Namaste! My name is Avani Pradhan. I am 18 years old and living in Pune, India. Recently, I gave the entrance test for medical colleges in India [National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, NEET]. It is one of the most competitive exams here. To give a little context, every year roughly 2.3 million students give this exam and only 50k of them get selected. The syllabus for this exam is different from the standard high school syllabus. So, we have to study for both throughout 11th and 12th grade. This phase is one of the toughest and most anxiety inducing time of our lives. Fortunately, because of Sahaja Yoga meditation I have been balanced and composed throughout.
I have been practicing Sahaja Yoga for as long as I can remember. Even before I truly understood it, I would go to meditation centers with my parents. But I have learned much more about Sahaja Yoga in the past few years. Meditation's most significant impact has been on my ability to concentrate. I developed the ability to anchor my mind to the present moment, allowing me to absorb information more effectively and retain it better.
Meditation is a powerful tool for managing exam anxiety. It helped me detach from the fear of failure and approach exams with a calm, collected mind. This allowed me to perform my best under pressure. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I take a small break and meditate for a while. Clearing your mind of distracting thoughts and achieving complete thoughtless awareness can make studying much easier and more effective. Meditation was and always will be my priority no matter how hectic my schedule is. I would start my day with a 15-minute foot soak and meditation before beginning my rigorous (and slightly boring) study routine. Eventually, my peers noticed my relaxed attitude towards exams and asked me what my secret was. My simple answer? Sahaja Yoga! I taught them how to meditate and the different techniques used in Sahaja Yoga to understand oneself.
Once you establish a regular meditation practice, you will find yourself naturally slipping into a meditative state at various points throughout your day, enhancing your ability to focus and retain information. Consistency and discipline in any area of life lead to success, and meditation is no exception! However, as the founder of Sahaja Yoga and my guru, Her Holiness Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has said, you must experience it yourself to fully understand it!
Wonderfully written. Thank you for sharing this profound experience with all of us to learn from.
Indeed, Sahajayoga is great ! Thanks for sharing such a well written experience Avani.
-Abhishek Kadri