Meditation is a practice that collects our attention from the outer world and concentrates on one single thought that is running inside us.
In other words, it is the habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. It enhances mental strength, concentration power, stability of mind to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.
We often do physical exercise to keep our body fit but what about the mind ? Is your mind peaceful which is the need of today’s stressful life?
If yes then good but if no, then what steps are needed to attain an appropriate stage of mental peace ? The only way to achieve mental peace is meditation.
There are nine popular types of meditation practice.
The 10 stages of meditation and 4 milestones are as follows.
The novice – stages 1-3
The skilled mediator – stages 4-6
The transition – stage 7
The adept – stages 8-10
Extended attention and overcoming forgetting – Stage 3
Subduing subtle distraction – Stage 6
The four techniques are as follows:
a sitting meditation
a visualization practice
a mantra practice and
a walking meditation
All these involve activities that you do every day, but rather than doing them unconsciously, you bring your total focus and awareness to the simple task at hand.
As opposed to actively trying to quiet your mind, when you meditate, your mind will quiet itself- all on its own. Whether you are following your breath or chanting a mantra, you’ll eventually start to just be present, to “just be.” If you try to tame your thoughts, they’ll just multiply instead.
Simple Meditation Methods
Sit or lie comfortably
Close your eyes
Make no effort to control the breath; simply breathe naturally
Focus your attention on the breath and on how the body moves with each inhalation and exhalation
Meditation prompts that’ll challenge you to think bigger, improve your mind, heart and body.
Focus on your breath. Start your meditation by taking several deep breaths.
Do a body scan
Evaluate your energy
Choose a mantra
Reflect on the day
Reflect on the past week
How can you meditate daily ?
Commit to just 2 minutes a day. Start simply if you want the habit to stick
Pick a time and trigger. Not an exact time of day, but a general time, like morning when you wake up, or during your lunch hour
Find a quiet spot
Start with just 2 minutes
Focus on your breath
Many experts suggest mindfulness-based clinical interventions such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) meditation for 40-45 minutes per day.
The Transcendental Meditation (TM) tradition is the other intervention which is often recommended for 20 minutes, twice daily.
Moreover, according to experts, listening to music while meditating is good for both your body and soul. It refreshes you from within and rejuvenates your mind. There are different kinds of music you could listen to while meditating.
Meditation is essentially a quick and easy way to reach the high vibration required to shift you out of the ‘asking mode’ and into the ‘receiving mode’. The more often you meditate, the faster your desires are able to manifest into your life.
It also helps reduce worry and rumination- two things that can keep your mind going and going and going at night. And physically, mindfulness meditation triggers the relaxation response, helping to slow your heart rate and breathing and ease muscle tension. All of that can help you nod off quicker.
The focus should be on your priority. Stay in a position for 10-20 minutes, at a stretch. Relaxing music can be used to further channelize your concentration powers.
Studies have also shown meditation reduces inflammation in the brain, thus lowering your risk for cancer and other diseases. Additionally, it sets you up to feel awe, relieves pain and protects the brain from aging. Meditation can help with anxiety, depression, insomnia and fatigue.
During meditation, activity in the parietal lobe slows down. The gatekeeper for the senses, this organ focuses your attention by funneling some sensory data deeper into the brain and stopping other signals in their tracks. Meditation reduces the flow of incoming information to a trickle.
Meditation can ‘give’ you a high. However all it is doing is calming thought flow so you can experience the natural high of a deeper mind, Your breath rate, heart rate and thoughts are coming down in meditation so do not stand up immediately but take some time to normalize.
Finally, meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health. And these benefits don’t end when your meditation session ends.
Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and may help you manage symptoms of certain medical conditions.