Aparita Bhandari

But I just couldn’t get to the deeper, meditative level. Although I tried desperately hard to follow mum’s instructions, not more than five minutes passed before various thoughts would start crowding my mind. An incident from school. A scene from a favourite TV show. An annoying tune that just wouldn’t get out of my head. Eventually, I’d just give up. By the time I was in my mid-teens, I had moved fully into rebellious mode. Nothing could induce me to practice the yoga postures I was once so good at. And meditation, that was the furthest thing from my mind. I just couldn’t understand why anyone would waste time sitting cross-legged, holding her back straight, and concentrating on a void, when she could play with her friends or just read a book. Four years later, when I was in India attending university, I got into yoga as an alternative to the gym. I studied at a Delhi branch of the same school from which my mother learned yoga in Kerala. I began to see that there was something calming about doing yoga, although a good session had me sweating. And this time around, I managed to make it through the meditative portion. It was soothing to sit, take some time out from the mundane activities of my everyday routine, and relax. I also learned it was normal to have thoughts crowd your mind. The trick was to let them come and go, concentrating on the pranayama, the inhalation and exhalation of breath. — beliefnet.com