Meditation has become mainstream not because all of a sudden people have a mystical urge to become holy; rather because the stress level of our modern lifestyle has reached a tipping point. Meditation can certainly help to reduce stress, but not all meditations are made equals.

Total relaxation is unknown to most people:

Meditation per se is a state of being, not a technique. It happens spontaneously when you are totally relaxed. And total relaxation is a situation unknown to most of the world population nowadays. We are always stressed to some extent. Even when you think you are at ease, deep down there is always something going on. And the very nature of the mind is to helplessly and relentlessly move somewhere else, never here and now.

How to relax?

There are different approaches and different techniques to relax. What I have discovered to be the most effective is OSHO Active Meditations. Almost all the traditional meditation techniques available nowadays require you to focus your mind and still your body. This is the exact opposite of what’s needed. We need to move our body and let the mind relax by itself. We are so stressed by over-using the mind that if you try to work with the mind directly you are bound to fail.

Osho’s new approach:

Osho devised a series of meditation techniques based on a totally new understanding. Osho observed deeply how life, energy and nature work. Life energy is in perpetual motion. Energy is generated by the movement from one polarity to another. Think of electricity: you need the negative and the positive charge for it to happen. Life itself is created by the meeting of two polarities: the male and the female.

What is stress?

Stress is the alteration of a static condition. It’s throwing things out of balance. From emotions, to physiology, to mind processes. Stress means disrupting an equilibrium. Is that bad? Isn’t that how life works?

Hormetic stress:

Scientist nowadays talk about hormetic stress. That means that under a stimulation, the organism needs to adapt, and in doing so, it up-regulates itself getting stronger. To me this is exactly the principle used by Osho to create his meditation techniques and the reason why they are so effective and powerful for us people living in 2018.

Food and Nutrition:

Normally you eat, you nourish your body and then you rest. After a number of hours, you burn energy and need more food. It’s a perpetual cycle. And the more empty the stomach is, the more hungry you get. Contrary to our modern lifestyle where the food is available at any time, for ages humans have developed in circumstances where periods of food scarcity (fasting) were followed by period of food abundance (feeding). Is that stressful? Yes, sure but the human body has been designed and evolved to cope with that.

Temperature:

We now live at a constant ambient temperature of 21 degrees. But that was not always the case. Humans have adapted to live in extreme conditions, from the desert to Antarctica; and without air conditioning or heating system. Is that stressful? Yes, of course but out that stress adaption and strength are developed.

Physical Activity:

Before office life were created, the vast majority of the world population used to perform hard labour. From hunting, to farming to working in big factories, life was much more physically demanding and active. Was that stressful? Yes, sure but the human body is resilient and able to cope.

Healthy stress:

Technology has offered us means to domesticate and subdue nature. In our pursuit of comfort and ease, we lost touch with nature and forgot the normality of healthy stress. We lost sight of the fact that without a challenge, there is no growth. Today we fear stress, we fear heat and cold, we fear 10 hours without food, we fear too much effort. The result? A stress-free life which has never been so stressful. All the stress has moved to the mind. The body is getting deprived of energy and the mind is overloaded.

OSHO Active Meditations and relaxation:

OSHO Active Meditations are aimed at shifting the energy from the mind back to the body. We now need to unburden the mind from its overwork and overstimulation, and re-energise the body with activity. This paves the way for natural relaxation to happen spontaneously. OSHO Active Meditations exploit the law of stress and energy moving in polarities to create a situation where from total activity, total inactivity follow as a by-product. How cool is that! The effort is required in the activity, which is normally enjoyable and stimulating. After that, you just let go and let relaxation happen. Meditation cannot be forced. It’s something natural that can only arise from a state of total relaxation. 

Stress only exists in a busy and hyperactive mind. What we need today is healthy challenges to grow and adapt. When it comes to meditation, our modern fast-paced and stressful world is the perfect challenge to grow our consciousness. And if you need a tool for that, then OSHO Active Meditation is your best option in the market.

By Chetna & Swaram, www.loveosho.com, Contributor of //LIVE SIMPLY//