Waking Up

Waking Up is a guide to mindfulness, spirituality, meditation, and understanding religion, analyzing these topics from a neutral point of view to create a bridge between atheists and believers, all while explaining a series of core aspects regarding spirituality and how the mind works.

Being a spiritual person doesn’t necessarily imply that you’re religious. And to become spiritual is to allow your mind, body, and soul to sync and live in harmony with the world. Practicing mindfulness is like giving yourself a break from your own emotions and assumptions, from the constant mind chatter, and it helps alleviate negative feelings and insecurities. So, where to start? One good way to practice mindfulness is through meditation.

Meditation puts you in a place where peace of mind and contentedness can find you. Although mastering meditation isn’t an easy feat, once you truly immerse yourself in that reflective state of mind, tremendous benefits will follow. Therefore, you can start by sitting comfortably, with your spine straight, and finding a position that feels natural for you. You can try crossing your legs and placing the palms of your hands on your knees. Then, close your eyes and breathe deeply.

It’s particularly important to avoid letting your thoughts run wild, so contain them by focusing on your breath. Count your inhales and exhales if you feel it helps. Filter out all thoughts from this process and allow yourself to take a break and pause your mind chatter. If you let your mind slip, get back to focusing on your breath, again and again. If you feel like you’re not going anywhere with this, that’s ok, as long as you don’t give up. Even a few minutes of meditation can have tremendous benefits for your health.

The nature of life implies that growth happens gradually. As humans, we begin at an initial stage. Then we reach maturity and slowly degrade afterwards, to eventually reach our final stage. One curious thing about life is that every little thing in the universe goes through these stages, although not all of them have the same pace. Now, our development as spiritual beings must happen gradually as well. That’s just the natural order of things. Therefore, spiritual development is only possible after accomplishing the initial stages of personal growth. As the author suggests, you must first become physically, mentally, socially, and ethically mature. You must first become your conventional self. Meaning that you have no problem eating right, staying in good shape, keeping your relationships healthy and nourished, and performing well in your main areas of life. Only then can you immerse yourself into your upgraded version. It’s the one that seeks spiritual elevation, answers to the most profound questions…