15 Micro-Lessons After 500 Days of Meditation

A tiny investment with massive returns

You wake up to your alarm clock, check some notifications and move on with your day. You have a long day ahead of you, with some breaks to ease out in the middle.

You wait for the weekend so you can watch your shows, read the book which has been lying on your bedside, and catch up with family and friends.

It’s not that your life is extremely stressful or boring, it’s great. Once a work-week you head out for coffee or beer to unwind. Other days, you’re caught between responsibilities. Time flies!

You know what it’s like when you go on a holiday, right? You feel so alive. The breathtaking views of the sea or a beach, making memories with your loved ones and just relaxing.

And that's why you never want them to end. You plan your holidays in advance and the excitement starts a week before you have to head out.

When you holiday, your spirits are lifted. You are at an all-time high. You are happy.

What if I told you you could choose to feel this way more often than you do right now?

You don’t have to wait for a certain day in a week to relax, you don’t have to wait for a certain time on the calendar to replenish, and you don’t need to schedule yourself for a detox.

What if your state of mind integrates these three organically?

If a certain population in the world experiences this, if a certain percentage of the world truly becomes meditative, definitely the quality of the world will change

— Sadhguru

As I complete 500 days of meditation, I will elucidate the 15 micro-lessons under 5 umbrellas that I have learned.

I am not writing this to encourage you to meditate (as much as I’d love for you to do so), I am writing this to tell you that this feeling exists.

You don’t have to be stressed out all the time, you don’t have to have meaningless quarrels with your partner, you don’t have to crave to be away from your daily life.

You do have the power to stop the negative chatter in your mind. You do have the power to quiet your inner voice every time it discourages you. You have the power to fall asleep or concentrate even when your brain is flustered with thoughts.

If you’re with me until here, you do see a hope that you can live by just living each day, instead of escaping.

Increased self-esteem

“The thing about meditation is: You become more and more you.” — David Lynch

Lack of confidence arrives from these little seeds of unworthiness you’ve planted in your unconscious mind. Often, these seeds are not recognised and we only water them more and more with our thoughts.

1. Meditation helps you build self-awareness so you deeply realise your strengths and weakness. We sometimes get carried away with our external environment and try to be something we’re not, this helps.
2. You feel more confident. Why? Because that negative chatter telling you that you’re not good enough or don’t deserve your desires gets in control. You learn to actively recognise it and ignore it.
3. You feel better about yourself because you’re not constantly criticising yourself. No more looking at the mirror and criticising your belly.

Do you know your strengths and potential, or are you stuck in a hamster wheel where you’re shaped by your environment?

At one instance, your priorities are university exams. Another time, it’s to get a job. And then, to grow in the corporate ladder. When was the last time you spent the time to figure out who you really are?

Look inwards. It’s the best place to get answers.

Managing Anger

Anger leads to a variety of health problems such as high blood pressure, increased anxiety, indigestion, and an increased risk of stroke.

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” — Buddha

1. Getting angry all together is a waste. Nobody cares if you’re angry with them, why bother?
2. You begin to notice how your body reacts when you were angry. There is a certain set of physiological responses your body produces with this emotion which you’ve never paid attention to.
3. When you get angry, the first signs are that your body temperature rises and your breath becomes shorter. You recognise it and calm down.

Increased Focus

Where focus goes, energy flows. — Tony Robbins

I don’t know if this happens with you too, but I tend to constantly check my phone in the middle of everything. Standing in a queue, writing, working, watching TV, and especially while waiting for somebody in a restaurant.

As the author and scientist Cal Newport explains, constantly looking at different notifications on your phone hinders the deeper focus and relaxation which your mind needs to otherwise have.

According to Harvard University, our minds are lost in thought 47% of the time.

Meditation has helped me to an extent that I found a sense of deep flow. I am doing things I love with an extended focus and results like never before, and I don’t need micro distractions anymore.

From 4–6 hours of screen time a day, I am now down to an average of 2.5 hours a day. No more meaningless scrolling.

1. It’s easier to bounce back from distractions. This is because it’s easier to identify that you’ve got distracted as opposed to the body finding it natural to constantly reach out to your phone.
2. With practice, it gets easier to focus on one thing at a time for extended periods.
3. By practising the above two, with time your focus on a particular task becomes much deeper.

Better Relationships

“The more regularly and the more deeply you meditate, the sooner you will find yourself acting always from a center of peace.” — J. Donald Walters

• When was the last time you blurted out something to somebody close to you and apologised because you didn’t mean it?
• Do you hear from your grandparents or parents that ‘back in the days’ people were closer and kinder to each other?
• Do you feel that bettering relationship with yourself would also lead to happier relationships around you?

If you’ve said yes to even one of the above, I completely understand where you’re coming from. And this is how meditation can help you as it helped me.

1. You become a better listener because of your increased sense of calmness and focus, which makes the person in front of you feel good.
2. You become more mindful of your words and reactions, which help you choose your words well.
3. Being mindful makes you more empathetic toward others. Being able to understand the other person’s state leads to healthier relationships.

Overall Boost in Quality of Life

I feel that life has overall become better. I’m happier. I’m in content.

There’s a no more funny feeling in my tummy called anxiety every now and then. There’s no more impulse reaction to things or situations. I am performing better at work with improved focus and better people management.

Hell, I even have made time for the first time after university to get back to writing. Getting back to my passion, something which makes me feel more alive.

Below are my deeply personal insights on how meditation has helped me feel fantastic:

1. I am more mindful in general. Of people, situations, and myself. I feel things I didn't earlier, such as the chilly air surfacing on my skin when I was holidaying in the mountains last week. That felt different.
2. I am grateful to wake up healthy every single day. My gratitude journal is proof of this because this is the first thing I write in it every single day.
3. I feel more wholesome. I feel like I recently got in touch with myself. I feel happier, think more positive thoughts, and laugh more often. This has an impact not just on me but also those around me.

How can you start meditating?

• Start with a meditation app. The short guided meditations help develop the required strength to focus. Start with 3–5 minutes, and then increase the time gradually.
• Learn meditative practices from Art of Living or Isha Foundation, these institutions have empowered millions across the world to lead happier lives.
• Once you learn the technique, integrate it into your routine. For instance, my routine is to meditate post-workout.
• Don’t have a set of expectations. Don’t expect to instantly improve your grades or behaviour. Enjoy the journey, this practice isn’t to be done for a few days or months but forever.
• After you integrate your practice in a daily routine, practice being more mindful during the course of your day. E.g. while eating food, taking a walk, journaling.

Feel from all your senses (that’s what they’re designed for), and capture that feeling.

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there.”

- Deepak Chopra

I don’t think you need to meditate because you’re unhappy, underconfident, or distracted.

I don’t think you need to meditate to become a better person. I don't think you should meditate if you have a set of expectations, only to quit when they aren’t met.

I want you to give it a try to be more aware internally and externally. Because it’s not a current trend, there is evidence that people meditated in times as old as 1500 BC.

I want you to unleash the potential you have within, even if you’re not aware of it (yet).

I want you to get rid of unwanted negative thoughts which just take a lot of space in your head and yield negative results with constant nurturing.

I assure you that most benefits you feel will not even be the ones you’ll be able to put into words, they’ll only be felt.

Today with the kind of lifestyles we lead, it’s more important to take care of our minds than it has ever been.

You just read another post from In Fitness And In Health: a health and fitness community dedicated to sharing knowledge, lessons, and suggestions to living happier, healthier lives.

If you’d like to join our newsletter and receive more stories like this one, tap here.