Almost everyone becomes goes through periods of significant change.  And without even realizing it, we go through something inevitable – attention overload. We change jobs, move to a new home, have changes in the family and boom, lots of things immediately get into disarray in our lives.

But more than that, these times of big changes in your life are attacks on our stable and well-set habits. Like meditation for instance. While many of us build a strong enough platform of resilience to avoid unsettling our meditation routines and other good habits entirely, a majority of people are more vulnerable to some disruption.

So what do meditators do differently when going through significant changes in their lives to avoid being overwhelmed?

Awareness and anticipation

The first thing is to be aware that a wave of disruptive changes are coming your way. Look for them to upset your rhythm of good habits, most of all. For instance, if your meditation routine is thrown into disarray, it cascades into a bunch of problems – you start getting irritated and even angry more often. When this unsettles you, your decisions aren’t as good which causes more stress and can lead to potential health problems.

The trick is to make sure you write down the timing of your meditation every day. Put a sticky note on your fridge. Set an alarm. Make calendar entries. Anything that makes you stick to your routine. In the sea of things to do, you don’t want your meditation time to get washed away. It needs to be at the center of everything you are into.

Shutting down the negative voices

The loudest of them all will be the one that tells you that you’re too busy to meditate because you’re going through so many changes. On the contrary, this is exactly the time that you need a lot of meditation to help keep sanity in your life. So remember and watch out for this negative voice and shut it down without allowing your thinking to get captured by it.

Many times, this negative voice is simply because you’re too tired, but tell yourself that meditation will relieve the tiredness more than anything else, as long you get to it.

Longer times to settle into your meditation

Meditation is about reducing and eliminating thoughts and during such times of change, thoughts are even more intense coming from all over the place and due to multiple incidents. It takes longer for you to settle down to thoughtless awareness, so plan for that extra 5 to 10 minutes of settling down period to rise above your thoughts. One terrific way is also to use affirmations for your 6^th chakra by placing your hands across your forehead and saying “I forgive”. Essentially, you’re telling yourself to let go and rise higher despite all the distractions.

And the foot soaking technique can be a great asset in cooling you down.

Resist the urge to end your meditation sooner

This is another negative voice – it will tell you to stop meditating and go and take care of the million tasks you have pending. While that’s perfectly natural, it works differently for meditators. When you give meditation its due time and focus, those tasks get done sooner because you are more productive and have greater clarity and focus.

This negative voice creates the fear inside you of falling behind. Don’t listen to it. Investing time in having a calm and composed state to make sound decisions and to be more productive pays off in the end.

Keeping meditation at the center of it all

Now comes the best part – actually being able to turn meditation as a great tool for managing change. Other than the calm composure and patience you get through your meditation, when you meditate more, you fall into the flow of innately and intuitively doing things that are a higher priority. And doing them the right way. It feels like whatever is most important and needs attention falls into your lap automatically.  This is because, with more meditation, you are in complete harmony with nature and things around you.

Despite juggling multiple things, you have the fortitude, patience and skill in being able to manage things from getting out of control. Deeper meditation also reinforces courage in you, so you’re not worried about failure or paying undue attention to what might happen if things go wrong. Instead, the time is spent calmly on completing things.

As you get into higher and deeper states of meditation, many powerful things are possible. A number of Sahaja practitioners report how problems solve themselves and the most intricate and complex threads of their lives get untangled. This happens because you are one with the all-pervading power of the universe that moves everything. By making it your ally, without realizing it, you’re twice as productive as it works for you all the time.

Make a commitment to meditate and be in the higher state, and chances are high that this power takes care of making things go your way.

Protect and value relationships

During times of change, people around you can help as much as meditation can. And meditation can definitely help strengthen bonds with people around you. More meditation means that you’re emanating positive vibrations and ensuring strong relationships, so people are more inclined to help you see through this change.

Surrender

Being overwhelmed with changes can be a great opportunity to realize that your own capabilities are limited and hence to tame your ego. We all unconsciously develop a sense of achievement and accomplishment out of whatever we do. Being faced with times when you feel you can’t handle things is a good wake up call for you to get rid of this ego and surrender to the powerful forces in nature. It reminds you that there are still things you cannot control and which won’t go your way. This ultimately humbles you down and paves the way for a great meditative experience.

And a great meditative experience further helps you manage change.

In fact, every meditator worth his or her salt wishes for such periods in life so it can be a good testing ground for their self-improvement.