Dan Harris explains the neuroscience behind meditation. He explains, “ the power of now”, which however trite it may seem, the practice is far-fetched. Not many people have adopted meditation the benefits of which are huge. When the mind is just focused on “now” not worried about the little voice in head which causes stress, study has proved the grey matter of the brain increases significantly, making us smarter and happier. Happiness, like any other skill is a skill that needs to be learned.

He also says that in the coming years, exercise would become like a daily ritual similar to brushing teeth. It will be meditation that we will be learning. Meditation is training the mind for just being in “now”.

You really don’t have to carve an hour to do meditation on a daily basis, if you can do that 0then go ahead and do it. But if you are like most people, and don’t think you can take an hour of your schedule just to meditate, then just try training your mind to be in “now”. This means just focusing on the task at hand, controlling the drifting thoughts to concentrate only on the current activity.

Dan Harris rightly said that if you told someone in 1940s that you run, people would ask you –‘what are you running from?”  This will be the response to meditation too –most people would react that they don’t need to meditate, it is inscrutable now, but sooner we get on the bandwagon the better it will be.

 Written by Suchitra Sharma