I learned to meditate when I was in my late twenties. Prior to it, I started practicing Yoga and relaxation when I was around fifteen years old. First, I was told meditation is a kind of relaxation. However, when I learned to practice meditation with the guidance of my meditation teacher thirty years ago and started to meditate daily, I realized that meditation is the process of training our untrained mind to better manage its thoughts, emotions, and feelings, stay present and focus with anything we do.
Meditation is inner reflection, when we practice, we go within and observe what is present in our inner world moment by moment. We learn about our own conditions and notice them without judgments, with kindness and curiosity.
We learn that all feelings and emotions are ok to have. It is ok to be angry, sad, frustrated or having any strong emotions. After all, we all are human and are conditioned to our life situations. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes sad, sometimes excited, and sometimes disappointed.
When we practice meditation, we observe our emotions and feeling in the moment. We understand and name our emotions, allow them to be as they are, feel them in our bodies, and let them pass through our mind and our body…., coming back to this moment more present and focused.
When we are mindful of our emotions, we appreciate our positive emotions like happiness and excitement and learn how to manage and take care of our strong emotions like anger and frustration.
Mindfulness practices also teach us how to be kind and caring towards ourselves and others. When we practice self-compassion regularly, we increase our capacity to be kind to ourselves and accept ourselves just as we are. We understand that as human beings we make mistakes, we fail sometimes, but we learn from them and grow. Compassion practice teaches us to have compassionate love for others and accept them the way they are. We become more forgiving towards other human beings as we realized that they are just like us, conditioned to their life situations and circumstances.
After years of meditation practice and observing all the benefits these mind training techniques have brought to me, especially coming from a financial background, being a controller and revenue manager for over 20 years, working for media and startup companies, taught me what is it like to be under pressure and meet tight deadlines in a daily basis. My regular meditation practices helped me to stay present and mindful of those moments that I had to manage my team and close the books monthly with tight deadlines.
Then when I started my journey to help other people and train their minds with mindfulness meditation practices, I realized that I have the responsibility to pass it on to everyone I meet, and help them to reach the highest potential in their life.
The next thing I noticed was that I was in a six-month teacher training course with willpower Institute, then I have got my Yearlong certificate from Mindful Schools a couple of years after, became a certified mindfulness instructor, and started to teach secular meditation practices to adults, teens, and kids since then.
The greatest pleasure in my life is being a mindfulness coach and witnessing that my students transform along their mindful awareness journey, becoming self-aware and living at peace! This has been an amazing journey so far, I am honored and delighted to be chosen to teach this profound teaching to everyone I meet.
Every day I practice, I go within and observe what is present for me. I notice them with openness and kindness. Some days I need to practice compassion and send love and kindness to myself and others, some days I need to focus on my breathing and my body. Some days I need to practice gratitude, soaking the goods, and bring to my mind the things that make me happy and thankful. Some days I just need to sit still noticing all thoughts and emotions, that are like clouds, passing from the sky of my mind, acknowledge them, and let them go, come back to this moment, more present, at ease!
Love
Gita
