Questions on Meditation
Meditation is “the art of letting go”, deep rest, yet alert. To shed more light on meditation, I share here the knowledge from Art of Living, based on a series of talks entitled ‘Secrets of meditation’ given by H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Q: How to quiet the voice inside my head while meditating?
H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are several things you can do about it.
First is accepting it and not fighting with it. You fight with it and feel that you should not have this noise. The more you want to get rid of it, the more it will stick to you. The principle of consciousness or mind is such that resistance does not eliminate it but makes it grow. So first you have to let go and not resist it.
Second is the five different ways of getting into meditation. Breathing will help you get rid of the noise. Proper food can also make an impact on meditation. Exercise, posture and refined emotions, good understanding, all these will aid meditation.
Q: During meditation I was aware but had no sensation in my body. There was only ‘I am’ and then my body jerked and I was back. What happened?
H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is good, you had a glimpse of that inner state, the consciousness that you are. That is normal and good too. But now don’t try to have the same experience tomorrow. No. It is not going to repeat. Everyday there is a new treasure that will come to you. So, just take it and do not latch on to experiences. You are much bigger than these experiences.
Q: During meditation, my mind becomes silent but I haven’t been able to transcend or go beyond my mind. Am I trying too hard?
H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, you should not try to go beyond the mind. For your own sake don’t do anything, just let it be. Ok?
If you are on a massage table, what do you do? You just let the masseuse take care of you. The masseuse does the job. You do nothing. It is the same in meditation: you do nothing. Let nature take care of you. The spirit will take care of it.”
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trying to convince them that they’re in the right place and they’ve made the right decision. Sincerely in those cases I am sure to communicate with individuals or clients what I am observing so I let them make the decision on whether they have chosen the right time to come to see me.
This is simply another way to empower a client. For those who are thinking of bringing someone into therapy please get their consent try and understand that when someone goes to therapy I am merely a guide and so the person coming to me with their issues is the one person that we heavily rely on for change making
It is often called the invisible disability. What does Post Traumatic Stress Disorder really look like?
All mental disorders are invisible disabilities I don’t personally like the name disability because that means you are an able to do something more likely unable to think like everybody else. Post traumatic stress disorder is the continuous reliving of past traumatic experiences even long after they have stopped happening.
People with PTSD usually display bouts of anxiety especially with things that are connected to triggers from the traumatic experiences. There are a lot of symptoms that are housed in the body and so you’ll notice a lot of agitation, struggles with sleeping and or poor concentration (because your mind is constantly flirting and unable to stabilize because of how much that trauma has shifted you).
I would like to actually discourage people from loosely using the term because I worry that PTSD will be treated similar to how depression and anxiety have been treated - where people incorrectly interchangeably use the words ‘depressed’ and ‘sad’.
What this has done is made everyone’s sadness seem severe where sadness should be treated as a part of every day life experiencesjust as much as joy and happiness. I’m saying if you suspect that you have PTSD please contact a therapist!
Is it possible to heal?
I believe that healing is a state of mind just as much as a disorder or a low mood is a state of mind. And so the short answer to that is yes it is possible to heal. But in the same breath it’s not impossible to relapse because by the time someone comes to see me they are trying to unlearn some things.
What advice can you give to someone going through a hard time?
Sadness, frustration, anger or any kind of dark emotion and experience is designed to be temporary. When the darkness comes, look it in the eyes, because the moment you hide, it wins. If you feel the darkness has already won, then open your eyes and look it in the eyes. Hard times are usually accompanied by the absence of courage.
Any words of advice and suggestions for someone considering entering your field?
Please do your research. Similar to all fields, it’s extremely critical to know how much goes into achieving certain titles, that is, getting registered, opening your own practice among other things. This is to say you should be aware of the number of years you’ll have to commit yourself to, learn the importance of a masters and try be flexible with the final destination. Not everyone who studied psychology or counseling has to become a psychologist or counselor. You can go into research, join an NGO, branch out into HR.
It’s a beautiful field filled with lots of accommodating spaces.
Where can people get in touch with you to learn more?
People can find my details or contact me via the SedingTherapy Instagram page. I also practice at Independence
Surgery in Ext 5, near the museum and BOCRA, three times per week. I’m also open to received communication on 75241204 or seding.therapy@ gmail.com.