Daily Mindfulness Meditation practice during the past few weeks of countrywide lockdown and curfew has been by far the most valuable way that I could spend my time in any given day. During this nationwide lockdown, many individuals are forced to spend a lot of time locked up indoors and spend more than usual amounts of free time with themselves.

This is very difficult for many people because they soon realize that a great deal of often uncomfortable emotions (boredom, irritability, anxiousness, anger etc.) begin to emerge and cause feelings of much discomfort and misery.

Many people including myself spend would normally spend time outside or doing activities which distract them from observing who they really are and the emotions that they carry within. Through consistent mindfulness practice I have found that mindfulness has enabled me to cultivate a strong sense of inner peace, stress relief, mental strength, focus as well as increased mental and emotional wellbeing

Vipassana Meditation which I began seriously practicing a few months ago, allows me to deal with and expel underlying difficult emotions that would surface in my daily life. I personally use meditation as a mental and emotional detox as I am able to cultivate deep inner peace and acceptance of the present moment while detaching myself from thoughts about the past or future.

This also trains my mind to live in the present and not go back to old habit patterns of illusions about the past or future. The moments spent in meditation are moments of complete awareness and acceptance of every moment without cravings or aversion regardless of how difficult it is. Many people including myself a few months ago, are unaware that there is a technique to heal from past traumas and inner emotional turmoil which make us miserable.

Meditation is often viewed as just a breathing exercise to calm to mind and for better focus. Some meditation techniques do solely serve that purpose, however, Vipassana is a deeper form of meditation and goes beyond simply a breathing exercise. Years of skepticism prevented me from giving mindfulness a fair try. For years I scoffed at the notion that this increasingly mainstream practice could provide such multitude of healing and benefits. During a stressful period while pursuing a Master’s Degree Program at UWI, I gave the technique a fair and consistent try. I arrived at the epiphany that this is an invaluable tool in which to navigate through life with and which everyone should have the opportunity to learn about.

Through consistent practice I observed and everyone will observe that we all have often unknowingly an underlying layer of tension, past traumas and emotional scars were built up and still stored within our subconscious mind and bodies. With consistent mindfulness practice this becomes increasingly clear. These stored negative emotions that we carry within us cause persons to feel miserable and even lead to conditions such as anxiety, panic, depression, restlessness, anger issues, etc.

Persons may wonder how come for many months or many years they are still struggling with these conditions even though they aren’t even in tense or stressful situations anymore. The body keeps the score and traumas experienced many months or years ago, even from childhood can still be stored in the body and cause many problems if not properly released. Vipassana slowly helps to release and heal these old emotional wounds.

Through my own experience I realized that alcohol, even prescription medications such as benzodiazepines (xanax, alprazolam), provide good temporary relief to run away from difficult emotion, but are only a temporary escape and do not heal the problem at the root level.

I can only speak on the topic of mindfulness and Vipassana meditation because on three separate occasions I have made the great sacrifice and dedicated 10 days on each occasion (30 total days) in complete seclusion and isolation at meditation retreats in rural areas of the United states.

I fully immerse myself into the teaching and practice in order to learn the knowledge that I now have. My own experience and reality has become my wisdom, and not knowledge I gained from hearing it from someone else. Persons at this retreat signed up with the intent to observe the truth of what is happening within ourselves when we are not distracted. We are so distracted every day, bombarded with external stimuli that we have no clue as to the undercurrents happening naturally within.

I realized that persons live their entire lives looking outside and are often so distracted by what’s happening outside of themselves that they never take a few moments to go within and learn what is happening inside and explore the deeper layers of the mind.

For 10 days all members of the retreat vowed to maintain complete silence which meant no form of communication not even eye contact with any other person. Ten days of isolation, no communication with the outside world, no speech (verbal or otherwise) enabled participants in this retreat to go deep within ourselves and observe the impurities that exist within the layers of our mind.

These ten-day periods, although the most difficult days of my life, were the most wholesome and life changing days. I would highly recommend everyone to give mindfulness meditation a fair try in the hope that it will have as strong an impact on your life as it has for mine. Through consistent and proper practice I hope that this technique can help others to have increased self-awareness and provide the deeper peace and happiness in life which we all seek.