There are many good reasons to begin a Meditation practice, and its popularity has increased significantly over the years. I attribute some of the newfound interest in meditation as a side perk of Yoga, which has also blossomed in popularity in recent years.
How meditation helps us in our daily lives
The fact of the matter is that the human brain never shuts up. Yogi’s like to call this the “monkey mind”; it just never shuts up. It’s always yacking away at you, and the stories it tells fill your head with are unimportant nonsense, trivial complaints, and problems that don’t actually exist! It’s the same thing as driving to work on auto-pilot.
To overcome the monkey mind, we must learn how to quiet the mind. The thought of trying not to think causes you to think about not thinking! However, it is not so much about not thinking about thoughts as it is about letting thoughts flow out without holding onto them.
When we meditate, we provide a quiet space to safely release our minds from the clutter and noise we collect from the world. We can symbolically let the day’s business roll slowly off our shoulders and hit the mat with a loud plop. If we commit to a daily meditation practice, we can start to live a more mindful, self-aware life. We will have less anxiety and worry and experience more inner peace and joy. We share a natural flow of creativity and are less likely to shoot down concepts and ideas we don’t understand or sound too” woo woo.”
Meditation Perks
A meditation practice delivers some serious benefits to overall well-being!
- Reduced stress, anxiety and worry
- Eases body pain and discomfort
- Improves emotional well-being
- Fires up positivity an creative thinking
- Opens the door to becoming your best self
How to get started
My first encounter with “meditation ” came about when I started practicing Yoga. The practice of Yoga has roots in Buddism, Hindusim, and Jainism and is the practice of physical, mental, and spiritual growth on and off the mat!
Need help getting started with a meditation practice? Consider a meditation studio or class. Many Yoga studios offer meditation-focused classes. I also recommend podcasts, HayHouse Meditations, and Brian Weiss, Mirrors of Time meditation.
Try a meditation application; check out the top twelve apps for 2020. I am familiar with “Simply Being” available on IOS and “Meditation Music,” also available on IOS.
I recommend designating a quiet space where you can sit comfortably without interruption for at least five to ten minutes. You may want to experiment with several meditative techniques until you find the one that works for you.
Meditation techniques that work
- Focusing on the breath is a common and effective focal point; your attention is on each inhale and exhale of the breath.
- Mindfulness is not about forcing thoughts out of your head but more about letting the thoughts float out as smoothly as they floated in. You don’t spend any time on the thoughts that wander in but let them go on their way.
- Using a mantra in your practice is similar to focusing on the breath. When you use a mantra in your meditation practice you are selecting a word or phrase that resonates with you and that you repeat in your mind as you meditate. For example, I often use the mantra “I am not my body, I am free” when I meditate.
Start your day on a positive note
Start each day with a ten-minute mediation that goes something like this:
- I meditate on “intentions” I set for the day.
- Lastly, I express my gratitude and love for myself and for everyone else, including those I don’t like very much!
I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside. ~Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
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