For many of us, time is a precious commodity. Between work, maintaining personal relationships and keeping up with all of the unavoidable ‘life admin’ that seems to increase year on year, downtime is just slotted in somewhere when we have five minutes to spare – if at all. Meditation, then, can seem like an incredible indulgence; spending half an hour or more just sitting and thinking and not actually doing anything productive. However, according to the folk at the Inner Space Centre, there is a lot more to meditation than sitting and thinking, and it could be far more beneficial than people realise.
The Inner Space Centre for Training in Meditation and Self Development has been registered in Abu Dhabi for just over two years, and in January they moved to their new premises at the back of the Cooperative building in Bain Al Jessrain. Administrative director Sona Bahri took us for a tour.
The modestly-sized centre has two meditation rooms, one of which can seat up to 140 people at a time while the other is for smaller groups and can seat up to 25.
There are currently five regular teachers at the centre who run classes in English and Arabic, and there are often international guests who will come in to run a special self-development course – previous sessions have covered topics such as anger management.
Our starting point with Sona is obvious: just what is meditation? ‘Meditation is a process of learning how to train my mind to think, just as you’re taught to play a musical instrument, taught a sport. To learn to think the way I want, when I want, where I want, how long I want is meditation.’ She goes on to say that so often people complain of their mind being too busy, that they can’t stop the ‘chatter’ and explains this means there has been a loss of control over the function of the mind. The implications of this can be far reaching; ‘There’s a very deep correlation between what you think and what you feel, if you think positive you feel good, if you think negative you feel bad.’ Learning how to control your thinking gives a measure of control over your feelings and your life, and ultimately a happy and peaceful mind can actually nourish the body, counteracting the definite physiological effects of stress.
Sona argues that the benefits of meditation can extend beyond inner peace, for example into the workplace: ‘If you’re functioning better at work you’ll probably earn more money – many people go round and round in circles because their mind is not okay, and they miss a lot of opportunities, so if you want to be rich, come and learn to meditate.’
It can also replace a trip to the beauty salon: ‘Meditation helps you look beautiful, if you’re not stressed that beauty shines through your eyes and your face – peace and love and happiness, the joy inside, get reflected through your face and through your eyes.’
A session at Inner Space begins with a few minutes of relaxation, helping students release the thoughts from their busy minds and come into the present through guided meditation involving visualisation. After that there is a class which follows a structured course, the purpose of which is to give the students the tools, step by step, to deal with things in their life. The sessions end with a good ten minutes more of guided meditation.
Classes, workshops and courses are all offered free of charge at Inner Space – there is a contributions box near the entrance. All staff and teachers are volunteers who offer their time for free.
Inner Space Centre is open Sun-Thu 6pm-9pm, with open meditation sessions from 7pm-7.30pm. Second floor, Bain Al Jessrain Coop Building, entrance opposite Swalef/Gulf Pastry. www.innerspaceabudhabi.org
(050 515 9646).
Meet a meditator
Maryam is one of the teachers at Inner Space. She is a 33-year-old Emirati and works as a project manager in the media.
‘I grew up in a wealthy family, a very lucky kid, but I wasn’t happy and I was never satisfied. As I grew up, went to university and started my own business I was worried all the time. I had so many negative thoughts and tried to be in control of everything all of the time.
I couldn’t delegate and if things didn’t go according to plan I would panic. Three years ago I wanted to understand what was going on in my life, so I started reading, trying to understand how to manage my life. I found meditation and it taught me to be patient. Once you are silent and calm you will understand yourself and what is missing due to fear, meditation made me calm and gave me faith and hope. I have forgotten my old fear-filled life. Now I understand what self respect is.’
