“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” – Buddha

For the past 6 months I have waken up every Friday morning at 6 AM to participate in a meditation club. I was lured to “Mind Your Business Club” by my friend Grant. Basically, we have 30 minutes of meditation, followed by 30 minutes of discussion related to meditation, Buddhism, and everyday life. I never quite understood the point of meditation. The only thought that came to mind of meditation was Yoda, who I thought was a true badass, so I decided to give it a go.

Basically, I have come to love meditation, and try to practice it whenever I can. Meditation is also something I believe Generation Y should atleast learn about and try. In our generation, when we have an abundance in material goods and satisfactions, it is even more imperative to seek self-fullfillment and self-happiness. Meditation can be one avenue to achieve that.

There can be huge benefits to anyone who decides to take meditation seriously.

• Deeper Levels of Relaxation and Reduces Stress: Honestly, I have never met anyone my age, or any age for that matter, that says they have to much relaxation. American Society seems to be a hot zone for stress. This is one benefit any can enjoy.
• Observe and Control Your Own Thoughts: While meditating, you want to focus on your deep breathing. The goal is not to focus on one dominant thought. Hundreds of thoughts will pop up, and you just let them pass. “Think about nothing”. This is extremely difficult, and becomes easier with practice. Its great though, for you can sit back and see what really is on your mind in a contolled and relaxed manner. Not when your pissed off in traffic or vulnerable to make a fool of yourself in the moment. You seriously become your thoughts. Why not learn how to observe and control them?
• Improve Concentration: While you attempt to obserce and control your own thoughts you will build your skill of concentration. In a information-packed world with literally thousands of distractions every minute, concentration is important. Concentrating on your breaths, and not giving into any one particular thought during meditation, will allow you to become better self-controlled and allow you to concentrate better in other aspects of life – work, school, etc. The more concentrated you can become, the more efficient you will be.
• Better Understanding of Yourself and the World Around You: As you meditate, you really see a movie of all your thoughts before your eyes. You will notice which thoughts come up more, which seem to bother you the most, etc. Also, as you meditate, you can observe your thoughts without all the prejudices and other negative factors you might carry with yourself throughout the day. Since your more relaxed and more concentrated, you can better understand the daily issues that arise. This is huge to better understanding your school issues, work, relationships, and overall, your purpose and motivations in life.

Just start out trying to meditate 5 minutes a day in the morning, at lunch, or before you go to bed. Meditation is one way to live a more balanced life. And the more balanced you are, the more stress-free you tend to be. Meditation is one thing I believe all Generation Y should consider and practice.

Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them. ~Confucius, Analects

A new year has just kicked off, so it seems appropriate to set some goals into place. Among the hundreds of goals flooding my mind this week, there was one that is most apparent; breaking down the bad habits and develop new ones.

Throughout the past few months I have recognized that my habits, which seem so small since I have programmed them into my subconscious for the past years, ultimately dictate my life and represents my character. I have been attending a social group that meditates and incorporates Buddhist practices into everyday business and stressful situations, and I have noticed the same message constantly.

“Free of Attachment” – in my perspective, means for myself or anyone to be free from negative habits, prejudices, bias, stress, the list goes on and on. One the of key reasons to practice meditation is just to free yourself from everything and just “be”. Still learning to “just be”, I have realized that habits can make or break a person. Countless times I find myself sluggishly hit snooze on my alarm clock, wasting 15 minutes that I could spend, who knows, doing push-ups or making myself an actual breakfast. Instead of wasting time exploring Wikipedia, I can plan my next day or hang out with friends and family. Eliminating and freeing myself from these bad habits and forming new good habits in their place is my goal.

One big reason for this specific goal is replacing the bad habits with good habits that will better service my overall perception in everyday life. One of the books I’m currently reading, Having it All, by John Assaraf, states that “seeing is not the same as perceiving”. According to Assaraf, the brain collects what we see, and whether the images are familiar or not, any information we don’t need, is basically thrown out from our consciousness.

“Our beliefs and habits act as filters that get in the way of truth and possibilities.” Another point I liked, “We talk, act, and pretend out the prejudices of our beliefs.” Our prejudices and beliefs dictates our self-esteem, our personal relationships, and even our mental and physical health. Our conscious mind takes in about 11 million pieces of information! And we are actually only aware of 40-2,000 pieces. Our habits condition our brain to drop out and not even see or recognize the other 10 million + information.

Keeping that in mind, I want to eliminate the negative habits that are fixed into my subconscious and form new positive habits that will allow myself, or my subconscious, to perceive and pick up more important information relevant to my goals, tasks, or situation at the time. Tim Ferris, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, promotes Selective Ignorance, where I should focus on the real important information that matters or info that is relevant, and ignore all the millions of crap information thrown at us from all directions. For more information on using Selective Ignorance as a tool, read about RRS – Really Simple Syndication – for the internet, from Ryan Holiday’s post. I need to follow this advice, and stop taking in or paying time and attention to irrelevant and unimportant info that I seem to draw myself into courtesy of my bad habits.

Like watching stupid videos on YouTube due to my bad habit of procrastination, and spend time taking in important info relevant to my goals and educating myself, now courtesy of my new positive habit = starting this blog.

To sum it up, my ultimate goal for 2008 is to replace my bad habits and condition new positive habits that will allow my subconscious to perceive and recognize the important and relevant info of the 11 million pieces thrown at me daily. With more efficient perception, I can be open to more possibilities and be more creative, and be free from my past prejudices and negative habits. To top it off, I’ll incorporate Selective Ignorance into my daily life to cut out the crap and focus more on the good stuff that benefits me. I believe that habits can either make or break a person. We all have some negative habits, and I think it is always important to recognize them, eliminate, then replace them with new positive habits. Equipping myself now with the right positive habits will allow myself to conquer and accomplish any of my goals and dreams.

Quote of the Day relevant to the post:

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”