What is the energy that can replace fear?” Goa-based healer Patrick asks a group of people at the end of a meditation, in Delhi’s New Friends Colony. The answers are many, but nobody can quite hit the nail on the head, till he answers, “Ego”. One’s ego should be large enough to not be upset by minor slights and upsets.
Meditation offers a path to find that calm within. As we get caught up in the ‘external world’, meditation improves attitudes, thoughts, actions and interactions. Spiritual coach Deepak Chopra explains, “The highest form of human intelligence is to be able to observe yourself without evaluation, to be present, to be self-aware.”
So, take your pick or try them all!
OSHO’S GIBBERISH
This is a cathartic technique where one feels unburdened, light and young, like a child, says Ma Prema Naina, Osho World Foundation.
How it’s done:
First stage: 15 minutes. Close your eyes and begin to say nonsense sounds (gibberish). Without suppressing your thoughts, you can throw everything out. Let your body be expressive.
Second stage: 15 minutes. Lie on your stomach and feel yourself merging with Mother Earth, with each exhalation.
HO’OPONOPONO
Pune-based past-life therapist Shubha Yeri explains its origin, which is rooted in a Hawaiian psychiatrist Ilahekela Hew Lane healing violent, insane inmates of a hospital without ever actually meeting them, by simply healing negative qualities in himself.
How it’s done:
There are four sentences in Ho’oponopono which have to be repeated mentally, as many times as you wish:
I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.
If there is unhappiness, anger or hatred regarding a person, bring him or her in your mind and start to say these lines. Move to the next person or situation. Conversely, start saying the four sentences and you will find people or situations flashing before your eyes. When the ‘need’ (your own!) is fulfilled, they will vanish.
DYNAMIC MEDITATION
Vikram Badhwar, communications facilitator, recommends dynamic movement, studying the body’s five rhythms — flow, staccato, chaos, stillness and celebration.
How it’s done:
Start with Flow, visualising water and love. Move keeping a sense of love and celebration. Then, move to Staccato, which uses martial movements. Then we move to Chaos, visualising that the backbone is broken. Stillness is strength, where you’re still, allowing sweat to trickle down. Celebration is about freedom.
RAJYOGA MEDITATION
Rajyoga is the spiritual yoga for the mind. Says Brahmakumari Shivani, “It empowers the self and restores it to its fullest potential.” It is best done in the morning and at night before going to sleep.
How it’s done:
Withdraw energymen-tally from everything around you; turn your attention inward. Create a point of consciousness. Focus on the centre of your forehead. Think of this point as a radiant star, a sparkling jewel or a kindled flame. This will transmit positive energy, making you feel good about yourself.
CIRCLE OF LOVE
This meditation can be done along with the rest of the family. Clairvoyant and artist Dipallé Parmar-Haworth says, “It helps ward off negative emotions and creates a greater bonding.”
How it’s done:
Sit comfortably in a circle. Give your right hand in your partner’s hand and take the hand of another partner in your left hand, so that your right hand is facing down and the left up. The right is giving and the left is receiving. Now chant “aaa-ooo-mmm”. Visualise a stream of white light, like a beam, entering through your crown and into your heart and going out steadily from your right hand. While doing so, say to yourself in your mind that “I love myself. I love my —(name of the partner). Continue till you feel a tingling in your palms and it spreads throughout your body. End with a “thank you”.
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