I invite you to take a step back with your awareness and look at what is happening here. What exists here right now as you observe from that stepped back place of awareness is:
- The mind holding an intention of wanting to study, to acquire knowledge, to learn, to grow. There is a specific direction to this, the desire to be qualified as a doctor or a medical professional with a certain degree. There is also a desire with an immediate urgency – of wanting to pass the entrance exam and get admission.
- There is the entire syllabus that needs to be studied, remembered and prepared to be able to write the exam in such a way that you qualify for admission.
- There is also the mind with an ability to absorb information, with a memory capacity and with a recollection capacity.
- There is also the worry, fear and anxiety around many questions starting with “what if….”. This is causing stress, tension and restlessness.
- Finally there is also the physical body sitting in a particular position, breathing and carrying on various bodily functions. In all probability it is tired and exhausted due to improper sleep and untimely eating habits and due to eating unhealthy junk food while being distracted with thoughts in the mind.
Once you take that first step back to look at the entire scene as described above, we can start looking at how best to move forward. Point number five above affects everything else by making the mind suboptimal so it would make a huge difference to first address this and set certain clear boundaries and discipline around sleep timing and specific timing and method for eating food and drinking water. Yes, even knowing how and when to drink water and following this will drastically improve point number three above.
The following articles will help you learn how to manage your body and your life in such a way that your ability to absorb information, your memory capacity as well as recollection capacity works at its peak efficiency all the time.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
Is a 5 hour sleep enough for a student?
If you are a student under 25 years of age, you would at least need 8 hours of wholesome sleep every night. Any person between the ages 18 to 60 needs at least seven hours of sleep daily and for younger people it is more. There are different stages of sleep in each sleep cycle and each stage repairs our mind and body in different ways. We need all the stages and we need at least five cycle of all these stage each night for a healthy life. To understand more about what is sleep and to understand what hinders wholesome sleep and what we could do to enjoy wholesome sleep, please read the two articles linked below. As a student you think you need lot more hours to study because you probably have to study the same thing repeatedly to help remember it. This is because you have a mind which is filled to its brim and already overflowing with all the restless thought activity going on in it all the time. There is no space for new knowledge to enter and be stored and so you keep repeatedly reading and finding it impossible to retain all that you read. It is like using a soaked dripping sponge to wipe and dry the floor clean of some spilled liquid. Is that possible? You would need a dry sponge to be able to do it, isn’t it? Similarly you need a quiet mind to be able to study and easily retain all that you study. Wholesome and sufficient sleep is one of the ways that the stuff in you temporary memory gets transferred to your long term memory. It is somewhat similar to the RAM and Harddisk in your computer. I suggest a practice of a few minutes of meditation and energy movements before and after each study session in addition to wholesome sufficient sleep. When you practice these, you will find it drastically improves your ability to absorb and retain all that you study. You will require far few hours of study time and you will be more confident and joyful in life. Read my answers to the following questions in Quora previously to understand how to do this. And here are the links to the sleep articles mentioned above. For more information and plenty of free resources to aid with the practice of meditation and deep healing, please visit my website.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
What is the healthiest water to drink?
The healthiest water to drink is simple plain pure H2O. Fresh mountain spring water near the peak of a mountain is the most perfect water to drink. If you are living in nature, mountain spring water would be the perfect elixir. However, in our urban environment it is important to understand the type of water our body needs. Water needs to be filtered, clear and very slightly pH alkaline not acidic (chlorinated water becomes acidic). It also needs to retain the natural trace dissolved minerals and not be hundred percent distilled pure water. If you have a good RO water purifier, adding just a grain of rock salt and a few drops of lemon to a litre of water may be enough. The temperature of water you drink is also very important. The best temperature would be to drink water at body temperature, which will make it seem tepid or seem mildly lukewarm. Refrigerated or iced water or very hot water is not helpful as the body goes into a limbic shock to deal with consumption of too cold or too hot things. What gives you a seemingly energetic boost when you drink something too cold or hot is probably the hormones secreted by your body as a result of limbic response and not the drink itself and it eventually takes a toll. Knowing when to drink water and how much to drink makes the difference between healthy body and disease. Read the following article to learn what makes water the elixir to everlasting health and wellness.
When you achieve point number three to its fullest potential, the task of studying the entire syllabus becomes very easy. Because you already know everything, you have already gone through the semesters and passed the various semester tests and board exams. You simply need to lightly brush up. What tells you that it is very difficult is only your jumping mind that is always far away in the future, imagining various outcomes and figuring out how to respond to those imaginary events.
Dealing with your anxiety is more important then studying because once your physical body is well taken care with proper sleep and eating/drinking habits, it is only your emotions that cause you to be carried away by distractions. The following practice will help you manage your emotions so that you can focus on the core subject at hand and study with ease.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
How can I meditate 24*7?
Yes it is possible to hold a background state of Awareness or be present in the here and now or be connected with your grounding or meditate 24×7 as you call it and yet be completely focussed on something else in the conscious part of your mind or logical / analytical mind (you call this without being aware). Before I tell you how to achieve it, I would like to explain what is happening here. Let me take the example of a juggler in a circus show. This person is able to juggle several things simultaneously but if he or she looks at one particular thing they will drop all the other things. So their conscious attention may be focussed on the audience and they may be making some funny face or saying some joke to entertain the audience but simultaneously they are probably juggling ten different balls of different sizes. Their conscious mind is mindful about the audience and talking with them and their unaware mind (as you call it) which is actually their background state of awareness is taking care of the hand movements to keep all the balls in the air in continuous motion. In other words, this juggler is being present and grounded or being mindful with all the balls he/she is juggling and and not aware of it because they are simultaneously entertaining the audience with their jokes and facial expressions. What happens normally when we work and are not being mindful is that we end up having very bad body posture which ruins our health and it turn reduces our efficiency and productivity at work. But if we stop working and start spending equal amount of time in meditation and exercise, we are not able to concentrate and complete our work on time. We would like to do both and this seems to be the aim of your question. The answer is to slowly cultivate a habit of returning back to your presence or grounding often during the day consistently. I suggest you begin with the following two practices for a few days and then see how you fare with your maths. 1) Selvans Deep crossing: https://youtu.be/qq6iKZquuVI 2) Selvans Short Meditation – Witnessing the Four Simultaneous Activities The first one takes three minutes and the second one takes five minutes so together it would be a ten minute practice. I suggest that you do this practice upon waking up in the morning and once again just before going to sleep at night. In addition please also repeat this ten minute practice once every two hours throughout your day. If you can do this consistently and cultivate a habit out of it you will be able to achieve what you aim for in a few months. I have answered a similar question before and you might be interested to read that answer here For more information and plenty of free resources to aid with the practice of meditation and deep healing, please visit my website.
Take one day at a time and within the day take one hour at a time. No need to carry the burden of the entire future every moment of your day. Be in the moment, experience life fully and enjoy life. The desired outcome will come to you with ease this way.