We have three major modes (states of mind):<p>1. Present, -- Emptiness of the mind<p>2. Future -- Dreams/Worries<p>3. Past -- Lessons/Regrets/Sadness<p>I have found out that I'm most productive/happy, when I'm mostly in the Present mode. I say mostly because if I was only in Present mode there was no way I could get anything done.<p>Solving a problem (say creating a feature for my product) requires combination of all the three modes. You need to predict the future (worry about if this then thats) and also remember the past (all the lessons, failures, and more).<p>But, without the Present mode there is no free space in our mind for us to get things done! We need that free space like computers need the free RAM.<p>The secret to success is a healthy combination of the three modes!<p>Meditation is the art of switching the mind to the Present mode 100%. We need Meditation most when things get too messy and we need to empty our mind and start from scratch. Think of Meditation as a hard restart!<p>But what is even more important than Meditatio is to constantly monitor the Mind and make sure it has a healthy combination of these three modes. Let's call this constant awareness of the Present!<p>Going back to the computer analogy,<p>Meditatio to computers is the hard restart. Let's say there is a memory leak in one of the programs or there is a wild thread.<p>And "constant awareness of the Present" is smart memory management -- to make sure we remove unnecessary data from RAM.<p>Some call this living in present time but I like to call this having a stable brain (mind) that is capable of working properly and getting things done!<p>To running a stable brain and being happy! :)<p>P.S. This is an answer to a comment (asked on HN) on how I clean my mind and avoid mental congestion and motivate myself.<p>Edit: formatting.
Edit2: changed the title.