Meditation and me

Please believe me when I say that until this year I did not know how to meditate or why I should meditate. I mean if I made a list of things I learned in 2017, then 'meditation' would go to the top. Also, please! You don't 'learn' how to meditate. You just do it every day and still feel like a noob after days/years of practice. I was testing you all, and you passed. Yippity yay!So I have never known how to meditate or understood why people meditate. I mean I get it, they do it for different reasons. But never tried to find it out for me. To me my runs are meditative. As in I am in my zone (on most runs), they keep me centered and focused and grounded.But late last year, there were a lot of changes happening in life. Things were moving really fast, people were moving in and out of my life too randomly, and it was becoming too difficult for me to not be affected and riled by the turn of events. And then an advice 'to meditate' doled out during my teenage made sense. 15 years too late! One thing led to other and I downloaded the Headspace app. I still did not know what I was supposed to do with it or what it was supposed to do for me. But I decided to try it.It's a guided meditation app which has techniques around how anyone can meditate. They give out 10, 10-minutes, free trial sessions after which everything is paid. After the 10 free sessions in the starter 'Foundation' pack, I was sold! Reasons:

1. The voiceover of the guide was so-oh soothing.
2. The techniques they tried to teach were simple.
3. It did not require me to sit in a particular place, in a particular position. I would sit on the floor on some days and on a chair on others. (I even did a session lying on the bed once!)
4. There was a pattern to how they made you think about things and drown out the noise. It suited me.
5. Also, there was no compulsion on the time of the day I picked to meditate.

So in December 2016, I bought their yearly subscription. Because I wanted to learn more. About myself. I wanted to stretch more. My mind.Their meditation exercises are divided into packs. Each pack has a different theme and duration. They try to teach you a unique technique in each pack.I plodded on with the 'Foundation' pack. The 10 minutes sessions progressed into 15 and eventually 20 minutes. By the end of 30 such sessions, I could sit still for 20 minutes! It was mighty difficult. But I persisted. My mind had places to go every time I sat still to meditate, but their well-guided session would train my mind to try to be in one place at least for 2 minutes. During some sessions, it would be too easy to focus. During others, I would just will myself to complete it somehow. As with anything, the app would welcome me with random stats about my progress, streak to motivate me to keep coming back. I picked the evening time, before going to bed to meditate, as it worked the best for me. And of course, I took breaks. I would do 5-6 sessions in a row and then a week-long break would happen. But still, I carried on.I picked the 'Stress' pack after this. I live a pretty regular life but could feel the stress factor creeping in from time to time. In this pack, headspace taught me the technique called 'visualization'. They would ask me to visualize liquid sunshine, streaming all over me to alleviate stress. Of course, it was difficult! I very well remember this feeling of the sun shining on me in freezing temperature during a Himalayan trip. So I used that scenario as my visualization hack! It worked on most of the 30 sessions. It's been 6+ months since I learned this and I use it now when I feel stressed. I used to tackle stress in different ways earlier, going for a run, reading a book, watching a movie, crying to sleep, but this technique now comes in handy when I have none of these other ones available. It's been a great help!I also tried few sessions from their 'Sleep' and 'Health' pack after this but could not finish them. I also completed a single on 'running'.So at the end of my year-long subscription, I have completed 14 hours worth of meditation exercises. I.e. meditated for 840 mins which average 12 mins per day! (the stats are thanks to the app, but it feels good, doesn't it? :))I highly recommend meditation to everyone. There are tonnes of resources around. If we all could spend even 10 minutes per day on ourselves, the world would definitely be a better place. Imagine if we all meditated at the same time! The possibilities are immense. And if you are willing to spend some money and want to learn but have no clue what's the correct way to meditate, then highly highly recommend using headspace!I am already renewing my subscription for another year btw!