Unplug, Unwind and Energize.

Yesterday evening was special. It was a Wednesday, I went to the weekly Toastmaster's meeting and gave my Project 2 of Competent Communicator manual. Though I messed up a bit and wasn't satisfied by myself but as a friend said, 'You're too hard on yourself!' So, I'm going to cut myself some slack and bask in the glory of giving a considerably good speech, getting the 'Best Speaker Award' for the evening and receiving all the love being bestowed on me for a while. Here's the draft of what I spoke:

"I’m on my way back from office. It’s 11PM in the evening. No, I don’t work in afternoon shift. My day very well began at 8:30 in the morning. In spite of all these efforts, my manager still feels that I’m not putting in sufficient amount of effort. To top it all, it’s a Saturday, I’m stuck in Hinjewadi traffic and I’m terribly hungry. My Mom calls. I’m reminded of home. And of course, the home cooked food. She said: I’m going for a meditation vacation to Rishikesh. And I want you to come along.

Amongst all that hustle bustle, meditation would be the last thing I’d excitedly say a yes to. But out of what she said, only one word made sense. Vacation…..and I so needed one!

A very good evening fellow Toastmasters and dear guests.

So, in the month of July, I went for this vacation to Rishikesh. I don’t know what my friends expect of me but they had blatantly assumed that it would be for some wild river rafting or a camping trip. What happened just after I mentioned that I was going for a meditation retreat to Rishikesh, gave me….my P2 speech. :P

Some of the reactions that I faced were:

“Whaaaaattt?? Have you really gone down the way of meditation?”

“You? You of all the people would keep your mouth shut and meditate?”

There was another friend who even told me, “You know what, meditation is only for hippies and freaks. It’s sheer nonsense.”

But post the vacation, I’m glad, I could go there. Not because I got to click posy pictures with Ganga, the holy Ganga flowing in the background and boast about it on Facebook. I mean, yeah, that’s one part of it. What else are vacations for?

But apart from all of that, I did what I went there to do. To unplug, unwind and energize. Of course, there wasn’t any magic potion that helped me do all of it in 5 days. But an entire structured process to help me come out of Monday morning hangover, with all due respect, to help me tackle my manager, in a much calmer way though. All in all, it helped me wash away my office diaries. 

No surprises. Our work lives are stressful. Eight in 10 of us are stressed at work. A moment of silence for those unsung heroes of our generation who do not wait for Friday-s. It’s so so easy to be consumed by the details of our lives, to be impressed with the technology of our own society, to get lost in the business and busyness of our ways.. But it’s like, when we move so fast, we miss so much.

And apart from all those trivial things, I had another specific reason. I had recently lost a loved one. And the pain was extremely excruciating. The moments of remembering and missing them felt as if I was diving through a black hole of no return. And I was time and again reminded of it when I was at the retreat, cut off from social media and just being with myself. But the first step of stepping out of that darkness began with reclaiming those few moments of silent inner connection every day. It was all about reminding myself to let go of the things I cannot control. Those few minutes to find peace within. 

I’d always thought I was too hyper to meditate. Of course, calm is not a state that we usually experience every day. But what I learnt was, mind is like a muscle. It responds to consistent practice. During those five days, I used to..err I was made to sit in a guided meditation practice for between 10 to 15 minutes, two times a day. As directed, the goal wasn’t to control my thoughts. It was in fact to stop letting them control me.

And, it wasn’t like I went there and in the first round of meditation felt, “Eureka! I’ve figured life out?!” But slowly and gradually, what I felt was, meditation is about emptying yourself. Paradoxically, meditation is not about gaining. It’s about losing. Losing much of all you’ve been holding onto. And at any rate, it’s liberating.

If you think, just like I did, that you can’t do it because your mind is too busy or you don’t have time for this, welcome to the human condition. No one really cares if you have 17 children and five jobs. Everyone’s mind is out of control. It if weren’t, no one would ever need meditation. And I’m sure you have five minutes to confront that voice in your head.. 

Just sit. Focus on your breath, and when your brain loses focus, you start over, and over and over. And I believe, if as little as five to 10 minutes of your day can change your life, start today! 

Of course, this all was rosy enough when I was learning this art in a posh hotel with Ganga flowing by the side and it was a vacation. I don’t expect you to go home, lock up yourself in a room and start to meditate but yes, if you relate to even a bit of what I said, I’m sure you can try and sit and just be with yourself for 5 minutes of your day.

Join me! Unplug, unwind and energize."