There is no right or wrong way to meditate, what matters is that meditation can help you feel relaxed, happy and give you an overall sense of wellbeing. Meditation has been practised across the world for thousands of years and is now commonly used to improve relaxation and to help manage stress.
So, what is meditation and how does it work? In a nut shell, meditation can be described as the art of being present. A practice that is achieved by focusing the mind on a single object or activity. Sounds easy doesn’t it. Yeh, now put down this article, get comfortable and try focusing on one thing like your breath or a flower or anything that takes your interest for just five minutes.
Come on try it, the rest of the article will mean more if you do.
How did that go? Did your mind wander? Did you fall asleep? Did you find unrelated thoughts come into your mind? Did you think of work, what you’re having for dinner or what you’re going to do on the weekend?
If you did, this is a normal experience for most meditators. Meditating is like building mental fitness.
If we want to train our bodies to run a marathon we start with short sessions and slowly build our fitness to be able to run for longer periods. Training to meditate is the same. Start with giving your total attention to say five breaths, noticing the start and finish of each breath, and bringing the mind back when it starts to drift away.
As you get the hang of this, increase your focused attention to say twenty or thirty breaths and so on. The key in this process is to remove yourself from whatever distracts you and return to the breath without being annoyed or tensing up (I wish someone told me that when I started all those years ago).
How you respond to these unwanted distractions is a major part of the work. Like many of the little distractions in everyday life, you may not like them, but you don’t have to let them make you unnecessarily angry. You change your response and you change your life.
So why is meditation so good for you? Meditation provides many benefits both physical and emotional. When you practice meditation your heart rate and breathing slows down, blood pressure normalises, adrenal glands produce less cortisol, and your immune function improves. You enter a deep state of relaxation, your mind becomes tranquil and you gain a sense of peace, calm and balance.
There is a growing body of research that supports the health benefits of meditation and much of this research indicates that meditation may help conditions such as:
· Allergies
· Anxiety
· Asthma
· Binge eating
· Cancer
· Depression
· Fatigue
· Heart disease
· High blood pressure
· Chronic pain
· Sleep problems
You now have the beginnings of how and why, so how do you get started?
The simple answer is just start.
There are several different types of meditation and objects to focus on such as breath, mantra, naming, counting, and affirmations, and it’s up to you to experiment to see which ones suit you best.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this article next week where I’ll give you some practical tips to help you on your way.
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