Motivation for meditation: Personal experience

Internal automated system:

Do you know what is happening within us as we go for the lovely morning walk? At an outward level, our legs are taking steps, our hands swing freely back & forth, we get connected to the external ambience, feel the sense of nice breeze touching the body, we feel the raise in the body temperature & so on. Simultaneously, there is a whole range of other activities that happen automatically without our conscious effort such as our breathing rate, heart beat rate, metabolic rate, the chemistry of the body, the blood core temperature, the hormonal changes etc. All of these changes occurred as if managed and controlled effortlessly by yet another entity within us but without our conscious effort.

Importantly, when we become aware these internal automatic manifestations then naturally we develop the curiosity to understand this automatic force that governs us. Meditation provides this opportunity to understand this involuntary force that governs us.

Looking within:

Since, we are in close contact with our five sensations, we develop the habit of seeing things and perceiving the life experiences by looking externally. With this approach, given the varying dimensions of the external world, the reference from the external world keeps the life much more complex. Meditation provides an opportunity to look within, watching my internal world, my body, my mind, my emotion & beyond. The approach of taking the reference from the internal world allows me to perceive my external world very differently.

More importantly, looking within provides an opportunity to manage myself which is lot more easier than managing and control the external world around me.

Distance away: On the surface of the earth, earth appears to be flat. Above the earth, the same earth appears to be a sphere. Distancing away provides an opportunity to perceive thing in its true reality. Meditation is a process of distancing me from my own body, mind, emotion & beyond. This now provides an opportunity to perceive all of these components in their true nature.

In short, meditation gives an opportunity to

-          in witnessing the automated power within which is the life force

-          exploration of internal world ( body,mind,emotion & beyond)

-          Perception change by distancing away

Change the experience and change the life - Part2

In my previous blog, I showed you in a mathematical form the correlation between my experience & my life. In this blog, let us focus on my experience itself.

Experience is a combination of actions (A) and the rewards (R) that associated with the actions. A reward is an emotional component which makes me to repeat the action or stop the action. There is a higher likelihood to repeat a particular action when the reward that I get out of my action generates joy & contentment.

Action: Action is comprised of set of three different categories.

Where Aa is the daily auto repeated actions that run on autopilot mode such brushing teeth, taking bath etc

Af  is the forced action from external factors (those actions forced upon me , such as dropping the kids to the school, filling the income tax etc)

Ag is the voluntary action initiated by me that aids in my personal development (such as upgrading my skills, doing my fitness regime etc)

Management of Action: Af is an externally forced component and it is something out of my control and I can’t do anything about it. But, from my personal experience if you know the technique of managing the remaining two categories (Aa & Ag) then the Af actions will ease over a period of time. Then the question is, “how to manage these two categories?”

Apply mindfulness to my Aa actions. All these days, these actions were performed without my conscious awareness. But, I now deliberately apply my awareness to these actions. This simple change gives me an opportunity to understand the way how I have programmed myself. A simple but effective self-understanding process!!

Change is a continuous process and I am no exception to this. I am always undergoing the change whether I like it or not. But, with Ag, I deliberately make my change to move in my positive personal growth path. This is the toughest thing to perform to myself because it is as good as moving away from my comfort zone. This is where R, the reward mechanism (the emotional component) comes into play.

Micro reward:  When I go through my change process using Ag, it is pertinent to look for the small positive progresses generated by the actions that I performed. This alone keeps the momentum to break the crucial transition phase.

In simple terms, mindful actions of Aa and a watchful eye on the micro rewards from Ag actions change the way I feel my experience.

Change the experience and change the life

Who am I? I am simply a construct of all the cumulative experiences of my life.

                where E is my cumulative experiences from n=0 (my birth) until today.

My mind operates within the preview of my life experiences. In other words, if I have not experienced taste of a particular fruit then no matter any amount of descriptions from you won’t change the way I think about that fruit unless I experience the taste myself.

We can also redefine the above equation

 The cumulative experiences are the sum of all the experiences until yesterday plus the experiences of today.

Similarly, I as a person yesterday was sum of all the cumulative experiences until day before yesterday plus the experiences of yesterday.

                                                                                                                         

Change: In other words, I am constantly changing as a person based on my experiences.

I am not the same person as how I was yesterday. The difference is simply E (today), my today’s experiences.

The secret: I can change myself if I make a conscious choice of changing my today’s experiences. So, change my present experience changes my life NOW!!

What you do first thing in the morning?

Your first conscious activity of the day sets the tone for the rest of the day. Your first activity programs your mind and develops the right kind of mind-set for the rest of the day to progress well. When you consciously pick up the right kind of your first activity of the day, over a period of time, say in a month or two, you will develop a new habit.

Technology influence: As per the research, our ability to stay attentive and focussed has diminished drastically in the last two decades. One of the prime reasons is the amount of distractions that we encounter in the form of information overload on day today basis. Many of us have developed the habit of watching whatsApp, Facebook status, emails and other social media as their first activity of the day. What it started as a simple activity few years before has now become your inborn habit. The moment one opens up the mobile, he will be bombarded with millions of information in a short duration of time. Brain tries to process all the information simultaneously but without any productive result. In that short duration itself, we tend to jump from Facebook to email to whatsapp etc.

First activity of the day: If you have seen your first activity as one of the above then it is good to relinquish your mobile at least for an hour when you get from the bed. In the worst case scenario, we sleep with the mobile by the side. This is one such activity that really degrading your ability to focus. It is good to consciously select your first activity of the day that aids in your development. Some of those activities are mind-body practice, reading good wisdoms, morning walking, collecting your role model attributes etc, meditation etc.

Strong base: By starting with your development activity as a first thing in the morning, you will get clarity and proceed the day productively and efficiently. That 15 or 30 minutes which you spent yields ten times equivalent time during the day. So, do not see the duration purely from the perception of time.

So, consciously pick up the right kind of the activity that aids in the development rather than distracting your growth.