Path of the Peaceful Warrior: Meditation

“Soft and flexible is the student of life. What is strong and durable breaks. That which remains soft and supple exists.”

Lao Tzu said this thousands of years ago. What a simple yet profound phrase, isn’t it? To be soft and flexible, to be fluid, to remain flexible, not to be stiff and hard when hit… So how?

Undoubtedly, the shortest way to such an attitude is through meditation. The changes that take place in the brain when we reach this path are enormous. Worth mentioning here is a study conducted at Harvard University led by Sarah Lazar on the effects of meditation on the brain. During the study, a group that had never meditated before meditated for 30-40 minutes for 8 weeks. The results of brain MRI in comparison before and after meditation are very interesting. Particularly striking is the reduction in the volume of the amygdala, which is also described as a primitive brain, where the “fight-run” command is activated in our brain, the center of fear that encodes, interprets and stores emotions, almost a “Pandora’s box”. As a result of this decrease, people show fewer signs of stress and anxiety. In addition, there are studies showing that an increase in the amount of gray matter in the hippocampus is directly proportional to meditation. Increase in gray matter; It is considered a trigger for positive effects such as reduced stress, clearer thinking, increased empathy, better control of emotions and impulses, and increased self-awareness.

Equally interesting is what happened in our spiritual world at the end of this whole process of renaissance in our brain. Learning to look at life more calmly and without tension,Nothing will happen to me after this.“awareness… Maybe too ambitious, but it’s such a threshold that after guiding the breath and keeping control inside, a strong area where you feel like you can embrace any situation and move through it easily, the state of softness and flexibility that Lao speaks of -zi o. It’s not just about being open to positive emotions and being filled with joy; A state of mind where we can reach out and allow the emotions we fear to face, such as pain, grief, anger, and let them flow in. He is like a master who guides you. The return expression of this whole process with the motto:Nothing will happen to me.“It can also be called an increase in emotional and spiritual immunity. The process of becoming a more resilient, calm and peaceful warrior as he learns to control the insides is experienced in practice. You are still a warrior, a sword in a sheath, an arrow on the butt, but you can control the process so much that you do not need to quit, because you have the greatest weapon mentally.

That’s why nothing happens to you.

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