Hi Readers!
Why it’s taken me so long to do this post, I have no idea. For those of you who have been following along on my adventures, you’ve figured out by now that I’m a huge vipassana meditation nerd. It changed my life when medication, yoga, counselling, self-help books and other meditations could not so I’m extremely grateful.
(You can read about my past here if you haven’t already: https://worldofwanderingminds.com/2024/04/03/blog-post-10-my-mental-health-past-and-vipassana-meditation-my-permanent-ticket-out-of-depression-anxiety-ptsd-and-negative-habits/)
The Reason I Love Vipassana:
There are two reasons: #1 – it actually works…#2 – it’s actually just science…okay…maybe a 3rd also. It’s completely free and teaches you to just observe yourself. Wait..that’s 4 right? Ah well here’s to financial freedom and independence!
Evolution and the Brain:
Okay so to understand how vipassana meditation works, we need to know a couple things about the brain. The first is that it has two jobs that it’s really good at doing: 1) keeping us alive and 2) being extremely efficient.
This has come from years of evolution. Let’s go to the brain’s superstrength at “keeping us alive”. In ancient times, if two people saw a lion and one said “oh look how cute!” and approached, they’d get eaten. If the other said “oh looks scary, I’d better go away”, they’d survive. Those people would end up reproducing and those genes of “oh look, that’s scary” would get passed on through generation to generation. Yay! Brain keeps us alive. Nowadays, that “oh look, that’s scary” gene kind of gets translated to things that are not so life threatening.
Example: Public speaking. Feeling = dread –> Action = avoidance –> Feeling: calmer, less stressed –> Unconscious Brain = Oh…public speaking must be bad. With avoiding public speaking, the bad feeling went away thus…we should avoid.
As for the “being extremely efficient” aspect of our brain, here’s an example. Remember all the wonderful information we learned as kids and then forgot slowly as we got older? Yes, our brains learn what’s important and those things that aren’t important get removed from our memories. Cue Inside Out #1: “US presidents…what do you think?” “Ah, just keep Lincoln and Washington” (watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ8Aak-k5Yc). There’s also another cool thing about this efficiency part of the brain, but we’ll get back to that later.
Now that we’ve got that down, let’s go back to vipassana:
Automatic Reactions and the Unconscious Mind:
Our unconscious mind pretty much controls our automatic reactions and that unconscious brain only feels sensations on the body. Such is the reason that although we know we should be patient with our kids…patients…parents…loved ones, we often lose our tempers. It’s a little out of our control, BUT NOT FOR LONG!
If we practice feeling discomfort and not reacting, the unconscious mind slowly downgrades reactions and we can deal with life in a calmer way. This goes to the efficiency part of the brain.
Example: Public speaking. Feeling = dread –> Action = avoidance just observe discomfort –> Unconscious Brain = Oh…public speaking must be bad. Huh? Are you sure this is okay? …Urr…okay, I guess this is unimportant
Brain decreases reaction to public speaking. If it’s unimportant, the brain doesn’t care.
The cool thing is that vipassana works with EVERYTHING! Our reactions to things that are uncomfortable in life (e.g. thoughts…fears…) are simply just habit patterns. With observing body sensations objectively, the brain slowly removes it as it deems it unimportant. YES! So simple.
Do I have to meditate????
Now I wish I could say you just need to understand it intellectually, but sadly no. And sadly, it’s not a quick fix. You actually need to meditate and also, do so regularly. It’s like learning to drive a car, do you just read the manual and know how to drive? No…you have to practice actually behind the steering wheel. Driving becomes automatic only because we’ve done it for so long. In the beginning, we have to be conscious of everything…how to hold the steering wheel, how much to step on the gas, how hard to hit the breaks etc. etc. but overtime, it’s all automatic.
Such is the same with our reactions to situations in life. We have to practice being calm before it comes automatic.
You feel you can’t sit still and need to constantly be moving? Well you need to learn to observe the discomfort of sitting still objectively…then sitting still becomes easier because the brain isn’t constantly saying “OMG WE NEED TO MOVE!”. You don’t want to get angry at your parents for being slow with the computer *coughMEcough*…then you need to learn to be okay with the discomfort of impatience. You want to get over anxiety? Well you need to learn to be okay with feeling anxious.
Ugg…I hate the last one (but it actually has improved a lot).
The Cool Efficiency Part of the Brain:
Remember how I said earlier we’d get back to the efficiency part of the brain? Well here we are folks. Once you learn to stop reacting to what’s happening now and the brain calms down, it starts pulling up all the garbage past reactions that we accumulated in the past. If you learn to observe this objectively, the brain also clears that and BOOM! You’re free from that anger, sadness, frustration etc!
For me, this was my anger and resentment to my family for my childhood. This was also the flashbacks I had from PTSD.
Now don’t expect miracles. It’s not like I’m completely happy go lucky or I’m free from anxiety and flashbacks…HOWEVER! I now have an amazing relationship with my parents and enjoy chatting with them regularly. My flashbacks are now also not so vivid…they’re becoming blurrier and blurrier and now when they come up, I can just let them pass.
It’s just hard work:
Yes, I will say it again and again…I do love this meditation. You learn to rely only on your own hard work and you learn to know that no matter what happens, that you’ll be able to handle it. I still have anxieties in certain aspects of my life, but I know that when they come up, it’s actually a good thing because I can handle it, clear it with this technique and be a happier person in the end.
I mean…who truly wants to be angry, frustrated, resentful, sad, anxious etc?
Oh and the best part? When I do enough vipassana, I feel like I did when I was a child at Christmas. The simple joys of watching the snow fall or feeling the magic of Christmas.
Except it’s everyday. Cue Inside out #2: “Maybe this is what happens when you grow up…you feel less joy”.
Oh no no no…the joy is still there, just covered up by the baggage of anger, frustrations, anxieties of life. ^^
Final thoughts:
Well I hope this was a simple-ish? explanation of how vipassana works. I did cut out some of the more detailed explanations, but this is what it is in a nutshell. I do plan on making a video for this, but that takes a while hahahaha!
If you want to learn it yourself, again it’s COMPLETELY FREE (Woot woot! Paid for by donations from past students), you can find courses here: https://www.dhamma.org/en/courses/search
Peace out folks! Go be happy 😀
Wishing you all love and happiness.
Tracy
ps: My vipassana friends – thanks for being with me on this journey.
World of Wandering Minds 