Meditation is a powerful tool that can sharpen your mind, refine your emotions, and strengthen your body when done correctly. It rejuvenates and refreshes you after a stressful day and prepares you for a new day. Just like our physical body needs shower everyday to keep it clean and healthy, our mind too needs a shower everyday to remove all the stress and negativity. Meditation is this shower for our mind.
Meditation is practiced by millions of people, from Hollywood stars to top-notch CEOs to a common man, across the globe because of the remarkable benefits of regular meditation. Many studies have shown great benefits out of meditation for one’s health, relationships, and success in life. In Spite of knowing the benefits of meditation, some of us don’t start meditation because of the popular myths around. Today, let’s see what these myths are and understand the truth behind these myths.
Let’s bust the top 10 myths and build truths of meditations.
Myth 1: Meditation is for people who can concentrate. I think too much and hence cannot meditate
Truth: Science research says we start thinking right from the stage when we were a fetus. So, thinking has been a constant companion of our life right from our birth and most of us think too much. Any machine works well only when it has regular breaks. Our mind too is a complex machine whose job is to think and plan and meditation helps our mind to take a break from thinking at least for a few minutes. This small break sharpens our mind to do better thinking when used next time. So, if you think too much, you are qualified enough to meditate because meditation is exactly for people who think too much.
Myth 2: Meditation means stopping my thoughts. But when I close my eyes, I get more thoughts. So, meditation is not for me
Truth: Yes, meditation means moving beyond thoughts where you experience the silence within. Just like everything in life, this needs a process and training of the mind because our mind has been thinking for years and it’s not easy to quieten it just by closing our eyes. How much training did it take you to read a sentence when you were a child? Same is with meditation. It takes some amount of time and a right, systematic process to experience the silence of the mind.
Myth 3: Meditation makes people less ambitious. I have many ambitions in my life and hence don’t want to meditate
Truth: Meditation sharpens your mind and helps you gain control over emotions. All the super-achievers in life are people who have great thinking skills and great control over their emotions. Emotions of sadness, frustration, anger consume a lot of your thought power and drains you of your energies, making it challenging to achieve goals and even if you achieve goals, these emotions can destroy the success. When you meditate regularly, you gain control and move beyond these emotions, conserving your thought power and using your thought power efficiently for your goals. So, meditating regularly helps you achieve your goals easily. Jeff Weiner, CEO of Linkedin and Merc Benioff , CEO of software giant SalesForce are examples of super achievers who meditate regularly and yet quite ambitious about life and their enterprises.
Myth 4: One needs to become a vegetarian to walk the path of meditation. I love my chicken biryani and don’t want to leave it for meditation
Truth: Being a vegetarian or non-vegetarian is one’s personal choice and it has nothing to do with meditation.
Myth 5: To meditate, I need to wake up at 4 AM. I cannot wake up so early. So don’t want to meditate
Truth: One needs to be on an empty stomach to meditate because with stomach heavily loaded with food, it’s challenging to meditate and one can easily fall asleep. The only rule you need to follow is to maintain a minimum gap of 2 hours between your mealtime and meditation time. With this rule in place, it’s up to you when you want to meditate – 4 AM or 11 PM
Myth 6: Meditation will make me a boring person. I don’t want to look uncool in front of my friends.
Truth: Meditation makes you a person with patience, greater problem-solving skills, clarity of thinking, sharp mind, less anger. Who does not love to be with such a person? Everyone loves to be, isn’t it? Regular meditation makes you a very friendly and charming person because of the positivity you carry around and you will become that cool person who is cool-headed and warm-hearted.
Myth 7: Meditation is escapism from life. I want to face my problems. Not escape from them.
In meditation, you don’t escape from problems. You give a break to your non-stop thoughts and emotions so that you can find solutions and a clear perspective on how to solve your problems. Your problem-solving skills improve when you regularly meditate.
Myth 8: Meditation is for old age. I am in my young age and don’t want to waste my time in meditation
All the major events of life like college, career, marriage, parenting happen before one reaches old age and these are the aspects of life that challenge people. Be it a tough boss or work-life balance or relationship problems– all these induce great stress and people need effective solutions to handle this stress without harming body and mind. Meditation does that exactly. So, start using it right when you are young and make your life smooth.
Myth 9: I should stop partying and quit hanging out with my friends if I need to meditate.
Truth: Partying or not partying is one’s personal choice which is nowhere related to meditation.
Myth 10: I should not think of romantic love or watch movies if I get into the path of meditation.
Truth: These aspects of life are personal choices too which are not related to meditation.
These are some of the myths and truths of meditation. Don’t wait further to start your journey of meditation because life is short and before we even realize, years pass by. Start your meditation journey right today and you will start seeing changes in your life just within 3 to 6 months of regular practice.
Happy meditation!
