Hello Kind Mindful Steemians!
'I'm surrounded by people - but I feel so lonely', that was the headline on BBC News in Oct 2018 (BBC). Apparently based on one of the largest worldwide survey on loneliness. We may be forgiven to think the survey is about old people, right? But contrary to the stereotyping, loneliness is more prevalent in the young age (16-24). Leaving all the limitation and weaknesses of online survey aside, the survey suggested that about 1 in 3 or more people in all age feel lonely.
(https://fee.org/articles/are-we-in-the-middle-of-a-loneliness-epidemic/)
Why?
While there are many reasons why people feel lonely I thinks it is primarily because we lost touch with ourselves. Without negating the importance of socio-environmental, technological and structural factors in loneliness I feel it is the incapability to connect with ourselves is the root cause of loneliness. While many things have been recommended (including simple things like developing hobbies or social networking etc) inner connection with ourselves can transcend loneliness to aloneness. While loneliness is an unpleasant experience, aloneness is a delightful pleasant experience. And when one is connected to oneself it is far easier to connect with others. Because eventually we are all connected 🕉.
So, how to connect with oneself?
Many concepts, ideas and techniques to connect with inner self (so to speak) have been explored and taught by many awakened teachers for centuries. One of the those technique is breath meditation or Annapana sati, meaning awareness of breath. I call it “to be with breath”. While there are many techniques I found through experience that this age old technique is very potent and effective to connect with self (albeit Buddha said there is no self or anatta in the end but we are yet to realise that truth).
Breath awareness collects the scattered mind to focus on one thing, the breath. Being with breath let go of heavy burden of past and future & let us be intensely present in the moment. This brings calm, tranquility and peace. Ardent & undivided awareness of the breath opens up the door to our natural state of joy and freedom we often long for. Awareness of breath alone can truly be a blissful experience.
When we are one with breath, the breath is the most delightful companion we could have.
And thus loneliness transcends into aloneness when breath is our best friend. But there is a catch - befriending breath is easier said than done. We need ardent continuous practice of breath meditation and pay as much attention to the breath as possible. Good news: the happy breath awaits all of us, we just need to pay attention. Observe the breath - are you breathing in or are you breathing out as you read this?
So, the next question is how to make breath our best friend? How to be with breath? We will discuss breath meditation in detail on next post. Until then - let us keep checking whether we are inhaling or exhaling in the moment as much as we can. Witness the breath as it goes in and as it comes out 😊.
And you may want to consider joining “Mindful Life” - community of meditators and meditation enthusiasts on #Steemit on #Discord here - https://discord.gg/AfQSqMb - where we plan to meditate regularly in group. 🙏🏼
With Peace Love & Joy 🕉❤️😊
Let’s grow together in wisdom through #meditation 🧘🏼♂️🧘🏼♀️