Pressure at the modern workplace leads many of us to think that if we can do two things at once, we could save time and shine as a star in the melodrama of multitasking.
Multitasking has become a normal way of working. Simply put it means: trying to do too many things at the same time. It may be answering the phone, reading your emails, sending text messages, or even cramming in a busy social life on top of an already demanding job.
Research shows that multitasking makes you more productive, but the multitaskers have more trouble focusing and they experience higher level of stress. Even after multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. With an emphasis on multitasking we easily fall victim to anxiety and stress-related diseases which reduce the efficiency of our immune systems.
This type of mind creates a brainwave that is called beta wave — always excited, always active.
There is another frequency of the brain called alpha. A person who has completed a task and sits down to rest is often in an alpha state. A person who takes time out to reflect, a person who takes a break from a conference and walks in the garden is often in an alpha state.
Where beta represents arousal, alpha represents non-arousal. Alpha brainwaves are slower, and higher in amplitude.
People who produce more alpha brainwaves experience less anxiety and their immune systems appear healthier.
The alpha state is a pleasurable and relaxed state of consciousness essential to higher levels of creativity.
Osho has suggested a meditation technique which can help you produce more alpha waves, and make you calm and relaxed.
“If you can manage to do this, thoughts disappear, thinking disappears, but you are not asleep. You are fully aware... a deep peace surrounds you, and your whole being is replenished, rejuvenated”, says Osho.
It is a scientific method, and needs to be followed precisely. It requires a commitment of 40 minutes a day for one year.
Sit, with a straight spine, but not rigid. Make sure you are comfortable. Put your left hand on the right hand, so that both thumbs touch each other.
Then let your gaze rest on your left hand, just go on looking into it in a very empty, passive way. This relaxed looking stimulates your right brain, because your left hand is connected with the right brain, and if you look at it, your eyes and your left hand eventually fall in tune and an energy cycle arises, and your right brain starts functioning.
Then inhale deeply, and say “one” inside. As you exhale deeply, say “two” inside. Continue to inhale and exhale counting up to 10, then start from “one” again. Do this for 40 minutes.
If you lose count, start again from one, and go from one to 10. The first 10 breaths should be as deep as possible. From the second cycle you can relax and let the breathing be natural, silent and quiet — but continue to count.
After you have been doing this for three months, change your counting. Only count exhalations. Exhale — count one, inhale — keep silent. Exhale — count two, inhale — keep silent.
Then again after three months, drop counting altogether. And just watch the breath.
But Osho also warns us that this technique is only a path to meditation, not the meditation itself. It does create mental peace, but meditation is beyond the mind. Relaxed brainwaves enable one to to watch one’s own mind easily. It is easier to be detached when there are no strong waves in the mind.
— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/amrit-sadhana-612
