Ashok Gupta explains how chronic worry and rumination fuel stress-related illness. He teaches meditation as a daily mental reset that takes 10 to 20 minutes, improves immune function and mood, and requires only a quiet space and consistent practice.
1440 minutes.
10–20 minutes (speaker specifically notes 20 minutes as minimal and suggests 10 or 20 minutes).
March 8, 2019.
Sometimes I'm amazed at what my mind does all day. Have you ever watched your mind? It's incredible. It's constantly worrying about the future or angry or regretting the past. And it uses up so much of our energy all day. And neuroscientists say that our minds are more likely to focus on our negative experiences. So the first characteristic of our mind is that it keeps going into the past and future. And the second characteristic is that the mind defaults to worry if it isn't engaged in something. This not only creates ongoing stress, negative thinking can cause fatigue, anxiety, depression, and even physical illness. For example, heart disease and high blood pressure have been heavily linked to stress. So how can we reduce the stress in our minds? Meditation is a weight loss program for the mind. It helps you take the weight off your mind. We take a shower every day, don't we, to cleanse our outer bodies. But how often do we cleanse our minds? Just like our bodies get dirty, our minds also get dirty each day from worrying, thinking and all those emotions. Regular meditation is like taking a shower for the mind every morning. It's deep rest for the mind, and it gives us more physical and mental energy and it heals us. Meditation has been scientifically proven again and again to have so many benefits. For example, a better immune system, better concentration. There are so many physical, mental, and emotional benefits. If meditation was a pill, it would have been hailed as a miracle drug. Yet it's available to us for free every day. It just requires a small bit of our time. There are so many ways of looking at meditation. But simply put, for me, meditation is not being your thoughts and reacting to them, but instead being the observer of your thoughts. Now, normally, when a thought comes along, we think that we are that thoughts. We associate with it, we identify with it. We have one thought, then we have another, and then another, and so on. I need to call that person up. I hope he takes my call. Actually, I do need a new phone. Maybe I'll get that new model. I feel like some chocolate cake. We get lost in trains of thinking, and we reinforce the thinking by getting carried away with it. We become emotionally hijacked by our minds. The mind owns us. Imagine that thoughts and emotions are like clouds. Meditation is a process of watching the clouds come and go. But we remain still, like the sky, the space within which the thoughts come and go. Meditation often involves focusing, let's say on a part of the body, or a sound or a word, or even a chant. That focus takes us away from a scattered mind as you practice being the observer. The thoughts begin to exhaust themselves. They begin to get released so our mind is clearer. Eventually there are fewer and fewer clouds in the sky and then some glimpses of our inner silence can enter. Meditation is the gap between our thoughts, the space when we associate more with the witnessing awareness. Now you might say, how is meditation different from just relaxing like I do at the end of the day or when I go to sleep? Well, meditation is much more impactful than sleep because it's deep. Rest whilst you are conscious and with practice you can experience more energy and more creativity over time, more enthusiasm and joy. Some people describe profound feelings of love, compassion, peace and joy. Although really it's indescribable. You have to experience it yourself to know the feeling. We might think I don't have time to meditate today. I've got to do the laundry. I need to check my email. Often we wait for all the other things in our lives to be sorted out before we give ourselves time to meditate. But if we make meditation our priority, then those other things amazingly will sort themselves out in ways you can't possibly imagine. You have 1440 minutes in a day. 20 minutes is nothing, yet it will enhance all the other minutes of your day. Here are some practical tips to make sure you have the best meditation experience. Find a place for 10 or 20 minutes where you won't be disturbed and please let go of your to do list. This is your time, so enjoy the gift that you're giving yourself. You can switch off your phones and tell others that you don't want to be interrupted for that period. Ideally you would meditate in a quiet place, but don't worry, you can meditate even if there is background noise. You can even be on a train or in a car as long as you feel comfortable. It would be great to meditate in the same place and time each day as then it becomes a habit, but you do what works for you. You can sit cross legged on the floor or on a chair with some back support to keep your back as straight as possible. However, you don't have to have your back too rigid and it can help to have a cushion behind your lower back. Consciously relax your body if you can. You can have your hands loosely in your lap with palms facing upwards. Please don't listen to the meditations whilst driving. Operating any kind of machinery during a meditation. You don't actively have to visualize or imagine anything. You can simply flow with the instructions effortlessly. Meditating every day is the best way of training your mind at the same time. Don't worry. If you miss a day or a few days, it's okay. You can pick up from where you left. Finally, please let go of any expectations. Expectations can keep us tense and make us think that we're not doing it right. Instead, we can simply accept whatever happens and enjoy the space and time to ourselves, our inner sanctuary of peace.
