There are things that help you directly. Then there are things that spills over positive effects on your life indirectly. Meditation falls in the second category. In this post, I want to explore this phenomenon from a student’s perspective.
Here are 7 subtle ways regular meditation can help us during our student life:
- Awareness:
Often, we get lost in our feelings and in our thoughts. We go somewhere, but we’re not truly there. We see something, but we miss all the details. We stop listening to all the sounds around us. We filter out how our body is reacting to each event.
When you get out of your head, you come back to the world. For a student, this is extremely valuable. Learning the nuances of a craft, studying books properly and taking nonverbal cues from the professors demand a certain level of awareness.
Meditation, through enough practice, sparks a light of awareness inside you. It teaches you to stop and listen. To truly experience a moment instead of just barely skimming through it.
- Mindfulness:
We let the chatter in our head go unexamined. This has terrible consequences. This creates a false sense of self in you that has no business inside your head. Its sole purpose is to survive and it will do that at your peril. Thus, students often get involved in activities that we know are bad for us.
When you start being more mindful about your thoughts, you start seeing unhelpful patterns. You start to understand yourself. You learn why you procrastinate and how to beat it. You understand why you like or hate the things you do.
- Clarity
Most of us waste time doing the trivial. We watch TV, we binge on Netflix and we wage twitter wars. These are counter productive habits that do us way more harm than good.
As discussed in the first two points, meditation increases introspection. Thus, you get to know what is important to you and what is trivial. This knowledge is immensely helpful for young people at the start of their adult lives.
- Focus
Lack of focus makes you unproductive. For peak productivity a student needs to incorporate intense focus in their studies and personal projects.
When you know what matters to you, you have the freedom to eliminate everything else. You can let go of the things that robs you of your precious time. Meditation aids in that process.
On top of that, meditation helps you to practice detachment. Thus, it becomes easier to let go the things you need to. Therefore, you become laser focused on the things you truly care about.
- Integrity
When what you think matches what you do, you develop integrity. Without that you can never be truly yourself.
Meditation lets you observe your thoughts and thus facilitates integrity. Therefore, you start to embody what you stand for. You build character. You attract the right people in your life. You get opportunities that wouldn’t have come to you otherwise.
- Patience
Patience is key for people who want to be a self-made success. Unless you inherited a fortune, your life is going to suck for quite a while. Getting through these times of hardship without quitting is crucial for success.
Sitting down and doing nothing for an extended period can be extremely boring. Yet, that is exactly what we do when we meditate. What better way is there to learn patience!
- Self- Control
He who can not control his inner demon, is bound to suffer in the long run. Self-control is necessary to keep yourself from unwanted troubles.
The main theme of this whole article has been ‘choice’. Meditation, through building awareness into your internal world, replaces your ego from the driving sit and puts you in charge.
Thus, you develop the art of self-control which is crucial for your success as a student.
RaihanRiad 