come up with tips that have helped me.
- Listen to om chanting. Every morning, wake up and create a simple shortcut to a YouTube page or a Spotify playlist for you to play some om chanting and just listen to it for a few minutes. It will give you a different perspective altogether and you will be in ‘another dimension’.
- Lie in a bed if it makes it easy. So people find it difficult to sit down(cross-legged) even for short intervals and lying down in a bed(despite increasing the chances of sleeping) is a simple way to get into the habit in my opinion.
- There are apps everywhere! On the App Store and Play Store, there are bundles of apps that help you get meditative and some of my favourites include Waking Up, Headspace and Sadhguru.
Go out for walks
I find that another great way of taking a break is simply by going out for a walk with the family or alone. It offers a pleasant time for you to just ponder. In the past month, we(as a family) went to quite a few walks and it was an amazing relief. If you want to make the walk most effective, take it to a location completely elsewhere and just forget about the ‘normal’ world.
Wrapping up with some thoughts
So having written this blog in around 30 minutes, I am actually pretty proud of my speed. I have mostly just poured my thoughts onto the paper(Google Docs, because that’s the new paper) and it has really worked! If you are planning to write these ‘brain-spills’, I definitely recommend what @visakanv has recommended to me – just write and avoid the backspace. I am going to continue this habit of spilling my thoughts more and I am sure that by a year, I can push the writing process to a slender 20 minutes.
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