Some citizens have been running their lives with frustration under fear of insecurity. These people have been facing anxieties resulting from drought and famine, natural and man- made disasters, ethnicity-based conflict and political upheavals, economic depression and poverty as well as mental and physical illness.
To cushion such social chaos and political turmoil, uplifting personal and social moods is a viable way to parry from the challenges and to address the aforementioned problems. Nowadays, most individuals, by way of treatments, prefer to meditate for want of pain relief.
Many meditation centers are being set up in the country. Meditational practice is a current phenomenon in Ethiopia. As it is a time of frustration, fear of insecurity, depression and post stress trauma disorders, anxiety and stress, physical pains and injuries, paranoia, internet addiction disorder, obesity and alcoholic, tobacco as well harmful drug addictions. Being bipolar is also in the list.
As the people of the country in depression and discomfort zone, meditation is critical to heal mental, spiritual and physical diseases. Though meditation belongs to Asian countries, it has gained credence as world treatment means for chronic diseases. Not only good to heal the specific disease, but also it has curing effect for socio-economic as well political turmoil.
As inner dialogue and inner peace are necessary for a nation’s peace, decisive are stability and security as well as political and social rests, such virtual and righteous elements pull down roots in good moods and meditation practices. Inside- outside observation happens through practicing meditation.
And if Ethiopia needs to achieve satisfactory outcomes in the happiness index, there should be a means for uplifting good mood through meditational practices. Recently, meditation has been gaining credence as a treatment for several diseases.
Happiness keys for human development index, include, life expectancy, health care and educational developments, Gross Domestic Product and increment of per capita incomes. So, governments and stake holders should be actively engaged in the investment of molding bad mood into good one.
Culture of fear has been becoming root causes of social distress and discomfort as well political unrest in the country. Fearlessness can be attained through practicing of meditation, which is helpful to be free from fear and to love one another.
Taking into consideration such hurdles that deny one the ability to claim in the ladder of personal success and accomplishment, meditational practices can be taken as ways to combat discomfort zones and unfavorable conditions.
Currently, Riham Mohammed is the business manager at Khul Holistic Development Center, which is a social enterprise based in Addis Ababa. Nowadays, Ethiopia has been providing various services in the areas of self-development and wellbeing. Therefore, she is passionate about personal growth and continuous learning. She considers herself as a successful woman for personal and social gains.
For the past six years now, she has been traveling around as well as exploring different paradigms in business, holistic living and alternative health. She is a Mechanical Engineer by profession. But she is also a certified life coach, yoga instructor and meditation trainer.
Having this in mind, The Ethiopian Herald had approached Riham Mohammed for explanation achievements and accomplishments on meditational school of thoughts.
Herald: What are the most significant impacts of doing meditation for citizens?
Riham: The popularity of meditation has been increasing since the last few decades as more people throughout the globe are discovering its benefits, but meditation has been practiced since ancient times in numerous religious traditions.
Since the 19th century, meditative techniques from the East have spread to other cultures where they’ve been used in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health. There have been hundreds of researches and studies done on the impacts and benefits of meditation both for individuals and communities.
Some of the scientifically proven ones are reduced stress levels, controlled anxiety, improved emotional health, enhanced self-awareness, lengthened attention span, mental discipline, enhanced willpower, improved quality of sleep and restfulness.
These are just some of the benefits; meditation is something everyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health and the general quality of their life. As a society, the impact will be greater when we have healthier individuals with a stronger body and better mental/emotional states.
Herald: Does establishing meditation center have own negative and positive influences for the cultural values and development of the country?
Riham: Most meditation practices can be handled anywhere without any special equipment or centers. The advantages of establishing meditation centers are that the teaching and practices will be more widespread. It will impact a larger number of people and it will feature the support of trained and experienced teachers.
In terms of cultural value, as long as the establishments have good intentions in spreading the benefits of meditation they can be great platforms to strengthen Ethiopian cultural values like compassion, working together, helping others, living in harmony and peace.
As long as we are working to promote the benefits of meditation for individuals and to create a better society, I don’t see any negative influences of establishing centers. We just have to make sure that our activities align with the positive outcomes we want to generate for society.
Herald: Does Ethiopia have a sort of indigenous knowledge regarding the practice of meditation?
Riham: As Ethiopia has a long history and is very rich in traditions, there are various meditative practices as part of the ancient religions and spiritual sects in the country.
Even though some people might think that meditation is something new that we adapted from the east or west, this practice has always been part of our lives, even though not publicly popularized. It is usually called things like “Timona”, “Armimo”, ”Temesto”.
Herald: In which status and roles are the customers of the Khul Holistic Development Center labeled?
Riham: Our customers are very diverse and from all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds although we mainly target youngsters, aged between 16-25 to introduce them to the importance of self-development and wellbeing.
And it includes also conscious adults who are already aware of the value of the services that we offer. One of the things that make our center very unique is that it is almost fully run by young and energetic volunteers and interns.
Herald: Would you tell brief us regarding Khul Holistic Development center?
Riham: It was Founded in 2014 by a young growth enthusiast Yoftahe Manyazewal, Khul gathers a group of visionaries, innovators, authors, designers, entrepreneurs, passionate artists, transformation coaches, social change and voluntarism advocates working towards creating big possibilities of positive impact from Individual Excellence towards Human Excellence, through driving happiness and igniting newness to the systems of wellness, education and business.
Khul Academy is a life learning platform which we believe can fill the gaps in conventional educational systems, with different alternative education packages.
Some of the programs include, High School to Campus and Campus to Corporate.These are programs aimed at filling the life skill gaps students’ face in stepping to the next level.
Herald: What specific tasks has the center been accomplishing so far?
Riham: We are doing on aspire individuals, businesses, institutions & organizations, equipping with modern researched tools and holistic growth approaches to personal and organizational excellence.
Herald: At last, you are welcome to convey your message?
Riham: I think it is important to work on individuals to bring about any form of sustainable change to our communities and the world at large. In fact, the center I work with has been doing this since 2016.And its vision is to become a global institute for self-engineering and inner sciences with the capacity to reach billions of people.
I would suggest that anyone who fosters these kinds of interests to connect with like-minded and like-hearted individuals and commit to building a community of people such as the one at Khul Holistic Development Center.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday edition March 1/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
