HELLO

Hello is a wonderful way to greet anyone and everyone around you, I absolutely love annoying my friends and family saying hi’s and hellos individually in every single gathering. A simple act of saying hello can bring a smile on someone’s face, a simple act of saying hello may give hope to someone who is feeling utterly hopeless and devastated. A simple act of saying hello can comfort someone feeling out of place in a gathering. A simple act of saying hello can lead you towards good friendships and connections with others. Hello’s been in our life’s since forever but here I have a question for you, did you ever take time to greet yourself with one??  Have you?? Not really right??

Now, you may be wondering who does that? Why is it important anyway and what difference does it have on us? I myself wondered with the very same question before practicing this technique. Now that after realising it’s power, I think it’s important because it keeps you centered with your life energies. It helps you to calm down, pay attention to your very being and priorities in your life. It allows you to introspect on your thoughts and feelings. It helps to deal with your emotions in a better way. Most importantly it helps you have a better connection with your inner self and so with the world around you. 

If it sounds interesting and makes sense to you, I welcome you to have a better conversation with yourself practicing a simple meditation technique “Hello”. 

For optimal results, do this before starting meditation: I would recommend you to have shower with slightly cold water as this helps to calm your body a bit (if you are a hot shower person, it’s fine to just finish off your shower with slightly cold water). Set your room or space you meditate in a way that it encourages your practice, for this you can have some flowers with nice fragrance beside you or lit scented candles and have some soft music on. All these steps help you to calm your mind and body, and so you can have better focus during meditation.  

Step 1: Sit in a comfortable position up straight and close your eyes. Focus on your breath taking deep breaths. Inhale deeply in a way that it opens up your lungs to its full capacity and slowly exhale. Keep the pace and observe your breath. Focus on the spot between your chest where your inhale and exhale transition happens within your lungs.

Step 2: Step one helps you to calm down a bit and set your direction towards step 2 i.e saying hello to you. Continue doing your breath work, slowly and gently hold your face with your hands taking deep breaths. Gently, very gently say hello to yourself, if you feel comfortable saying it out do it, if not say hello in silence. Observe how you feel saying it to yourself (at first few may feel it weird/strange but as you practice it every day, you see the progress). 

• Have a brief conversation with your inner self, be kind in those conversations.
• Ask yourself how are you? 
• Appreciate your inner self  addressing things specifically (e.g: Thank you for being such a warm and welcoming person, thank you for being so loving, thank you for being so giving and forgiving, thank you for taking time for yourself, thank you for your honesty, thank you for your care and concern towards everyone around you etc).
• Apologize to your inner self addressing things specifically (e.g : sorry for being harsh on you, sorry for not taking time for you, sorry for not eating on time, sorry for the awkward silence, sorry for not speaking up when it is needed etc). While saying this do not romanticize all situations that’s happening in your life instead mean it while saying it.
• Say what you are proud of yourself and assure your commitment to yourself and your growth (e.g: say things like I am proud of you for taking very good care of your kids and family, I am proud of you that you are doing great at your job, I am proud of you for taking time for your physical and mental health, I am committed to you and your progress in ( specify your goals specifically) eg: meditation, losing weight, finding job, reading a book, taking time for yourself  etc). 

All this time make sure to take deep breaths.

Step 3: Now that you spoke to your inner self, listen to your body by placing one hand on your chest , slightly towards left and one hand on your stomach. Continue breathing and observe your heart beat and any sensations in your stomach. Focus on your heart beat and continue the breath work.

Step 4: Slowly and gently touch your arms, feel the skin of your arms and say thank you for being there for you since you were born. Then gently hold your wrist one after another and feel your pulse. Take your time doing this. 

Step 5: Once you finish step 4, come back to step 1 i.e observing your breath. Take your time, take your time before opening your eyes. Rub your hands and place it on your eyes gently and then open your eyes.

You just need anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes to practice this technique and you definitely can take that time by cutting your time down on social media or phone calls or you definitely know where and what to cut down to make sometime for yourself:). 

If you are not sure whether you have that much time to do so, begin with step one. Just practice step one whenever  you find some  time. It’s ok if you can do it only for one minute in the beginning, do it and progress it slowly to 5 and eventually to 20 minutes or more. 

Now, I understand that it could be challenging to focus on your breath initially, as your mind wanders restlessly to all the events and situations you have been in till then, and there is a high possibility that you drift away with it ( I admit that it happens to sometimes even now). For this, imagine yourself on a platform and every thought that is popping in your head as a train (thought train). Whenever  there is a thought in your head, you have a choice whether to board the thought train or wave goodbye to it while standing firmly on the platform. Whatever the thought /situation/ event it is just place it onto the train and let it go until it disappears completely. Don’t be surprised if you drift away with it or your thought train is running constantly :). It will take some time to make it disappear completely and see the progress, so trust yourself and stick with it. 

Share it with your near and dear ones, so that we can learn through each other’s experiences.

I wish you good luck with the practice!!

Gratitude note: I would like to express my immense respect and gratitude towards Mindvalley academy and my virtual gurus, a very renowned new york times best selling authors Lisa Nichols, Dr. Shefali Tsabary and Pip Waller for their life changing publications, courses and techniques. I am privileged to be able to read their books and take their courses through Mindvalley academy, from where I came across not just life’s lessons but also different meditation techniques. I customized this meditation technique picking up what worked for me the best through their techniques. I borrowed the name for the meditation technique from the book Deeply Holistic by Pip Waller, MH.