Hey Steemians,

thanks to the great encouragement from all of you, I decided to post my second post only a couple of hours after I ever posted anything.

I just saw a great inspiring video on content creation from @flauwy who stated that in the beginning stages of being an active member on steem it is important to not overthink the content. So here I am :) But I do not only think it is important to start for the sake of earning steem power but more importantly in order to find your own unique voice.
As mentioned in my first article I am going to start traveling in exactly one month. Originally I wanted to start creating content when I start traveling. I just thought it would be more interesting for people to see. But today I had a new thought, which is taking this pre-travel month to find my voice on steemit.

What do I mean by finding my voice?

I believe long-term it is very important for people who engage with a creator to know what they can expect from him or her. So in case you want to deepen your knowledge on a certain topic you know who to follow and ask questions. If you are in the mood to be entertained you might want to go to someone else. Further I assume that the unique incentives of all the steem powered platforms may push people who would like to start creating and sharing their unique journeys, information or persepectives over the edge – which other platforms may not do. So maybe, just maybe, we will see some great creators coming to this platform, whose content otherwise would have never seen the light of day. In this spirit I hope you forgive me if I switch a little bit between topics during this next month. But as everybody I have multiple interests and knowledge in different areas :D I will explore various topics and see what feels good to me but also what brings the most value to the community. Since I will be traveling, travel will certainly play an important role.

Finally understanding the purpose behind meditation and dealing with the voice inside

So let's directly dive into the first topic I would like to share with you. In the last couple of years I experimented a lot with all different kinds of meditation. Most people, who do not further look into meditation know the mindfulness-based approach of paying attention to your breath, but there is so much more. Even meditating in full movement and not being still at all - but letting the body do the work.
Today I would like to rather expand on the effects of meditation and the purpose, in my humble opinion, about it. I did not only read books about it but even went to the library and compared scientific papers, because I wanted to know if all the hype about it is true. I always heard „it is scientifically proven“ that this or that happens when you meditate. But as always when studies are mentioned you have to be careful and best look further if you are really interested in the topic. As a conclusion it can be stated that meditation is advantageous for mentally healthy people but different kinds of meditations acutally do have different effects. And what I was most suprised by is that even negative effects are possible for certain people. I never heard someone mention this before.

(Source: Pixabay)

Meditation is not a „break“ during your day

Anyways I always thought that each kind of meditation has the purpose to reach a certain goal such as feeling compassion or being present while meditating. These breaks during the day would then somehow let us act more conscious during the day. But as I again dove in deeply into meditation practices I had a revelation: Meditation practices are not only meant to be practised during „meditation time“ and then be forgotten until forever. But it is rather about implementing the meditation practice during our everyday life. I think it can be agreed that most meditation practices aim at stopping the self-centered thinking and calming or changing the focus of our inner voice to something else. Focusing on your breath or repeating a mantra for example teaches you to stop the inner voice and letting things be as they are right now, which in return gives us a short sense of calm. We do not overthink challenges in our lives. But if we only do this while we carved out time for the practise we neglect the valuable practising time during the rest of the day. This is also why I prefer meditating with my eyes open in order to not condition my mind to only be in this state while having my eyes closed. So the pracitcal advice for myself is to remember that meditating and the positive effects in the moment are available all day long, and not only at a certain time. I don't know about you but for me this was an enormously new perspective which I did not understand before.

In that sense (and making the connection to the first part of my article) let us not overthink but create great content for everyone :)

Please let me know in the comments of what you think about my approach of exploring different areas while already creating content around them. Do you enjoy the topic of meditation and is my revelation news to you or was it crystall clear to you all the time? I am by no means an expert on this topic but just someone who is interested. So if you share your knowledge and experiences I would be thrilled!

I wish nothing but the best for you my friends!