In my last few years of wellness journey, while practicing & teaching meditation, the most common sentence people share with me is

“I can not do meditation”. 

“I can not focus”. 

“I have too many thoughts”.

“I envy those people who can meditate because I can not.”

And I always reply, “Everyone can do meditation. It is just about choosing the right type and right procedure for you. Meditation is not just about being thoughtless.” 

And the next question is invariable “What is Meditation?”

In spite of asking the question “WHAT IS MEDITATION?” One should always ask, “WHAT IS MEDITATION FOR ME?”

Meditation can have a different meaning for different people:

As For all of us, who drive through life with logic:

Meditation is the mind’s ability to willfully change brainwaves to enter an altered state of consciousness.

In more simple terms, Meditation is like a remote which gives you control over your brain. 

Another explanation could be, Meditation is like an app that enhances your quality of life by upgrading your brain’s efficiency. 

(Pick whichever definition suits you ;))

And For all of us, who seek fulfillment and spiritual growth:

Meditation is seeking the God inside you, acknowledging it, and then being one with it. 

Now Let’s discuss how to choose the right type and procedure of meditation for you.

We all carry different personalities, so our brain functions differently.

To begin with, most of us have a hyperactive thought process that refuses to calm down or take a break.

For all such people, Mindfulness is the one-stop solution. 

Now a question popes up. “Isn’t Mindfulness and meditation different things?”

 Here comes the answer. 

As most of us have never been trained to understand our minds and thoughts. It is quite difficult to manage something which we can’t understand, so our thoughts start doing “Manmani”(flowing arbitrarily) most of the time. 

They are in an active state most of the time, so we must use tools that can tame and guide our thoughts in an active state. 

Mindfulness is an active meditation to engage hyperactive minds which entrails practices like, focusing on any one object/activity at a particular time. 

This guided meditation ensures that your thoughts remain centered in a single direction while being both engaged & entertained (through the meditation process). And slowly over the period of time, it transports you to a state of blissful calm and peace. Often resulting in what we call a Trance state. 

And this is what we call meditation.

Now let’s understand the difference between mindfulness and meditation.

As we keep hearing, Meditation is a state of being free from thoughts.

So we can say that Meditation is an altered state of mind. 

We commonly experience 3 states of normal everyday existence; Awake, sleep & dreams

And Meditation is the 4th state when all the conflicts of our thoughts turn into coherence, where our thoughts and feelings give a way to wholeness and healing.

This is the time when all 3 types of our brains (Logical, Limbic & Reptilian) are in perfect harmony with each other.

Logical brain– It controls our thoughts, actions, and reactions. The one we refer to as the brain in our day-to-day communication.

Limbic brain– It controls our emotions and feelings. This is the brain which is often referred to as “My heart feels, My heart says, etc.”

Reptilian brain- The oldest part of our brain which understands the language of energies and vibration. Often called “a gut feeling or sixth sense.”

Meditation brings them all in alignment. It gives us higher wisdom and the best strategies to deal with different situations in life, but most importantly it gives us awareness and clarity to see things as they are by reducing the adulteration of multiple perceptions. 

So for all the people who get puzzled by their outpouring of thoughts when they sit in silence,” STOP BOTHERING!!!”

Rather replace them with any single thought/mantra or an affirmation to keep your mind active till you learn to get transported into deeper realms of your inner world.

And Always remember, As a baby even walking was once a major challenge. Practice is the key!! So once you start by sitting in one place at one time with nice soothing music on, you will notice your thoughts turning into your friends rather than foes. And then you will be in the driving seat!!