Meditation is basically an act of keeping the mind still! There are different types of meditations out there. At least 150 plus meditations I recognized in the net, when I did a survey in the net seven years or more before, just for fun.
Out of my own experience out of social network, that too with WhatsApp, I have devised a new meditation that works for me, it is called "WhatsApp Meditation".
Basically WhatsApp experience is the anti-thesis of meditation, one would easily agree! How can it be used as a meditation then?
While playing with Tai Chi Qi Gong, I have enjoyed the inside out - outside in meditation which is basically being with self and surrounding with no baggage or overtone from the self. Breath in and out, no effort, no judgement, no stress, no thoughts, just observing inside and outside!
We can apply the same principle with the WhatsApp messages. Treat each WhatsApp chat channel as a river, the messages as strange or interesting or curious objects floating in the river. Just observe the objects with neutrality, meaning read them or watch the video, stay on if it is interesting, else move on to the next floating object. Be fully alert, aware, relaxed. Let the messages communicate what they attempt to communicate, take what the self wants to take, do not force it, do not judge it, do not indulge it beyond what is natural reaction of self.
Do this for 15-30 minutes as a break from the grind.
Do not make any commitment as to the messages, do not respond. If you need to respond, do it some other time.
After the session, check yourself as to whether you have the same relaxation as watching the river flowing or sun setting. If not, there is something wrong in the meditation process.
I have 150 chat channels in Whatsapp, and usually have 5-7K pending messages. I do not make any commitment to read these messages. Clear the chats once a while, may be once in 15 days or so, especially after a meditation session like the mentioned above.
WhatsApp meditation works for me as a meditation that helps to become one with the information overload crap, rather than running away from it.
A reflection for 5 minutes post meditation as to collect key impressions, inspirations, motivations, ideas, decisions and to do (if any) will help to get the utilitarian benefit of the session purely based on the merit of the impressions made by the worthy messages. Also, it helps to benchmark the crappiness of certain channels or the tendency of crappiness of certain folks out there in the channels.
