What is Meditation
Meditation – People are interested in meditation now a days better than ever. Meditation is the wealth for your mental life. With the hustle and bustle of life there is little time to actually know yourself. Many times, you might be thinking,” who are you?”. But with no time to get answer.
Meditation is the mechanism through which you can spend time with yourself and get many answers to questions of your existence. A world of peace, bliss, silence away from the world of noise and chatter resides in your inner being. Meditation is a practice to help you rise above the restlessness and continuous chattering of mind.
Why we need to do it
If you do it consistently, you will get long lasting, profound impact on your life. It is very beneficial in reducing your stress level. Counsellors and therapists advise it as a coping technique for stress management.
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Reduces your anxiety level.
Reduces your pain.
You are more Focussed.
You connect better.
You sleep better.
You adapt to any situation better.
You become more empathetic towards other.
Meditation can bring you out of depressions to make you land in your present moment.
Meditations can relieve you of your anxieties for future and land you in present moment.
Most profound benefit is that it declutters your mindspace and constant chattering in your mind is silenced. Meditation brings you in realms of peace.
Meditations help in
Cardio disorder
Anxiety and depression disorder
Alzheimer’s disease,
Parkinson disease
Insomnia
Chronic pain
Helps in removing addiction
Types of meditation for beginners
There are primarily two ways to do meditation. First is to bring stillness in your thought. That is art of focussing. The other one will fall into category of art of observing silently. Human mind is very flickering.
There are several types of meditation. Many ways a beginner can do meditation and accordingly it’s named such as mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation, focussed meditation, progressive relaxation technique, visualization
Let’s discuss important meditations for beginners:
- Mindfulness meditation
This is a process of always being in present moment, of being aware and alert about environment around you. By practising mindfulness meditation, you will learn to remain calm and unjudgmental and prevent you from being overreactive about things going around you. It helps you in developing “let go of” attitude and brings you in stress free zone.
Simplest is paying attention to your breathing pattern.
- Mantra meditation
This is one of the simplest methods of meditation and is a part of ancient Hindu and Buddhist wisdom. This meditation has roots in Hindu and Buddhist culture and it is a combination of mindfulness and focussing.
This a practice of altering your consciousness by repeating or chanting some sacred vedic sanskrit syllables or combination of sounds. Vibration of sounds establishes connection with your unconscious part and thenafter cosmic energies.
- Progressive relaxation technique
This is very helpful in cases of anxiety, stress and used in conjunction with cognitive behaviour therapy. This is a practice of sensing tension for few seconds say 4 to 5 seconds and then releasing tension and relax for 10 to 20 seconds causing relaxation in one muscle group at a time all through your body. This helps in achieving physical relaxation and helpful in hypertension.
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- Visualization and guided meditation
Visualisation meditation is focussing on a guided imagery or object with your mind’s eye combined with affirmation or mantras. A guided meditation is step by step narration by an expert through audio or video to make it easier for you to fall into meditative state easily for beginners. It prevents your mind from wandering elsewhere.
Steps
- Sit comfortably with your back straight either on floor or chair in a place calm and peaceful for you. Find yourself in peace and stillness. Feel relaxed.
- Put off mobiles and ensure total silence for some time.
- Close your eyes.
- Inhale and exhale deeply few times. Be attentive to your breath.
- Scan your body from toe to head slowly and notice any sensations.
- Let your thoughts come and go.
- Complete your process depending upon type of meditation and gently open your eyes.
Making meditation your habit
Practicing your meditaion process daily at the same time specially in morning turns into a strong habit and magically changes your life for better. Keep it small and you can experiment with music to make it more enjoyable.