we find meditation hard to do because we set the wrong goals based on what we’ve been told. usually what we’ve been told in the west is often stretched too thin from the reality of eastern scriptures. the most popular western books on this topic are merely puff pieces. so we took the parts we understood - yogic poses or asanas - which aren’t even part of patanjali’s yoga sutra and shoved the rest of it into affirmation word-salad.
i digress - meditation is indeed hard. we aren’t sanyasins who austerely submitted ourselves to ascetic lives. we won’t reach the chimeric samadhi. what we do is pay taxes and buy groceries.
thought-freedom as the goal
ancient hindu scriptures mention almost-supernatural states of trance as the goal of meditation - transcendental states of nirvana, samadhi, kaivalya and so on. these states describe a thoughtless bliss, because thoughtlessness translates to absence of worry. human suffering largely exists only in thoughts except for palpable physical damages. this is what yoga and meditation is trying to solve.
think of the mind as a clear lake but often muddled with dry leaves from the vegetation around it. what if there was a regular process to sweep the falling leaves out of the lake’s surface, making it look clear again?
the states of trance in scriptures aren’t meant for the average journeyman. it requires surrender. the epic mahabharata mentions how pandavas went on an ascetic journey leaving their kingdom behind to attain samadhi. we, the mere mortals, can’t leave our kingdoms behind in search of trance. but we can clean up the lake that is our mind.
where to put my mind in meditation?
thoughtlessness doesn’t need to be longer than a few breaths. it doesn’t need to feel like a complete thought-vacuum either. the very experience of our sentient life is the brain constantly processing information - thought is the default state. i recommend a few “hacks” below but the simplest rule is to practise not latching on to past or future.
the people, communications, events (ie past), and all of it playing out imaginary stories (ie future) is what muddles our brain, brings us anxiety, and takes us to other worse states. place your mind anywhere but the past (memories) or the future (imagination). you could think of yourself (again, not in connection to memories or imaginations). you could think of your bodily sensations. your breath. a sound within the body, the sound of a crackling wall, or the sounds of the city around you. the goal is to not latch these sensory perceptions onto a loop of past-future ruminations.
every time we cut off a rising thought to bring attention back to let’s say, breath, we are getting closer to making our lives better. perhaps even to a state of trance.
let’s meditate
let’s say you sat down and anchored your focus to the breath. but before the 3rd thought-free breath you’re inadvertently floating in the next thought. worse yet, you only realize it several breaths later. congrats, your brain is working as normal! are you able to relieve and acknowledge that thought, come back to yourself for at least a few more seconds? this is meditating. that’s it! welp, there comes the next thought. you know what to do. yes, we’re still meditating.
this process of relinquishing thoughts and anchoring your attention to breath over time tames the wandering mind.
we learn to detach.
non-negotiables
an empty stomach - but not hungry
distraction-free space - noise and lights are ok as long as they blend in
not too exhausted
a few hacks i have used
exteroceptive meditation
pay attention to the sounds around you. switch focus between sounds that are far away (vehicles, birds etc) and sounds that are close (wall cracking, ac etc). then slowly switch to bodily sensations: the sound of breath, sensation of hot or cold air on skin, breathing rhythm etc. this is the point where we bring focus inward.
mantras
a simple humming as you exhale or chanting aum, (as in aaaaaauuumm - instead of the more famous om) can bring the wandering mind under control. it doesn’t have to be maintained throughout meditation. i chant gayatri mantra, meditating or not but it doesn’t have to be a difficult sanskrit mantra. it can be a prayer or a poem that’s meaningful to you, that captivates you in devotion.
exhale as a tool
sighing - the release of air knots from our chest through a heavy outpour of breath - is the quickest and most effective way to signal the autonomous nervous system to relax. when we sigh with sound it may have a slightly better effect on calming us.
exhales longer than inhale can be calming for most people although my yoga teacher training taught me that not all people respond the same way.
breath holding
breath holding is a documented benefit of meditation in the early scriptures of yoga. increased lung capacity is a survival mechanism1, but breathless moments in meditation brings us utmost clarity and concentration. important to note, breath holding is a survival mechanism so it will trigger our sympathetic nervous system which controls the flight-or-fight responses in us (increased heart rate, heightened alertness etc. instead of relaxation). pranayama techniques like kapalabhati can help us hold breath for a few minutes with practice.
why’s breath the anchor?
both thought and breath are involuntary. but only one of these (ie thought) hijacks our focus, sometimes to the extent of exacerbating it and producing anxiety. the other (ie breath) simply creates a feedback loop for calm vs storm in our nervous system. regulate the breath, which signals the nervous system, and the storm is sublimated into calm.
a lifestyle, not pill-popping
it’s more than likely that if we practice, we will figure out what works for us and improvise. important to note that yoga and meditation are to be seen as practices, not as tylenol. ie, on a stressful day we may not be able to sit down and anchor to our inner self as if it would act like a pill. thoughts run wild! our nervous system is giving the appropriate stress response here. rest assured, the very occurrence of a stressful day, either in frequency or intensity, is what a regular practice saves us from.
the bajau tribe in the indonesian archepelago is known for holding their breath upto 10 minutes under water. they survived by hunting fish and hence a combination of natural selection and genetic mutation helped them do more of it by developing a larger spleen.