How Meditation Helped Me to Uncover My Path

You're reading How Meditation Helped Me to Uncover My Path, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

I remember the time in my life when I was stuck amidst the false narratives of success, failure, and competition. Humans are free species with a mind that is capable of doing wonders, and natural abilities to achieve astonishing outcomes. But do you know what stands between you and the success? It is your own mindset and insufficiency to disconnect from the unnatural wrath of ego that comes in between. I was in the same position a couple of years ago - completely delusional, dwelling under forced expectations, and just living my life on absolutely absurd terms. I had no idea what my heart wanted or what my soul was searching for. Living in denial is one perilous thing, isn’t it?

Humans love living in absolute renunciation because it offers some short-lived emotions- love, greed satiation, and ego inflation. What was missing in my life? Why wasn’t I happy even though I was living a life that had everything approved by the societal norms and standards? I realized that every waking moment of my life was a slave to some or the other requirement or demand. My work was not serving my soulful purpose and my bank account was there just to boost my ego. Ask yourself, “is this what you want?” It was way back in 2016, that one of my friends introduced me to Yoga & meditation and since then, I never looked back.

The unnecessary mind chatter was over all of a sudden, happiness was there in the heart, and an unreal sense of satisfaction encompasses my gut. Suddenly, everything looked bright and every morning, the sun looked even more beautiful.

Meditation turned my life upside down…..for good.

Constant Anger

Past 4 years were a roller coaster ride of emotions and mental instability. Anger was my second personality and nothing was working enough to pacify the strange irritation towards everything and everyone. I was always hungry, stressed, and my gut wrenched in pain. In a nutshell, I was annoying and unapproachable. During the first few days of starting my meditation session, I was horrible, failed to concentrate on anything, and could not keep my eyes closed. With time, I learnt to connect with my body and keep up with its demand. The first wake up call for me was to change my lifestyle and diet for a while to see if it changes anything. I am a pescatarian now. I feel full, stay humble, feel energetic, and my hunger pangs are controlled. I was missing the basic vitamins and animal hormones, which is why I was ungrounded for most parts. It is proved that some of the basic vitamins and minerals are found in animal products and I was obviously missing from my diet. Led by the new-age cult, my lifestyle was affected in the most pathetic ways possible and my brain remained wishy-washy about the positive changes. Meditation brought me closer to my existence and put me into a thinking mode. I became practical enough to take care of my body first and include things that can help me reach healthier goals.

Your gut regulates your life, let that sink in!

Eating Disorder?!

Eating disorder is not a pleasant sight, believe me. Eating a bag of chips, a burger and still not feeling satiated! No one wants to be this monstrous with food. I had an unhealthy relationship with food that made me unstable and extremely annoyed for most parts. Nothing was working on my appetite and by the end of the day, I was bloated and sick as hell. Meditation taught me to focus more on the moment and this helped me a lot during my withdrawal symptoms and helped me go through the paradigm shift, with ease. I learned to chew each morsel with contentment and concentrate on that very moment. My emotions were all over the place and I found solace near every junk food stall or truck. However, scientific studies prove that junk food has a high content of Omega-6 that messes up the gut and everyone knows that happiness starts at the gut. The art of mindfulness taught me to stay in harmony with my disrupted emotional well-being, take food as a fuel, and stop obsessing with my meals.

Career Path

But where do you get the food from? I had to live a life on my own terms and ethics. This is not easy as you need both emotional and financial support, which is steady enough to take you through thick and thins. A closed mind is an outcome of societal conditioning, childhood preaching, and certain religious beliefs that stops you from being your real self. A constant need of a polished self-projection puts pressure on your tender mind and often forces you to do things against your life’s purpose. My career path was the most arduous terrain I have ever walked, no jokes. At some point in life, I was nearly close to sabotaging my desires and suppress my skills. You become a push-over when you stay in denial and disconnect from Nature. I started trusting my instincts more and developed the strength to follow my skills.  The art of meditation brings your soul back home and make you realize that temporary emotions satiate the ego, not the soul.

Success Rate

You have to understand this thing- “the effective way to lead a happier life is to stay grounded and be grateful”. Greed is a common emotion and honestly the most powerful one. Constantly fanned by ego, your greed takes everything to extreme. At first, my approach towards life in general was extremely haywire and this is why my mindset was haggard and unsteady. Meditation is a scientifically proven tool to deactivate the parasympathetic nervous system, which means less unstable emotions, eased up mind, and more energy to take up intricate tasks. In every sphere of my life, I elevated from a confused to a more mature human being and my mind levelled up from being unsteady to becoming practical. Wondering what this can do to you? A stable mind leads to a more realistic approach towards life; you feel better about yourself, approach your goals with a calmer mind and sop rushing into things. These attributes confirm nothing but a steady success rate and constantly fueled ambitions to move ahead in life. This will take time but things started to change after a week.

Do I Owe Stability to the Cumulative Effects of These Changes?

The art of meditation is not a magic wand that yields result at the single swirl. Consider this - you approach to use a divine tool in order to achieve a higher consciousness but this is not an easy path. Meditation is a catalyst to this mission, which makes you aware of your instabilities, weaknesses, and covered ego. First few instances of failure shall teach you that your life is not only a bed of roses but often days of walking the eggshells. I was more than exhausted and this was because meditation takes a lot of energy, the negative one. You will not feel it at the first go - all that sitting at one place with closed eye thing. My mental chatter stopped after a week and this was no miracle. It was more about lack of centered emotions and unnecessary inclination towards egotistical qualms.

A lifestyle that was not serving my higher-self had to be shunned so that I could listen to my mind and feed my body the right way. Inculcate the art of meditation in your everyday life, add it to your workout regime, morning routine or simply do some inhale-exhale action before hitting the sack. The rhythmic breathing patterns helps pacify stressed nerves allowing you to raise your vibrations in the most realist way.

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Om Singh is blogging at Retreat Kula, a website that offers best yoga retreats and yoga teacher training for yogis around the world.  He is always on the lookout for interesting places to visit. It took him 25 years of his life to realize where his true calling lies, but once that was done, there’s been no looking back. Since the last ten years that he is on the go, He is sharing his travel experiences by writing about them.

You've read How Meditation Helped Me to Uncover My Path, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Source: pickthebrain.com