Igniting Hope with the Help of Meditation

Igniting ‘Hope’ with the help of Meditation

By Aroon Ajmera

‘He who looks outside...Dreams,
He who looks inside....Wakes’
C. G. Jung

With the current economic situation in the world, our personal problems get magnified and we develop an emotion of fear and lack of hope. When this situation arises, we can work on ourselves and re-ignite the flame of abundant hope through meditation.

Meditation has been practiced by mankind for centuries and has never been as popular as it is today. Why is that? The answer is simple. When you relax your conscious mind, you gain access to your subconscious which holds your past programming exactly like a computer. The self limiting factors and beliefs that prevent you from reaching your goals and aspirations are installed in the conscious from early childhood or through past life experiences. These beliefs and limiting thoughts controls our current life and prevents us from moving on. Meditation helps you reprogram your conscious to make you feel as if you are starting a new fresh life; a life of less stress, more energy and increased self-confidence. This creates greater physical, mental and emotional balance, putting you in touch with your true purpose and destiny in life.

The most important mantra for meditation is OM Shanti- meaning peace is inside me and I am an eternal being. When our thoughts and actions are not in our control, the situation becomes hopeless. If this feeling sinks in, it affects our immune system and our health gets adversely affected. When our courage does not come to our rescue, we become sad within us and get locked in the past.

We must let go of the past and go with the flow or else our thoughts can become stagnant with lack of acceptance of the tragic situation.

We must learn to understand that there is rhythm in life. In winter we accept winter and hope for the summer and learn to float with life as it comes. If we do not accept the situation, we get into depression and are unable to help our children, our family members or our loved ones. Our soul has a reservoir of the power of acceptance that can begin to shift our state of mind. .

We have attachment with our children when they are growing up or with the people whom we love. Love means-when you are in pain, I am in pain-we are always surrounded by this belief system and this situation leads us to our own hopelessness when our child goes through pain. We start doubting our parental skills. So, when our child cries with pain, we have two choices

1. We can cry with the child and add to the hopelessness or
2. Take care of ourselves by being stable and non-judgemental

But invariably our faith in the divine power shatters when things go wrong as we attribute every situation to the will of the almighty and not to the nature. We believe that when a leaf moves in the tree, the almighty divine power moves it and not the cycle of nature. When this happens, we must ask the power within that, “I do not understand the situation-please enlighten me on how I should deal with the situation”. The divine power loves you unconditionally and will tell you to meditate to receive the nourishment from the peace within you and make you feel stable. Meditation shifts our focus from the situation of our mind to our response to the situation. Develop this inner strength with the power of meditation to make you stable and capable of helping others.
Spirituality can help you take a wider perspective by coming out of the narrow perspective and the equation. Meditation can help you send positive thoughts and love to those who need your support and love.

There are many meditation music CDs available to help you get started.

There are 5 basic steps to keep in mind for beneficial meditation.

1. Breathing sequence: 1 inhale- 4 retain-2 exhale
2. Position: upright-spine straight--hands open on thighs
3. Visual Focus:-on a candle flame or a flower or an inspirational divine statue
You can even do meditation it with the eyes closed.
4. Grounding: Feel the feet connected to earth to feel grounded
5. How long: 10 or 15 minutes per day

There are scores of benefits of daily meditation as listed below:

• Clears your mind and sharpens your thoughts
• Helps your body image and achieves your full potential
• Heals your mind and body
• Helps you obtain a clear perspective on your life and future direction
• Recharges your batteries by letting you spend a little time alone
• Gives you internal calm and helps you let go of your emotional stress
• Makes you aware of the new opportunities coming into your life
• Arouses your creativity waiting for expression
• Gives you an objective view of the world
• Helps you explore your dreams without falling asleep
• Strengthens the aura bubble around you by giving you stability, confidence and inner strength
• Helps you relax and leads you towards peace, harmony and balance

Feng Shui is all about being in harmony with your environment by rebalancing your physical, mental and emotional state. Regular meditation helps you in achieving this.

Aroon Ajmera
February 2011