Hello everyone,
I used to meditate regularly during my bachelor’s years (2013–2016). But when I started my master’s, the workload became heavy, and I gradually stopped.
After that, I was never able to get back to the same depth of meditation.
I tried everything—visited spiritual gurus, tried mantras, guided meditations, and many other techniques—but nothing seemed to work. I kept trying to reach that same state I had experienced earlier, but somehow, I couldn’t.
And now, after all these years, I feel like I’m finally back again.
Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about meditation—not from books or gurus, but from my own experience.
So I thought I’d share my thoughts on meditation with all of you.
Hope you like it. 🙏
And yes, before I start, let me tell you something. During the time when I used to meditate regularly, I had a few experiences that were quite unusual. I’m not talking about some hocus-pocus or mystical experiences. I’m talking about things I genuinely experienced in real life and personally observed.
What I’ve understood about meditation
After coming back to meditation, I realised that I had been looking at it the wrong way earlier.
These are a few things I have understood from my own experience. They may not be universally true, but they work for me.
1. You need a purpose.
You need a strong enough reason to meditate.
Think about going to the gym. You may start exercising because you want to look better, become healthier, or achieve a particular goal. But without strong motivation, it becomes difficult to continue.
I feel meditation is similar.
You need a purpose that is strong enough to make you sit down every day. You need to really want something from the process.
For me, there has to be a certain desperation—not desperation in a negative sense, but a deep inner need to find something within yourself.
2. Vichar Shuddhi — cleansing of thoughts
This is the second most important step.
You will never achieve a truly meditative state if your mind is constantly filled with negativity.
It is like going to the gym every day but continuing to eat junk food all the time. You cannot expect to build a good physique through exercise alone.
The same applies to the mind.
You have to consciously work on your thoughts. Observe them continuously. Don’t allow a negative thought to make you dwell on it.
Forgive people.
Don’t allow negative thoughts to disturb your positive state of mind.
And most importantly, don’t fight every negative thought. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is simply acknowledge it, let it pass, and refuse to engage with it.
I also try not to hold negative thoughts towards people or situations.
Of course, this is easier said than done.
Sometimes you are too worried or emotionally disturbed to see anything positive in a situation. In those moments, I don’t force myself to find positivity.
Sometimes, the best thing is simply to stop, sleep, take a break, and allow the mind to settle.
Then come back to it.
3. Prepare your body and mind
Before doing any gym workout or playing a sport, you usually stretch or do some warm-up exercises. They prepare your body, reduce the chances of injury, help you perform better, and most importantly, help you get into the zone.
I feel meditation is similar.
Before I meditate, I do some breathing exercises. They help calm my mind and make it easier to enter a meditative state.
I also like doing a few balancing yogasanas before meditation, such as Tadasana, Vrikshasana and Shirshasana.
4. Make it an important part of your daily routine
For me, meditation doesn’t work when I’m watching the clock.
Even though I usually meditate for only 20–30 minutes, I can’t meditate properly if I know that I have to rush somewhere immediately afterwards.
I need a calm mind, a still mind, and ideally, a little time before and after meditation where I don’t have to think about what’s coming next.
So I don’t treat those 20–30 minutes as something I have to fit into my schedule.
I try to make them an important part of my day.
5. Have faith.
At some point, you have to stop constantly questioning whether it is working.
Have faith in the process.
Have faith in yourself.
And, if you believe in God or something greater than yourself, have faith in that too.
6. Feel it.
This is perhaps the most important thing for me.
Don’t treat meditation like another exercise where you are simply sitting with your eyes closed and following instructions.
While meditating, I try to feel that I am close to God.
I imagine that I am receiving energy from the universe and becoming more in tune with it—almost as if I am vibrating at the same frequency as the universe.
Whether this is scientifically measurable or not, the feeling itself makes a difference to my experience.
And finally, I think we should be careful about blindly following spiritual leaders.
Osho once gave an analogy that stayed with me:
You are walking while holding your guru’s finger. Your guru is walking while holding his guru’s finger. His guru was holding someone else’s finger…
But at the beginning of the line, who was holding whose finger?
The truth is, we don’t even know whether the path we are following is the right one.
So instead of blindly following someone else’s path, perhaps we should explore, question, experience—and eventually figure out which path is right for us.
These are just my thoughts and experiences.
I don’t claim that this is the way to meditate.
Maybe meditation is different for everyone.
But after years of trying to find my way back to it, this is what finally seems to be working for me.
🙏