NIRVANA

On this 21st December, millions of people around the world will gather in local and online guided meditation events with the aim to promote peace, mental health, and global unity.

Online Event by Heartfulness on 21st December 2025|8pm IST: Global Meditation with Daaji

The Purpose of the International World Meditation Day

With the aim of raising awareness about the benefits of meditation, the UN General Assembly last year proclaimed 21 December as World Meditation Day, reaffirming the right of every person to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Organised by the Permanent Mission of India and the other countries, the event “Meditation for Global Peace and Harmony” aimed at embracing inner harmony and promoting international unity.

When was the last time that we embraced stillness?

In our noisy world filled with social media, emails, phone calls, notifications, and media news, I believe that stillness has become a luxury that we must cherish. Meditation helps us to embrace stillness and allows us to become aware of our breath, our body, and reconnects us to our inner self. In doing so, we are able to feel our wholeness with the universe and the divine. Stillness helps us find our inner peace beyond the physical and material world.

I sometimes visualise meditation as if I am in the sea and a big wave is coming. I dive beneath the wave where it is calm while I see the wave pass over my head. In that space beneath the wave, I find calm and clarity while I see the wave passing above which are my thoughts that I am able to witness.

Embracing Self-Reflection

By becoming aware of our feelings and body sensations, meditation helps us to self-reflect on ourselves, our actions, and who we really are. I believe that people who meditate are not perfect and they may still get angry or frustrated but the difference is that they will self-reflect more.

For instance, if I suddenly get angry with my mother, I will self-reflect – “Why did I get angry?” or “In what state was I when I got angry?” Meditation will help us uncover our patterns and without us knowing we will self-reflect more. In doing so, we will understand our strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, we will improve our emotional intelligence, improve our relationships, and build resilience.

Which part of our body and inner self is still unhealed?

Some life events or traumas may leave scars in our body and our mind. Even when we are stressed, our body absorbs the stress and reacts by contracting and bracing ourselves from danger or “threat” and releases stress hormones.

Breakups may leave emotional wounds. Through meditation, we bring awareness to each body part which helps to release physical stress linked to our emotions. With every exhale we release stored tension and overwhelming emotions.

Meditation and Emotional Regulation

Meditation helps us to regulate our emotions by shrinking our amygdala thus reducing our fear and stress responses. In doing so, we are able to break negative thought patterns hence reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Meditation promotes mental resilience to help us better cope with ups and downs in our lives.

Before Stillness there would be Chaos

Meditation often starts with chaos because we start noticing everything, we notice our negative thought patterns, we notice how our body behaves, we notice when our mood is “off”, we notice when we get angry with someone. The fact that we are noticing these things means that we are becoming self-aware. This is to say that chaos is part of the journey leading us towards stillness.

In Meditation, Consistency is Key

Meditation is most beneficial when it is practiced regularly. However in reality maintaining consistency can be a struggle sometimes. In my case as my parents are getting older, they sleep much less and one of them is already up by three o’clock in the morning. So when I meditate, I might suddenly hear the clinking of spoons or water running. In your case, maybe you have children or when you come from work you are so tired that waking up early might be difficult on some days.

This is just to say that everyone of us may struggle to keep consistency but still decide to show up the best we can. Hence, even if we didn’t meditate for a day, we can still get back to being consistent and that’s okay.

World Meditation Day

On this World Meditation Day let us all come together and hold each other’s hands in our meditative journey. Let us meditate together despite living in a hectic, rapidly changing world. Let us meditate through our confusion, fear, imperfections, and uncertainty. Let us find peace and emanate our light to the world.

I believe that collective meditation can contribute to global peace, wellness, healing, and positive energies.

Yashna Veera, Life Coach and Yoga & Meditation Practitioner