Prioritize Mental Health

Every year World Mental Health Day falls on 10th October. If we wish to review the state of our mental health then we need to look at the state of our mind.

Is our mind naturally silent or is it restless? full of inner chatter? Are we a slave to the mind or have we mastered our mind?

Ancient seers gave the term “CHITTA” to the natural restless waves of the mind.

According to Patanjali’s yoga sutras, yoga is defined as ‘Chitta Vritthi Nirodhaha’ which means stopping of the restless waves of the mind.

Man is perpetually troubled by the restless nature of the mind, giving rise to stress and poor mental health.

"If we wish to review the state of our mental health

then we need to look at the state of our mind."

Effects of a Restless Mind

A restless mind results in unwanted dissipation of cosmic energy. When cosmic energy is thus dissipated, the physical body becomes weak and more susceptible to attacks from various external sources, resulting in various diseases, early aging and finally early death.

One is unable to focus and concentrate due to the naturally existing restless waves of the mind. Hence memory power becomes impaired. This makes one ineffective to attend to any work. One is also unable to cope with the stressors of life.

Cultivating the Mind

An uncultivated mind is like uncultivated land full of weeds, or in this instance full of unwanted thoughts. Thus, an uncultivated mind is a confused and disastrous mind prone to poor mental health.

When one concentrates on any given work, he minimizes the naturally existing restless waves of the mind. The more a person concentrates on a given work, the more the mind of the person becomes cultivated.

Meditation is making efforts to diminish the restless waves of the mind. When our mind gets concentrated on the breath, it begins to gradually become empty. By practicing at the same time every day, a calm, peaceful and tranquil spiritual mind is established.

As more and more time is spent in being with the breath, the mind becomes absolutely empty free of useless and restless thoughts. When the mind is totally empty, huge amounts of cosmic energy begin to flood the physical system.

When the physical system gets saturated with cosmic energy, the natural consequence is the great phenomena of ‘seeing’. In other words, one gets clarity about life and life situations. This new found clarity erases much of the confusion found in an uncultivated mind.

"Meditation is making efforts to diminish the

restless waves of the mind."

Improving Mental Health

If we are serious about mental health then we need to give importance to the practice of Anapanasati Meditation or breath awareness meditation.

When we allocate time to be with our breath, we are allocating time to be with our SOUL. Time spent with our SOUL nourishes us at all levels.

Give Importance to Meditation Practice

It is important that adequate amount of time is allocated for meditation practice. For a beginner it is based on your age. So, a beginner to meditation aged 30 years old should meditate for a minimum of 30 minutes. He should then aim to increase time spent sitting for meditation perhaps by practicing two times a day or sitting for a longer duration.

Your individual practice is as important as group practice. Always prioritize sitting in meditation for as long as possible.

Also try to be consistent with your practice by doing it at the same time and same place every day. This routine then gets incorporated into your lifestyle and meditation practice will become a routine habit just like brushing your teeth.

If you miss practicing and restart your meditation practice after some time, you will again face the same challenges as a beginner to meditation.

Share your Meditational Experiences

In meditation we touch different layers of our consciousness. As we express our meditational experiences, we gain more clarity about our consciousness and our progress in meditation.

We also attract like-minded persons into our energy field. When an experience is shared other meditators can often relate with it and everyone benefits.

Habit of Reading Spiritual Books

According to Swami Sivananda spiritual books contain the wisdom of sages, saints, philosophers and mystics. By studying the wisdom contained in spiritual books, we can master the secrets of all the scriptures, know the exact nature of things and tune our individualized personality with the laws of Truth.

Drop All Expectations

If we mix salt in water, the water will surely turn salty. Likewise, there will always be an outcome to practicing meditation. The question that most seekers ask is how soon?

If we mix salt crystals in water, it will take some time for the water to turn salty but if the salt is in powder form, then we will see instant results.

If we expect outcomes within a particular set time then we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. Instead, we ought to focus on being diligent with our practice. Keep on motivating yourself to stick to your daily practice.

Generally, it has been observed that most Meditators do observe changes within 40 days of sincere practice along with changes in food habits and if practicing with a group.

Written by Navneet

Navneet is a Meditation Practitioner and Teacher and founder of Truthful Living. For more information, please visit: www.truthfulliving.org