Defining Meditation
If you have access to a TV, the Internet, or perhaps other people for that matter, you’ve most likely heard about meditation. But what exactly is meditation? You hear about it all the time, but very few people take the time to actually explain what it is.
Despite popular images in the media, meditation isn’t about becoming a new person or transcending your old self. In contrast, meditation is about training your awareness and gaining a healthier perspective on yourself and your life.
With this in mind, meditation is nothing more than a tool you use to help you gain concentration and perspective. It is not mystical. It is not magical. It is simply a tool to help you achieve mental and emotional clarity.
Think about it like this: We exercise our bodies in order to stay healthy, gain muscle, and lose fat. Meditation works the same way, except it is for the mind instead of the body. Just as exercise is a tool for keeping your body in check, meditation is a tool for keeping your mind in check.
Why You Should Meditate
As we have stated, meditation is about gaining focus and perspective. As a result, you should meditate in order to experience these real benefits. More than that though, meditation results in a variety of other positive benefits that impact your life and well-being.
Benefits Your Physical Health
One of the main reasons that you should meditate is that it improves your physical health in a range of ways.
Significantly, meditation makes it possible for you to manage and alleviate stress healthily. When faced with a stressful or dangerous situation, our body creates cortisol and goes into a stress response mode. This stress response mode worsens our natural fight or flight tendencies, which is good in small doses.
Benefits Your Mental Health
Another reason you should meditate is that it often brings about a number of positive effects on your mental health.
The reason for this is that meditation increases the volume of brain regions associated with positive behavior and decreases the volume of brain regions connected with negative behavior. More specifically, it results in the left hippocampus, posterior cingulate, and temporo parietal junction growing and the amygdala reducing.
As a result, you might gain brand new perspectives, raise self-awareness, increase concentration skills, improve empathy, and gain a better understanding of yourself. All the while, you may experience a decrease in anxiety, stress, and anger, which are all linked to poor mental health.
Types of Meditations
There are many kinds of meditations. Here are some of the most popular:
Movement Meditation
Movement meditation is whenever you meditate while paying attention to the movement of your body. When you practice movement meditation, your focus should be on the movements of the body and not the goal of the movement.
For instance, when you walk to get your mail, you should concentrate on how your body moves as you walk. You should not focus on getting to the mail faster or more efficiently. When you pay attention to how your body moves, the movement becomes a part of the meditation.
Movement meditation is beneficial because it connects your mind to your body. Rather than your mind and body acting independently, focusing on the movement forces them to work as one.
The great part of movement meditation is that you can do it all the time. Whether you are exercising, setting about your daily life, or watching TV, you can turn your movements into movement meditations.
In addition to turning your regular movements into a form of meditation, there are many popular types of exercises that are classified as movement meditations.
Here are a couple:
Tai Chi
Tai Chi is a specific kind of moving meditation. It originated in China and has now spread all across the world for its ability to transform the mind, body, and spirit. Despite the fact that it is an ancient practice, it is simple to figure out and should not make you feel intimidated.
The main principle of Tai Chi is that your mind should become integrated with your body. You may do this by controlling your movements and breath ing, generating your own energy, and being mindful. Many people described Tai Chi as an art because of how it perfectly integrates your mind, body, and spirit into a flow or practice.
Yoga
Another popular form of movement meditation is yoga. Yoga originated in ancient India being one of the six schools of the Hindu philosophical tradition. Since its creation, yoga has evolved into an exercise consisting of postures (asana) and mental focus.
Much like Tai Chi, yoga is frequently meant to be an exercise that integrates the mind with the body. It is accompanied by postures, and breathing exercises, and ends with a period of relaxation. Some of the more popular postures include downward-facing dog, lotus pose, and corpse pose
Mindfulness
An additional type of meditation is known as mindfulness. In short, mindfulness is when you are fully present and aware of the current moment. You are not distracted by the world around you, the past, or the future. You can practice your mindfulness by being aware of your senses. Take into consideration your state of mind, thoughts, emotions, and how they interact with the world.
If you train your mind to think in this way, you are training yourself to be mindful. Though mindfulness may sound easy enough, it can be very difficult to execute. The more we practice being mindful in our everyday lives, the better we get at it. Like movement meditation, there are many forms of mindfulness.
Here are a few:
Guided Meditation
Guided meditation is when you or a group of people meditate in response to the guidance of another person. This other person can guide you through written text, audio, video, or in person. Yoga is often an example of guided meditation. The reason that guided meditation is often listed underneath mindfulness is that it often includes assessing current feelings, imagining imagery, and overall mindfulness. How it works is that the meditative guide will walk you through a series of meditation steps. As the guide talks, you consider your own images and thoughts relative to how you feel regarding the guide’s directions.
Journaling
Another form of mindfulness is journaling.
Journaling is when you make a note of your thoughts and feelings about the present. Mindful journaling differs from regular journaling in that it concentrates on how you feel and what you think at that exact moment. It does not focus on past or future events. Often, mindful journaling includes a prompt that you respond to. For example, a mindful journaling prompt may ask, “What do I need right now?” To that, you will answer the question directly and truthfully, without thinking too much outside of the present.
Affirmation Meditation
Another big form of meditation is called affirmation meditation. In short, affirmations are short sentences that are meant to affect the way we think, act, and react. They are meant to be positive and uplifting and reflect how we want to act in the future. Affirmations are beneficial because they become ingrained in your conscious and subconscious mind. As a result, your actions and inclinations began to lean in favor of the affirmations. You meditate on these affirmations by repeating them to yourself in a confident inaudible way. You should repeat them to yourselves ten times in a row. As you repeat your affirmations, imagine them coming true and envision your life as if they are true.
How to Start Meditating
Now that you know all about meditation, you may be asking yourself how you can start. Many people think that you already have a strong sense of willpower and concentration to meditate, but that is simply not true.
On the other hand, you just need a little bit of motivation and self-control so that way you can sit and meditate for five minutes at a time or longer
To help you get started, here are some tips for starting meditation.
Determine Your Goals
The initial step to meditating is to figure out your own goals for the meditation. These goals do not have to be super intricate or complex, but they need to be clear enough that they motivate you to take time out of your day to meditate. Common goals for meditation are increased concentration, emotional clarity, or relaxation.
These three meditation goals cover a lot of ground and will give you a firm idea of exactly what you want out of the practice.
Decide on a Time and Place to Meditate
The next step you should take is to determine a time and place to meditate. Many frequent meditators prefer to meditate either in the morning or at night. It is advised that you decide on a time that works for many days out of the week. You will only see the benefits of meditation if you meditate frequently. As a result, you should set a time to meditate every single day. This time can be known as your daily meditative practice.
Additionally, you should decide on a place to meditate. Many people like to have their own meditation space so that they are immediately put into a state of relaxation and tranquility when they enter. If you do not have an entire space to dedicate to your meditation, that is okay. Just find a comfy and quiet corner of your house.
Switch off Distractions and Relax
Once you determine your goals and decide on a time and place, you’re free to actually start meditating. The first step to meditating is turning off all distractions from the outside world. This includes switching off all cell phones and controlling your thoughts.
Once all your distractions are off, go ahead and start relaxing. You will want to relax in the position that you plan to meditate in. Most people prefer to meditate in a comfortable seated position. To relax, you may wish to close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. From here, you can meditate any way you like.