My Experiment with Meditation

My friend who is in her late 60s has turned towards meditation and reading of the scriptures, thanks to Covid. She encouraged me to do the same.

 Clueless as to how to go about meditation I turned to Google. Well they have dozens of videos about it. But nothing really helped me and I continued my search. I was practicing meditation but also also looking for one which would give me the  ‘AHA’ moment that I had discovered the perfect one for me.  But both my friend and I  had a common lament, “Wish we had learnt it 20-30 years earlier.  Nobody taught us the importance of meditation. Today we would be much better at it.”

With good intentions in mind about educating the younger generation so that they can reap the benefits of meditation I approached the ladies in our building who had young children with plans of teaching them the basics of meditation. After doing 2 years of it I firmly believe that if youngsters did meditation regularly,  they would reap immense benefits. 

The response of the ladies who had kids aged upto 10 was total disbelief. “You won’t be able to make them sit still for 5 minutes- forget anything else.” Well the lady spoke from experience. For 4 days I tried to make 6 kids aged 8-10 years sit quietly. A project that totally failed !!! The kids were so restless and the soothing music was no help. I swear I heard one of the mothers laughing. 

Well I wasn’t going to give up on my good intention and even if one child benefited from it – it would be worth it. Next I requested the 15-20 years age group to at least attend 5 classes. Not that I am a master but meditation has definitely helped me to be more positive and also improved my sleep. Most of the kids escaped saying they didn’t have time 🤔🤔. But 6 kids did join in for a week. Just half an hour in the evening where I taught them to breathe properly and how to release tension by taking deep breaths and other things that I had learnt on my journey. 

Soft music, scented candles, and a general aura of calmness. It kept the youngsters coming back every evening. That itself was a great achievement for me. By the end of 5 days I expected the kids to say bye and go off, giving some excuse. 

Surprise surprise, 4 kids wanted to continue!!! Yay!!. The feedback I got was that they could study better and also were not getting as angry as before. They felt nice that they had done something good and that gave them happiness. 

Now I didn’t know how to handle this extended period of meditation. After all I too was just a beginner finding my way. I think God too steps in when our intentions are good. Out of the blue, one of my old friend called (she has been meditating for 20 years). When I told her about my dilemma she graciously agreed to continue the sessions, but thrice a week. 

It has been going on for 2 months now and one girl who has been meditating – came and thanked me. She was feeling lonely and down due to the prolonged Covid restrictions. Meditation made her feel much happier. In fact she has been experimenting with various meditations online. Maybe I should ask her for help to find the perfect meditation for me :). 

Initially I had felt quite the fool when the younger age group’s response was so negative. But this girl made my day. Lesson learnt — keep trying — even if you make a difference in the life of one person it matters!!!