01 Aug How Meditation Taught Me To Trust My Instinct

Life as a creative person is rather challenging. Thankfully for me I love challenges and am very creative in everything I do, which is why I chose the profession of a copy writer in an advertising agency. This has been an upward climb for me intellectually ever since and picking one punch-line over another has never been a real challenge but when it comes to decisions that strain the left-half of my brain, I am often left pondering, and sometimes worrying. I could never trust my instinct. Analytical thinking has never been my cup of tea. That and all the responsibility of two young kids and being a wife just managed to blow the wind out of my lungs. That’s when I discovered the best way to ease my mind without losing it was through mediation.

Some call it art while others call it spiritualism. For me, meditation was therapy. Therapy that not only enhanced my outlook to life but also resulted in improving my health and well being and in turn, that of my family. What it helped me the most in was to believe in myself and my ideas. The cloud of doubt that surrounded me had clouded the way I think about myself. Making even the slightest decisions got me worried and there wasn’t enough I could get over before I reached a boiling point.

The life-altering incident that changed the way I look and think of things was when I was presented the opportunity to work on the advertising campaign of a significant brand. In fact, this was the biggest account my agency had. They gave it to me because my hobbies revolved around the usage of the brand’s products and because I could address the brief from a first-person perspective. It was high pressure. Taking this up and cracking it would mean big bucks from a media-heavy campaign for my agency but if I ended up with a campaign that didn’t get approved before the timeline, I’d be jeopardizing the account itself. This would have driven me over the edge had I not been into meditation.

While some see meditation as a process that releases the body from the mental pressures that are generally bestowed upon it, in my case I channeled my thoughts towards creating a more fruitful thinking process that could lead me to a solution in my dilemma rather than spend sleepless nights fretting over what should I do next. It helped break down my problem into structured portions and take a step-by-step approach to overcome each hurdle. I began believing in the decision I was to take. The self-confidence was nearly flattering. What makes it different from simply sinking into your chair with your face in your palms is that it gives you time to think with a rejuvenated mind. With this, you are ready to take on challenges that are larger than your usual which-tie-would-go-well-with-my-socks ordeal. Meditation gave me these crucial time frames to think ‘what if’ and ‘how to’ and this was where I concluded my quest.

As a result, I simply reached out to the media team and took their opinion on the trend of the brand and the people using it in a particular demographic. I crafted a concept that was aimed directly at that demographic and gave customers of my brand more than they demanded for, in a bespoke manner. The amount of analytical left-brain thinking that I suddenly had access to was too thrilling. I hadn’t explored this side of my mind before. I had ample time to find solutions for challenges along the way. The campaign eventually was picked up by the client and then by a grand jury at an advertising awards night. I didn’t win but the nomination was more than I could bargain for a few months before, when the brief was on my table.

Since then, I have strongly advocated meditation to those who do not have the luxury or the peace of mind to think, believe and encourage themselves to take their actions to the next level. Start today, believe in your instinct.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Khyati Bhatia

Khyati is a young professional in the world of advertising and has earned herself a repute for being one who pulls out of the box ideas from nowhere. With us here at Aware, she contributes to our mission to take meditation, the practice that Khyati and many of us here believe in, to the world.