Pandemic and Mental Wellbeing

[00:00:01] Ideabrew Studios

[00:00:15] To be in the present moment without being judgmental about anything is mindfulness.

[00:00:22] I'm Shailja Saraswati, your host.

[00:00:25] Join me to discover the joys of mindfulness and meditation through life insights, stories and observations.

[00:00:35] The genesis of starting this channel was early this year.

[00:00:40] This was just before the second wave had started.

[00:00:44] Somewhere in the month of Jan Feb, I realized how much is going on in people's lives, especially in my life also.

[00:00:53] I had this entire transformation of changing countries, coming back to India.

[00:00:58] And there was an entire period of settling down in a new country, a new city.

[00:01:03] And it did take a toll on me a little bit.

[00:01:07] And I also realized that, see, I still have tools.

[00:01:11] I have tools to practice, to manage my emotions, manage my mind, my physical body and all of that.

[00:01:19] But I see a lot of people struggling in terms of just not knowing what to do.

[00:01:26] You know, in those uncertain periods of life, whether it is

[00:01:31] self-created, created by your karma, created by the people around you or situations in your life.

[00:01:37] What do you do when uncertainty strikes?

[00:01:41] What do you do? How do you handle?

[00:01:44] I mean, do you have family members who understand your situation?

[00:01:48] Would you go to a counselor?

[00:01:50] Would you go to someone as a friend who can guide you?

[00:01:53] I'm sure we all do all these things, right?

[00:01:54] We'll call up a friend and say, hey, I'm having a bad day.

[00:01:58] Why don't you just come over or just listen to me?

[00:02:00] But is that enough?

[00:02:01] Just ask yourself, is that just picking the phone and calling someone and sharing what's going on inside?

[00:02:08] You will it resolve the emotions, the issues at a subconscious level?

[00:02:15] Do you feel light after having that conversation?

[00:02:18] Would you want tools which are always with you, which you can apply in your life,

[00:02:23] which takes you out of those dark moments,

[00:02:26] those moments which possibly can drag you down so deep that it can take days and days to come out of it?

[00:02:34] And I have seen two kind of reactions to what I'm saying.

[00:02:37] One set of people would be, oh, what is this big deal to talk about mindfulness and meditation

[00:02:43] and everybody's life is the same, everybody has to struggle.

[00:02:47] What is this is all about putting too much emphasis on mind part.

[00:02:53] You just have to act and just do and just move on.

[00:02:56] Well, I mean that's a very pragmatic way of looking at life and I'll say to all those people that

[00:03:01] you know it's okay.

[00:03:02] I mean that's your life and that's your journey.

[00:03:04] But there are other set of people who might just not be able to navigate well through the

[00:03:09] web of emotions feelings and what's happening at a mental level.

[00:03:14] And they might need just some tools and techniques to settle in well.

[00:03:19] So this is for all those people, you know if what I'm saying is resonating with you in the last 18

[00:03:25] months, you felt the burden of your emotions grounding you.

[00:03:30] You felt the weight of your own mind pulling you down in certain moments where you should have

[00:03:37] been very strong then it's time to learn those techniques.

[00:03:42] You know the solution is not going to come from outside.

[00:03:45] I'll go to a counselor, I will go and meet a friend, I will you know went out somewhere

[00:03:52] in office or on you know in front of my family.

[00:03:55] That's not a solution.

[00:03:56] You know we are it's not emotions are not to be cleansed publicly right.

[00:04:02] The residue of all the impact of emotions which is left on our mind as an impression

[00:04:08] is our dirty laundry which we need to wash and we have to take responsibility of doing that.

[00:04:13] It cannot be left on to our family members or our friends or the society to do that.

[00:04:18] Everybody has their own weight and burden to carry.

[00:04:22] The reason and the only reason for me to start this YouTube channel was just this because I

[00:04:27] felt very strongly that my message will reach someone sitting out there that okay it's okay

[00:04:34] to feel bad and low and out but it's also important to learn certain techniques to

[00:04:40] pull yourself out of it before it gets too late.

[00:04:43] I hope somebody sitting there who's watching these videos this what I'm saying and many other

[00:04:48] videos and topics I've touched upon is going to you know impact your life touch your life somewhere.

[00:04:55] There's so many meditation schools, there are so many organizations who are teaching

[00:05:00] meditation please google and figure out what suits you best.

[00:05:05] I am also a meditation teacher you know I teach courses over the weekends which I haven't done for

[00:05:11] a while but I would like to restart pretty soon and it's not about you know I'm not saying

[00:05:17] that you come and teach my learn my techniques please understand that all I'm saying is

[00:05:25] our mind is precious and our mind is so fragile that it can get stuck in events people

[00:05:31] situations and it might take years and years and months and months and days and days for it to

[00:05:37] come out of that and what we are doing is we're just losing out beautiful moments from this life

[00:05:43] we are not able to like live life to the fullest potential and this is all I'm able to tell because

[00:05:49] I've also lived that journey it is just that with these techniques I have something to observe

[00:05:55] my own self and pull myself out of this jungle of emotions again and again and again and again

[00:06:04] while I might sound very talkative when I'm sitting and making these videos and I'm talking to all of

[00:06:08] you I am not that talkative I am a very quiet person I balance life in terms of

[00:06:17] observing life you know I like to take lessons from life or when I am very calm and the

[00:06:23] me time is there on forget me time when I'm when I'm present in the moment my perception becomes

[00:06:29] sharp and there's so much to learn you know so much to learn from a bird flying to a flower

[00:06:35] growing somewhere to a conversation your child is having with you it could be anything it could

[00:06:41] be something you've read in a book something happening on television see your five senses

[00:06:46] have to be sharp and alert but if you are only stuck in the jungle of your mind and

[00:06:50] your thoughts you are missing out on life your concepts your mind your thoughts emotions it's not

[00:06:56] life it's not you all I'm saying is this is like a it's like a bubble you know and you hardly to

[00:07:04] break that bubble to live at another level and to live that that that another level you need

[00:07:10] whole lot of energy and that energy you get through pranayams and meditation and doing some

[00:07:17] chakra dhyana some bump techniques some mudra pranayams rhythmic breathing techniques some

[00:07:23] kriya yoga so seh yoga so there's so many things out there whatever it is whatever is your path

[00:07:31] whatever is your technique whatever is your tool even if it is just to sit and chill and just

[00:07:35] watch life go by even it is just to go and watch a movie and you go into that zone just

[00:07:43] just do it that flow state is so very important just to discover who we are we are not our thoughts

[00:07:51] we are not our emotions we are not our feelings there is so much more beyond all of that and

[00:07:58] it is very easy to get stuck you know it's very easy to get stuck at all these levels because

[00:08:03] all these levels are visible but what we are talking about in terms of hey our higher

[00:08:08] perception clear clarity of mind these are experiences which are sometimes even difficult

[00:08:12] to talk about right I mean what I'm trying to tell you is a very difficult task for me

[00:08:18] because these are something which you experience it's an experiential level and to articulate and

[00:08:24] verbalize and you know tell you in words sometimes it gets difficult and sometimes I might be just

[00:08:31] saying the same things in a few videos which is to calm down you are in the moment you

[00:08:38] discover more and more about yourself these techniques do help please pick up any of my videos

[00:08:46] in which I have talked about a mindful living for example there are a few videos also on meditation

[00:08:54] you know which is called Nath of mindfulness and those are good starting points if you want

[00:09:00] to experience meditation if you are just starting your journey on this read a little bit about you

[00:09:08] know what meditation is all about what kind of hormones it generates you know it's also very

[00:09:13] scientific we didn't have all of this when I started my mindfulness journey I didn't have

[00:09:20] science backing what I was doing I had just had my belief that okay what I'm doing

[00:09:24] this couldn't work for me and it does make sense at an experiential level

[00:09:28] but now science is backing it data is backing it our life is all about human emotions and data and

[00:09:35] here you go you know you have human emotion and your experience in meditation but it's also supported

[00:09:40] by data and all the insights and science supporting that hey what you're feeling is actually there's

[00:09:45] a hormone there's a hormone there's a name you know endorphins and oxytocsans and whatnot you

[00:09:53] know they get released in the in our system and also there's a longest nerve in our system is called

[00:09:59] the vagus nerve and that gets activated and that also is responsible for keeping us healthy you

[00:10:08] know it's supposed to charge our parasympathetic nervous system you know all the time if you're

[00:10:14] feeling like hey I have to fight or flight that is because of your sympathetic nervous system

[00:10:20] and if it becomes too much too much pressure on sympathetic nervous system that's the time you

[00:10:27] start breaking down or diseases come up or you start falling ill very often meditation mindfulness

[00:10:33] techniques will activate the parasympathetic nervous system but I'll leave you here till

[00:10:38] then be present wherever you are irrespective of what's happening in your life not everything

[00:10:45] you can solve in one day what you can solve is your presence are you here now right now just

[00:10:52] keep asking yourself this that is your first step towards mindful living have a wonderful day bye