Technique 3: BRAIN SENSITIVITY

Stress is an automated process and it is emotion-centric. When the emotion is highly dominant, the thinking brain is completely bypassed. This is the reason, a person cannot think straight in a stressed out situation. Can we manage the emotion while we are in the stress mode? Then, it is possible to alter the emotional input to the stress circuit and hence the response out the circuit will be different. This is a leap step forward in handling a stressful situation. We are dynamically altering the stress response as it unfolds in real time.

The first step is how good are we in capturing the emotion? This means we are completely aware of our emotion in any given situation. With this emotional awareness level, it is then possible to manage the emotion. When one is in control of his emotion, he gets the ability to manage his emotion. Also, he gets the power to become aware of others emotions and he gets the ability to manage them in a better way.

How do we capture our emotions? Emotions are nothing but feelings and popup from the body as bodily sensations. The sensitivity to capture these sensations determines our emotional awareness. But, unfortunately, most of us lack this skill. We have the ability to capture gross sensations such as pain and pleasure but not the subtle & finer sensations such as throbbing, pulsating and tickling sensations. Better the brain sensitivity for the finer subtle sensations, higher would be the emotional awareness and greater the ability to handle a stressful situation.

If an electronic gadget such as a pulse oximeter is inserted into the fingers, it preciously detects the heart rate. This means there is a pulsating signal that is there in the index finger. So, if one gently touches the thumb and the index finger, he should able to feel his own hard beat. If he can’t feel this pulsating sensation but just the touch sensation then definitely the brain sensitivity is less in his case. A dumb pulse oximeter can able to detect the signal while our own brain cannot able to detect. It is now time to improve the sensitivity of the brain so that one’s emotional awareness gets enhanced.

Sensitivity Practice:

Duration: 3minutes

1.            Sit upright in a calm and quite place either on the floor or in a chair.

2.            Relax the body consciously and let there not be any form of tension in the body.

3.            Pay attention to your rise and fall of your breathing for ten breath counts.

4.            Gently, touch the index finger with the thumb finger. Retain this finger lock for next three minutes. Divert your attention to the touch sensation, that is the meeting point between the thumb and index finger. Initially, one may feel only the gross touch sensation but with consistent practice, one slowly witnesses the pulsating sensation of the heart. 

5. With consistent practice, when the attention is diverted to the middle of the palm, one might even witnesses subtler sensation of the nerve ending points.

6.            After three minutes, slowly come out this practice mode.

With the above practice, one can train the brain for the subtle sensations.

Technique 1 :Free up space

Having discussed so far the engineering mechanism of the stress response, the causes for the stress, the mind game in the context of the stress and the understanding of those three universal power laws, it is time now to move on to the methods, techniques, and tools to lead a tension free life. With the practice of the following techniques, tension free life is not going to be a far-fetched reality. It is very much practical.

Free up space:

As stated in “this moment” chapter, stress cannot coexist when we live in this very moment. In this very moment, we are somehow connected within. To illustrate this phenomenon, let us assume that you are on holiday trip to a beach resort. You are at the resort and when you slide the curtain of your bedroom window, you get a nice view of the deep blue sea and the sun has just begun to rise. The reflection of the rays of the sun can be seen on the ocean surface. The orange colour of the sun & blue colour of the sea, the combination is so mesmerizing and you are in that moment. Now, at this very moment, there is absolutely no sign of stress. You are somehow connected with the display of external energy which in turn lead you a connection within. Influence of mind at this very moment is negligible.

As stated earlier, without any external support, living in THIS present moment is a challenge because of the influence of the mind. But, it is an art that can be developed.  Mind when it is cluttered, it has the maximum outside movement. This is the time, the mind tends to swing from back and forth from the past to future and vice versa. The practice here is simply to free up space inside the mind. When there is a free space there is a way for the free flow of energy. How to create this free space? The answer is simple. Plainly, observe the mind willingly. One cannot control the mind. If one attempts to control the mind then the mind becomes violent. But, give the liberty for the mind to act in its own terms and just observe the wandering pattern. Observe the mind willingly but with one very important condition. Do not engage the mind while observing. This means, irrespective of the movement of the mind, we stay aside watching just only the movement of mind, our own thoughts without passing on judgments. Initially, when one directs his awareness, he will notice the chaotic movement of the mind from the past to future back and forth. But with the boundary condition, the mind does not know what to do after some time. This is the state we need very often. Over a period of time, one develops this distinctive skill to stay in the moment just on demand. It slowly then becomes his default state of existence.

Practice method:

Duration: 3minutes

1.            Sit upright in a calm and quite place either on the floor or in a chair.

2.            Relax the body consciously and let there not be any form of tension in the body.

3.            Pay attention to the rise and fall of breath for a period of ten breath counts.

 4.           Simply, divert your attention to your mind. What is the thought that surfaces out of the mind? Observe the movement of the mind and importantly, stay non-judgemental. The moment one tends to engage with the mind, the system of mind goes haywire. Stay here in this mode for three minutes.

5.            After three minutes, slowly come out this state.

This practice appears to be simple and even stupid. But, this has a profound impact in training the mind not to swing back and forth from the past to future. Swinging is due to the entertainment and voluntarily, in this practice, we force ourselves not to entrain with the mind. The above technique, when practiced for a consistent period of four weeks, changes the pattern of movement of mind. We slowly get the ability to live in the present moment.

Empty Space for creativity

There is no breathing space when a room is cramped with too many people. People inside the room cannot freely move & cannot enjoy the situation out there. The immediate reaction for every individual out there is to get out of the room as soon as possible to stay free.  We are all in the similar situation when our mind is occupied with too many thoughts. Fully occupied mind does not have a free space to generate new creative ideas.

Free Space: There are too many centre points to the mind when mind is occupied with too many priorities. The mind starts to revolve around those centre points. Too many revolutions with too many centre points add up chaos in the mind. Ideally, one centre point at a time gives the mind lot of headroom for revolution. So, take one thing to the maximum priority at any given time to have enough headroom.

Self-awareness: There is yet another way to create this free space in the mind. Just become aware of the mind to understand the characteristics of your mind. You may do this exercise right away now.  Stop reading this blog & simply close your eyes. Take few deep breaths. Simply become aware of the mind and watch your thought patterns. Watch the thought patterns nonjudgmentally for few minutes. Do not get involved in the thought patterns. Watch like a third person viewing your own mind.

Such a simple practice done five minutes daily provides an opportunity to understand your own mind characteristics.

Creativity: There is a space deep inside & when one reaches there, he develops the ability to generate new creative ideas. Even if you look back your own life, most of your creative ideas would have happened only when you stayed relaxed. Otherwise, we are trapped by our conditioned mind & hence, start to think & act based on our own past experiences. We have to surpass this conditioned mind. For this, stay relaxed & perform the self-awareness exercise as prescribed above.

FOR CREATIVTY, BUILD AN EMPTY SPACE IN THE MIND

Motivation for meditation: Personal experience -Part2

Mind & Meditation: Let us understand two important characteristics of the mind.

1 Mind revolves around the priorities of my life. Mind becomes active when the priorities are attached strongly to my emotions. The emotion can be negatively oriented such as fear, worries etc. or positively oriented such as joy, bliss etc.  If I obesrve my thoughts, they revolve around my priority which has strong emotions to it. Say for example, if I plan to attend an interview for a job that is likely to change my life in a significant way then naturally my interview becomes my strong priority. The priority has an association of positive /negative emotions and naturally the thoughts from the mind are very relevant to the interview.

2. When my priorities change then my thoughts also will change. Frequent changes in my priorities change my thoughts frequently & hence I possess a chaotic mind. A chaotic mind is not productive.

Problem: The problem in today’s fast paced life is that many are not aware of the above two simple characteristics of the mind. Mind is fully associated with the set of priorities and very feebly associated with the individual awareness. Mind has the freedom to move as it likes and goes everywhere & mind is loosely packed. This is primarily due to the fact that we ourselves without our conscious knowledge stay within the boundaries of the mind and take a centre stage inside the mind. Since, we become the part of the mind, we don’t get a clear visibility of the mind. If we have the ability to come out the mind then we can get a better feel of the mind.

SELF direction: Meditation is a process of taking us out from the mind. Meditation is a heightened state of awareness. My awareness takes a centre stage in this heightened state. With this acquired strength of awareness, I now get the ability not only to move away from the mind but get an opportunity to witness the two important characteristics of my mind.

Meditation is not a mind control process. It is simply a mind awareness process. A shift will happen in altering the priorities and hence the alignment of thoughts when I consciously aware of my thoughts as well as my priorities. This is directed by the true SELF within. This SELF is nothing but a pure form of goodness. In a normal state of awareness, the SELF is clouded by mind & ego. In a meditative state, I get an opportunity to wipe out the cloud formation to get connect to the deeper part of me.

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