FEELING stressed or strained? Struggling to concentrate in a chaotic world?
Stress or strain actually arises from the situations or challenges that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

We live in a fast-paced world and spend most of our time working with computers, multi-tasking, and under constant pressure to meet deadlines.

Unconsciously, this impacts our minds to a great extent. Our minds are compacted with so many running thoughts on a myriad of things, and eventually, we get tired quite easily.

Over time, we tend to neglect our mental health, which will have an impact on our body’s health sooner or later.

Often, we are told that a healthy body is the key to a healthy mind, but it’s also the other way around. For a healthy body, you need a healthy mind, too.

For a healthy mind, we need to ‘exercise’ our mind the same way we make it a point to do physical activities that benefit our body. The exercise we mean here is meditation.

Dr. Savita Arora, a medical graduate who served as medical officer at the Global Hospital and Research Centre in Mount Abu, India, said that we need to allocate 10 to 15 minutes for meditation on a daily basis. Dr. Savita is attached to the Brahma Kumaris Foundation, and she is the national coordinator of the women’s wing.

She gave a talk on Yoga for Body, Mind, and Soul: Embracing Holistic Wellness at Harmony House in Kuala Lumpur on June 25, 2023, in line with the 9th International Yoga Day celebration on June 21, 2023.

But why do we need to do meditation? One may ask.

Meditation heals the mind through calming and re-centering ourselves, which massively helps our overall physical health.

“The mind gets attracted to people and situations constantly, which indirectly creates a negative state of mind and eventually affects the health of the body,” Savita said exclusively to theSun after her speech.

Explaining further, she said that a stressful mind could lead to psycho-somatic diseases like heart disease, even in youngsters.

“We have a fast life; we compete and compare with others. Our minds are affected by people and situations, and when the mind is in a negative state, it affects the body,” added Savita.

She elaborated, saying that when the mind is in a negative state (like stress or anger), the body releases certain harmful chemicals into the system, and this could affect our physical health in the long term.

“More than 70% of diseases are psychosomatic, such as heart attacks, compromised immunity, and body aches, and this could happen even in youngsters,” explained Savita.

Positive thinking for a healthier mind

Savita said we need to practise positive thinking for a healthy mind. “When we start practising meditation, we should consciously start thinking positively as well,” said Savita.

According to Savita, we must observe the direction of their mind to see if it is becoming negative with anger, hatred, revenge, ego, and insecurity and change the direction of the mind.

It’s also important to have a ‘self-realisation moment and become aware of the thoughts in our mind, whether positive or negative.

“We need to stop and think: I need to transform myself because all of this emotion gives me pressure and pain. Focus and say, I can change my thoughts to positive thoughts,” shared Savita.

She advises us to constantly train our minds in a positive direction, even in adverse situations. She explained that adverse situations will not stop coming, but one must be aware that they have no control over the situation. The only thing in their hands is how they can handle or respond to the ‘situation.’

Positive thoughts would start transforming our state of mind, and our vibration would change completely.

She reminded me that all kinds of problems will always arise, but it’s how a person changes their mind and reacts or responds (after going through meditation and adopting positive thoughts) to the situation that matters, as it makes a difference.

A person with a healthy mind would not consider a situation bad; instead, they would try to gain or learn a lesson and rise above the situation.

Meditation helps change our lived realities

“Meditation does not change our situation. Meditation changes our mind towards the situation,” she said.

A person with a calm mind will respond much better than a person who is not in the right mind. If they take on the challenges positively, they will tend to progress in their lives.

Health needs to be approached holistically and not be limited to the physical. Holistic health encompasses physical, mental, and psychological health, as well as the development of spiritual awareness.

She said yoga has a good effect on body, mind, and soul and shared about Raja Yoga meditation, which is a practise of higher consciousness and considering oneself a soul or conscientious energy.

“Raja yoga meditation shifts consciousness from body consciousness to mind consciousness and encourages connecting with the supreme soul or god,” added Savita.

In Raja yoga meditation, they focus on the original positive qualities or virtues of the soul, such as peace, knowledge, purity, love, happiness, bliss, and power, and apply them in their daily lives.

At the start of the event, a yoga instructor guided the audience to do simple yoga postures on their seats, followed by a performance by young children who showcased their talent by doing yoga postures.

The event was graced by the attendance of the Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia, B.N. Reddy, who officiated the event with other VIPs and gave a speech about yoga.

The Brahma Kumar Foundation offers Raja yoga meditation workshops and courses throughout its branch in Malaysia for free.