Last week, we announced a new set of online meditation programs as part of our efforts to reinvigorate our spiritual growth. This week, we commence our first weekend workshop focused on using meditation effectively to overcome undesirable habits and addictions.

In this workshop, we look at how the world has shifted in its definition of addiction and, more importantly, how we may already be addicted to many things without being aware of it.

Yes, you read that right. A routine, high-quality meditation experience may give the impression of calm, gentle people, entirely at peace with themselves and nearly looking like they’re floating in the heavens. Or that they’re in blissful enjoyment every moment of their lives.

While those are the outcomes that we strive for and are typical benefits, a meditator’s life is not easy and rosy. It requires hard work, tenacity, grit, determination, and getting past periods of poor progress and even failures along the way related to spiritual achievements.

If someone sold you 10-minute stress relief, a magical solution called meditation that grants benefits ranging from a complete makeover of your personality to almost being able to solve world hunger miraculously, you have been conned.

Meditation is a long-term effort with delayed gratification. Or at least the deeper benefits certainly take longer to manifest.

Yet, what keeps us on this path is that it offers the promise of the most significant and highest achievement of the purpose of our lives. And the rewards in the later stages of the journey are unmatched and life-transforming.

So, let’s understand the hard part of our spiritual journey clearly.

Meditation is a long-term effort. Spiritual meditation is a lifetime achievement where we discover our true inner selves and guide our lives to stay true to what it desires.

Consistency and patience are the keys to success. Along with that, an insatiable thirst for discovering our deepest layers.

Just as each of us is involved in introspection about our spiritual growth, the Sahaja Online team decided to introspect on the types of programs that might help our attendees get the maximum benefit in getting varied experiences routinely from their meditation practice.

We realized that we all need more profound meditations and longer sessions to get into the depths of exploring and applying spiritual concepts. At the same time, we undertsand that weekdays can be busy, and a quick and strong dose of meditation can really help.

In keeping with this, we have lined up several new formats and topics starting in May.

If you have been struggling to get started or become a regular meditator, you’re not alone. A lot of people and those who have been practitioners for many years struggle with this problem too. Initially, meditation sounds great, has proven benefits and everyone who practices it typically has at least one benefit that convinces them of its value.

Yet, things get in the way, circumstances keep changing and complacency can creep in. We know that we have to get back on track, but it feels like heavy lifting to get back to the once-exhilarating meditation schedule that gave us so many benefits. Those constant negative voices tell us it’s okay to be irregular or make meditation look daunting – yes, think of it, something that’s meant to relax you and make you completely peaceful and calm feels rather difficult. Doubts begin to creep in or meditation gets on your action items or New Year Resolutions list pretty quickly. Or it has been a bookmark in your life for many years, but you can’t just get yourself to pull the trigger.

And then there’s the quality of meditation, an even bigger challenge. The majority of meditators hit a plateau in their progress at some point and it feels like they have peaked out on their benefits and positive experiences. While they’ve established their routine and follow it diligently, there just isn’t enough depth in their sessions. Regular meditation, therefore, isn’t just about being regular; it is about consistent, high-quality meditation over the longer term.

Familiar feelings and thoughts? It’s not always your lack of self-discipline, desire to improve or put in the effort; there are other hidden forces at work that we need to understand.

Every day our attention is drawn to promotional and marketing messages on virtually every channel or platform we spend time on – the internet, social media platforms, TV, billboards and so on. There’s always someone who wants to sell something. The better ones try to make your life better or build a relationship with you – but they eventually are on the mission to make you buy something. 

For decades, we’ve seen advertising on the rise and diversify into so many channels – from print media, radio, and television to now into streaming platforms, social media and ever clever and innovative methods of catching our attention.

While many of us have matured to this phenomenon and even grown resilient in some cases (turning off or muting the advertisement for instance), it’s useful to understand the deeper effect of marketing and advertising on our spiritual life.