21 Jun Ten Powerful Life Lessons From Mindfulness Meditation Part II

Dr. Shanthi Lakshmi Duraimani, Ph.D., Bangalore

My 10 powerful life lesson from Meditation continues…

6. Over-thinking does not lead to insight

In the beginning of my career, I end up spiraling with a lot of thought patterns. I use to overthink about my career, financial and emotional security, and what not, well about everything. I felt trapped with my thoughts. Over a period of time, I become obsessive with  over thinking. Unfortunately, there is not a switch in the brain that can be easily flip off the over thinking mind. After practicing meditation on the regular basis, it started acting as an in vitro switch, to turn off my over thinking mind. It greatly helped to give a break for our over-thinking brain, Remember, over thinking does not lead to insight. Instead, it kills the neurons (brain cells) in the brain. Eventually, it will make the brain inefficient in processing the information. So, whenever you find your mind being over thinking, pause for a moment, do a simple 2 minutes awareness meditation, that will bring freedom from your over thinking mind.

7. The Power of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the act of compassionately releasing the desire to punish someone or yourself for an offense. It’s a state of grace, nothing you can force or pretend. The healing power of forgiveness such as murderers, rapists, ex-spouses, parents, bad children, etc. are often excluded as candidates for forgiveness. No person is innately bad. What they have are deep unhealed wounds, and so do the rest of us. Whenever you feel hatred for someone, you bless them with love. Even though you might feel the hatred for others in your heart, this practice will eventually help to wade off the wound from your heart. Moreover, this practice will open up all possible positivity into your life.

8. Our Mind is the Best healer

At the time of my post graduation, I discovered that I am a career for a rare genetic disorder. I have inherited a mutated gene from my mother. My mother reached her menopause at the age of 28. I started developing all the symptoms at the age of 24. I was completely heartbroken. I was helpless, as there is no cure for such genetic disorder. At that time,  I heard a story from an old woman, about her experiences in overcoming cancer. She said, she never believed that she’s having a dreadful disease like cancer. She simply said to herself that she will remain a healthy person until her death. Surprisingly, with proper diet,  without chemotherapy, and a heavy dose of medication, she transformed her life. Hearing this story made me change my perception. I fed my body and mind with healthy food. I meditated morning and evening on a regular basis. I was so amazed to see the result. Within a month, all my symptoms started fading away. Now, it’s been 8 years, I still remain hale and healthy.

9. Meditation makes our Brain more active

During my early days of meditation practice, it looks absolutely pointless on the surface. The real magic of meditation happens on the inside. Meditation completely reprograms our mind by creating new pathways in the brain. Meditation practices increase the blood flow to our brain, calm  down, and allow us to better handle stress. They also make our brain younger by increasing our brain’s gray matter, and help our mind defragment its thoughts.

Sometimes, I assume that doing a particular task will consume a lot of energy and time. But then after practicing meditation for 40 minutes in the morning will make me complete the task with the minimal amount of energy and time. Through my experience, meditation made me work smarter, instead of just harder.

10. Meditation improves Response Flexibility

I often have a fairly limited repertoire of how I respond to a situation that just “set me off.”  I use to blame myself for such kind of behavior. The habits of our nervous system can seem like electrical surges, leaving us vulnerable to making a real mess when we don’t mean to. Having an emotional circuit breaker makes a real difference - creating the space for us to have a more mindful, conscious response. Meditation, by beefing up areas which essentially buy us a tiny bit more time before we respond in a knee-jerk way, improves response flexibility.