I hear a lot of students telling me that mindfulness is useless and boring. This makes me wonder because I have been meditating for over twenty years now and I cannot, and don’t want to imagine my life without it.

So, I did think about this a lot, why students tell me this mindfulness thing is not for them, and I think I have some answers, but you may not like them.

Firstly, I think at this moment you are not aware just how fragile you are.

Here is a situation that happens to us a lot: maybe you come to school by car, or bus. Imagine it breaks down and you have to walk the 7-8 kilometers to school in the cold rain. Or the food in the cafeteria has a hair in it. Or your tea is not the temperature you love. Or you cannot sit with your best friend at school, or… and the examples are endless, because life is not meant to be perfect.

But believe it or not, the choice can be yours how much these events affect you.

Right now whatever you think or feel grabs you by the neck and plays with you like a storm with a plastic bag.

Next time you have a bad mood look into yourself and try to find out what triggered it. Even better, next time you are happy find the reason behind it. Did the dribble you practiced finally worked out in a basketball game? Did the girl or boy you like smiled at you? Did you get a good grade? Just as easily as these events give happiness, the opposite of these can give you misery.

So you may say, what to do?

Try to experience your thoughts as the free play of mind, as its richness and power. Don’t let them become chains that bind your arms or legs. Thoughts are good servants but difficult masters. They are all waves on the ocean, but it is the ocean itself that matters.And the thoughts and feelings you are experiencing now are nothing else, just ripples on the top of that ocean which is your mind.

Don’t be the wave, be the ocean.

There are some words that they say have the power to set the mind back to its natural form. There are many such syllables but you can try the one, pei, which the author really likes to yell once he feels he is too stuck is some thoughts or problems.

You can say the syllable “pei” forcefully in your bedroom, or yell it on a mountain top, and then observe how your mind behaves.

If everything you had in mind is scattered over several streets, then it was probably just a trip. But if even greater clarity arises, if you are able to see what is happening even more precisely, if you are even more centered, you were probably right.

Maybe you can allow yourself a daydream once in a while to reduce stress, as long as you know what it is, a daydream. But as soon as you start wishing for it to be real, then hope and fear are added in and it’s not nice anymore.

It is human nature to be like this. We are all dreamers and hoping for a great life.But you need to train your mind to be strong and resilient because the road to success can be bumpy. I believe mindfulness and meditation are the best tools to do this.

Next time I will tell you how many successful and strong people agree with this statement. Let them be soldiers, athletes, or businessmen, they all agree that the mind is of the essence.

If you want to try meditation and don’t have a teacher around you can try one of these amazing apps that provide free trials and programs for both adults and children.

Smiling minds: https://www.smilingmind.com.au/smiling-mind-app

Headspace: https://www.headspace.com