MASTER YOUR MIND

PHYSICAL PROWESS IS ONE THING. BEING MENTALLY FIT IS ANOTHER. IN THE COMING MONTHS, AUGUSTMAN MALAYSIA SPEAKS TO MALAYSIAN EXPERTS OF THE MIND IN VARIOUS FIELDS OF INFLUENCE.

FINDING PEACE AMIDST THE CHAOS

DOMINIC AW HAS EXPLORED his mind for about a decade now, and he’s since fostered a thriving inner world. But the journey he needed to get there involved passing by Chaos Street and Fast-Paced Avenue every single day. And while extreme unhappiness is often avoided whenever possible, Aw credits his negative thoughts at the time for where he is today.

From the outside, Aw looks like a man at peace. But behind his calm demeanour lies a practising lawyer who’d partied his negative feelings away, only to continue down a downward spiral of depression and anxiety. “I just wanted peace,” Aw says. “But I remember one New Year’s Eve, at a rooftop party, when I stood a bit too close to the edge of the balcony and thought of jumping.”

That’s when Aw knew his days of partying and heavy drinking weren’t doing anything to alleviate his pain. He would go on to seek professional help, but his doctor at the time barely even listened to Aw’s symptoms before prescribing anti-depressants.

Not being too keen on prescription drugs, Aw went on a work sabbatical to try every other method to help calm his mind. This included trance dances and breathwork, and he even travelled to South America to explore all the other modalities. It was ascension meditation that would finally do the trick.

“All these different modalities are just ways of bringing you to the same destination. And for me, that destination is being in the present. When you’re present, you allow everything in front of you to unfold. You’re in the realm of infinite possibilities. But the moment you think of the future, you marshal your thoughts down a road you don’t want.”