Moving away from Self-Destructive Cycles

Kaveri Korgavkar , a 4th year medical student, shares her experience of meditation nd Inner Engineering

I never realized how stress-driven my life had been until I started meditating. It seemed that everything I was involved in, whether it was school, personal relationships, or other activities, were a series of responses to anxiety and stress. The worst part was that I became so used to this that I didn’t even realize my daily life involved moving from one stress to another. What a self-destructive cycle! There was no true satisfaction with the things I did.

Six years ago, as a freshman in college, I found out about a course called Inner Engineering by accident – I showed up with my yoga mat thinking it was a hatha yoga class. Nevertheless, I ended up learning a 21-minute long meditation called Shambhavi Mahamudra. How could I have ever imagined how drastically what I learned in those 5 days would change my life? It was nothing less than that- life-changing. I diligently did my 21 minutes a day of meditation. The changes were so incredible that I didn’t even realize it was the meditation that brought them. The first thing I noticed was that I was calmer about everything, and that life didn’t affect me as much anymore. Life’s ups and downs still happened, but they could only affect me to a certain extent. This partial detachment was beneficial – I felt so stable on the inside that anything could happen on the outside and it only mattered a little bit.

I noticed many changes in my role as a student over the years. I stopped being as anxious about grades and results, and began enjoying what I studied more. I began to sleep less and feel more invigorated through the day. I could get up early and happily get engrossed in whatever I was studying! Not only did this help me perform better in school but I also had fun instead of disliking studying like many of my peers. During the hectic life of a medical student, this was the only thing that kept me stable on a daily basis. Today, as I near the end of medical school, I know that this practice will help me be a balanced, well-read, patient, and empathetic physician.

Another change was that I started to notice things around me more, particularly nature. There was always time to slow down and just observe how beautiful the world looked. As the years have passed, I’m amazed to see all the benefits that I have found. Now, my daily meditation feels just like a daily shower. After both, I feel cleansed. Overall this practice has made me calmer, able to focus on the task at hand rather than stress about the future, helped me do better in school, helped me develop new interests, and made me happier in general. I still can’t believe that just 21 minutes a day can have such a huge lifelong impact, and I am eternally thankful!