Like Wayne Dyer said, he doesn't plan nor research material for his books. He sits and writes. Eight weeks and a book is ready. He doesn't write for approvals, nor to get a review or recognition, he writes because it feels good. It feels right. I’m no Wayne with his cool name and amazing teachings, but my writing process is very similar to his.
About a month ago I felt an urge to write. Write about meditation and why it’s so powerful. As part of my work I get to hear a lot of stories of suffering, people trying to figure things out, failed relationships, childhood traumas and just general human experience. Very often I suggest meditation as one of homework practices for the people I work with. Many times I see sort of an eye roll after hearing this overused word and a question if there is anything stronger. Well, stronger is psychedelic medicine but that too needs to be preceded and followed up by meditation.
So I go into all the explanations (that I wrote about in this book) to tell the story of transformations, inner peace and clarity that being in silence does for people. I explain it to each person who comes my way in search of self-healing. So it occurred to me, why not tell this story to many more people and at least get information that is not that easily available out there.
In my book, which you can read in under 20 minutes I made an attempt to connect meditation practice to some of the most impactful and important parts of human life and make it entertaining. Because you know ADD is real and the attention span is 3 seconds or less for pretty much EVERYONE.
Somehow not only the word mediation got overused but there is this negativity around the idea of this practice among the people who don’t practice it. I wonder if it’s due to the actual challenge this practice brings, the fear of facing it and on top of it, lack of instant gratification. Or it’s a subconscious revolt against the woke culture that seems to be drowning the western world. Regardless of the reasoning, it seems like this strategy is working and it takes very little to convince people to swallow the pill than spend time alone with themselves.
So, in my book I made an attempt in a very easy to read language to bring up some of the most profound effects meditation has had on my life and the life of others (which I learnt from their stories and from observing their lives).
Another wake up moment connected to this practice is related to my grandma. During one of our conversations when she lamented about her high pressure and her inability to control her thoughts which in turn were driving her blood pressure up, I asked her if she could “tell” her head to stop thinking. And in genuine regretful tone she responded that she didn’t know how. She literally had no idea what to do with her thoughts that were driving her nervous system to such an overreactive state. She was 91 when she passed without still having any clue what I was attempting to say about mediation practice. All I have to say is that I’m happy that I live during the time when mediation is readily available and we all have access to the information should we chose that route.
So what was happening with my grandma could be her overstimulated amygdala. Amygdala is our fear center which gets activated in order to mobilize us and keep us safe. Unfortunately in the current reality, many humans live with constantly elevated levels of stress hormones, cortisol and adrenalin which is harmful for our bodies and minds. Meditation helps to lower these levels and teach our amygdala to chill out and therefore has direct affect on our aging, aka the way we look, on anxiety and depression, on the positive outlook on life and as a cherry on top, our manifestation abilities.
Meditation helps us to rewire our neural pathways that got in a habit of overreacting and creating anxiety, depression, fears and insecurities. And to be honest, that’s the only way to get you out of the “mess” of your own emotions and previous experiences and give power over your life back into your hands vs the hands of pharmaceuticals. And a disclaimer here. I have nothing against various medicines, but not the “‘addiction” to these chemicals in order to sustain your life until you die. Let’s have you live a colorful and exciting life. The life you can create on your own, regardless of what has happened in the past.
Another disclaimer. Meditation has no cost. You can do it in the comfort of your own home, car, garage, bathroom. Once you start going deeper, you most likely would like to turn to a therapist or any other practices as you might want to figure out the answers to all of the questions starting to appear. But that’s the story for another book. For now, you can make baby steps and give yourself a gift of silence.
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This article was first published on Medium on May 1st, 2023.