why meditation is no longer optional
I heard the shouts echo between the building of the quiet night streets. As I approach my bus stop I saw a homeless person violently screaming and punching some imaginary figure.
I quickly took out my phone an pretended to look busy.
As I was waiting a group of drunk twenty-somethings stumble up next to me. They spoke loudly and were laughing between every other word. Clearly they had a good time.
I kept staring at my phone pretending my best to look busy.
I was not interested to get into a drunken conversation with any of these people. I just wanted to get home.
The bus finally arrives.
It was one of those double decker buses London is known for. So I went upstairs and grabbed a seat in the back.
Finally some quiet. I put in my earplugs and start mindlessly jumping from video to video on YouTube. I finally found a 30 minute lecture that would keep me entertained all the way home. Perfect.
As the bus was gliding through the street of London I saw all kinds of people out on the streets. Drunk girls in glitter dresses stumbling around. A man walking his dog. A couple of guys having a heated debate outside a kebab shop.
I finally arrive at my stop.
My flat was just a 2 minute walk. I walked briskly through the quiet streets.
I arrived and closed the door behind me. I felt a sense relief as the silence of my house greets me at the door.
I went upstairs and threw myself onto my bed. I could feel the tension in my body slowly releasing.
I enjoyed the moment for a few second before I got back up to brush my teeth.
How I Discovered Meditation
The scene I described above was the closest thing to meditation I’d ever experienced up until that point.
At the time I was 30 years old and hadn’t meditated for a single minute in my entire life.
I’d heard about meditation before, but assumed it was a Buddhist practise. I never understood why people did it, so I never looked further into it.
It was not until I got interested in entrepreneurship that all changed.
As I studied successful entrepreneurs and “their secrets”, noticed many of them talked about meditation.
This surprised me.
These were pragmatic business people and here they were talking about spiritual concepts. What was going on?
I kept an open mind I decided to try it for myself. Maybe I was missing something here.
After a quick Google search I found a meditation app that was free to download. I made a commitment to start for just 5 minutes every morning as the app recommended.
5 Minutes of Frustration
I vividly remember the first morning when I sat down for my first meditation.
It was an absolute disaster.
I closed my eyes, tried to relax but holy crap..
The first thing I noticed was how noisy my mind was. I kept observing my thoughts coming and going as the voice in the app instructed.
And boy was my mind busy. I noticed how random many of these thoughts were.
I also realised how hard it was for me to physically sit still for just 1 minute, let alone 5 minutes.
But I pushed myself though the 5 minute. But it was a choir. I had underestimated how hard it would be to sit still and do nothing.
The first couple of weeks I struggled to sit for 5 minutes without moving my body.
But slowly I got used to it. I even came to appreciate those 5 minutes of peace every morning.
Soon 5 minutes turned to 7. Then 10. Eventually I could meditate for 15 minutes without any issues.
As I was doing my meditation practice I didn’t notice any benefits in my everyday life.
Only after around 4-5 months did I notice subtle changes. The first thing I noticed was how stressful days didn’t seem to affect me as much anymore.
In the past I had brought home the stress from my work day with me home. But I was now able to leave the stress behind and experience more peace and less worry during my evenings.
As time went on I noticed I also became better at handling my emotions. I wasn’t as reactive anymore.
It felt as if I had gained a bit more control over my emotions.
The Battle for Your Mind
The external world today is much like those noisy late Friday nights in London.
You might not notice how much the world is affecting you until you take a step back and sit in silence.
It’s not until we “shut the door” to the outer world we can experience that peace. Most people have never experienced that.
In today's society we are constantly available via our smart phones. We are bombared with impressions all the time. Even in our own homes we don’t get any peace and quiet thanks to our TVs and computers.
This war for our attention will only keep getting worse.
As AI and VR technology is getting better every day we will soon see inventions that will intrude your mental space in ways we can’t imagine.
Don’t get me wrong. These tools are amazing. But if you are not in control of your mind and inner world, you will by default be controlled by these tools.
These technological advances will be an amazing opportunity for a select few. But for people who lack any degree of control over their mind this will be disastrous. And let’s be honest, this is most people.
Therefore I believe meditation will be a necessity, not a luxury, going forward. If you don’t meditate it will be next to impossible to create a barrier to guard your inner world.
If we don’t actively take control of our inner world, the external world will.
Choice is yours.
Never to Late
The great news is that its never to late to start a meditation practice.
It’s easy to build a meditation habit around any lifestyle. So it doesn’t matter how busy you are, you can always implement it into your life.
No external tools will be able to help you in the same way meditation can.
All it takes is 5 minutes to get started. A small investment that will pay off big time in the long run.
That I can promise.
Until next time,
Nic
