I Tried Meditation For The First Time In My Life & This Is How It Made All The Difference

I am a regular 26-year-old working woman who, like most people, goes to work on a Monday wishing it was Friday.

Living for the weekend has now become my thing. It's the kind of thinking I wish I had control over but I guess I don't.

I¡¯ve found myself stuck in that loop for far too long, until one day all I was left with was anxiety. My happy Instagram posts changed to anxious posts. The cloud of unhappiness was clearly visible and, in no time, there were questions popping up on my social media.

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'What¡¯s wrong' and 'are you alright' soon replaced 'when are we meeting' and 'lookin' good.' My friends figured something was up.

It didn't help that I used to dodge every other plan my friends made. Even a week-long vacation didn¡¯t make a difference. My inherent problem of overthinking only made it worse. A strange fear was bubbling up. I needed some space.

Then one of my best friends asked me: have you tried meditation?

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What followed was an intense conversation on the benefits of meditation. I found myself downloading a mediation app for beginners.

Keeping my thoughts running haywire for 20-30 minutes seemed like a daunting task. But I pushed myself.

I meditated sporadically for a while before finally attempting it for real, at a stretch.

As instructed by the app, I woke up early in the morning and meditated for 30 minutes straight. It was difficult. Thoughts are not easy to control. They wander. But I tried that much harder to reach a level of mindfulness and peace.

I didn¡¯t notice a difference until a colleague walked up to me and told me that I've started smiling more often now and that my skin is glowing too.

I instantly broke in to a smile. I knew it was the magic of meditation at play.

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I decided to keep going. After reading more about it and meditating more consistently, I saw yet more benefits that had missed my attention before.

If someone were to ask me what the experience is like, I'll say it's one place where you can truly be free from the cares and worries of the world. It's a state of self-awareness; you stop reacting to things that create negative energy.

Mental peace comes and goes easily. It's not a permanent state. This I know from personal experience. But I'm glad I found one way to achieve that mental state more often.

Today, I feel less stressed. I feel happy at even the most unexpected places. I feel I am now able to build better bonds with people. Most importantly, it has taught me patience.

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Not just that. Today, I feel more focussed at work and it has now become easier for me to invest my time and energy at the right place. My creativity has seen a change too; my mind's bubbling with fresh ideas because it's free from clutter. I never realised that this clutter was taking up so much space.

Here are some things I learnt during the process:

1. If you can meditate for even just 10 minutes in a day that's enough.

2. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It's all about finding your centre, and it's okay if that takes time.

3. Meditation works differently for different people. But it'll only work for you if you can first find out what's troubling you. Let meditation do the rest.

4. When it comes to meditation, technology can surprisingly be a good ally.

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Here's something else I learnt. New York's Y7 Studio, known for its community-oriented yoga classes, is merging technology and meditation to create a whole new experience called WAVE, which makes experiential and sensory-driven practices available to you in your comfort space.

There are various apps that can help you with that if that's your thing.

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In the end, meditation is slowly turning me into a person I never thought I could be. It is one of the most overwhelming experiences you can gift yourself because that big pay cheque will never reward you the way mental peace will.