Meditation – what is it, how to start and how it helps

I have mentioned earlier on my BLOG that meditation is a part of my life and here I will try to explain on how you can use it to increase a quality of your life.

Meditation has been among us for hundred of years but even nowadays is still seen as something uncommon, almost exotic, strange or even evil. We, as people often judge certain things (or people) before we try or “meet” them. Heard an expression: “don’t judge the book by its cover”? This is one, good example of it.

Why shall I consider meditation?

This help us to become better version of ourselves, it will make us more happier, creative, it will reduce stress. Few minutes per day “invested” in your wellbeing will pay back quickly.

What are the basics?

People who want to start their lifetime adventure with meditation come across two main problems: they think they do not have time for it and they don’t know how to do it. Lack of time is nothing else but an excuse – you only need few minutes during the day, I spent 20minutes per day, that is enough for me. You don’t know on how to meditate? That is fine, meditation is similar to education, you need to start somewhere and practise it, gain discipline, reserve time for it, switch off the phone and just do it. You do not require any equipment, all you need a space on the floor or even chair, you don’t need music, pillows, incenses. Meditation is a part which will help you switch off certain instincts and will allow you to focus on yourself.

Meditation and our health.

I have mentioned before that meditation does help improving our health. That is true, let’s start with the stress, who does not have issues with it? Meditation practise are helping to ease psychological loads like anxiety, mental stress or depression. Thanks to meditation you can observe and eliminate all these unproductive symptoms which are not uncommon when you start having some mental difficulties, here is the link to interesting study, if you’d like to read a little more: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/mindfulness-meditation-may-ease-anxiety-mental-stress-201401086967

Meditation develops creativity

Meditation techniques are helping with creativity, even in those people’s mind who have never tried it before. You certainly don’t need to be highly experienced to notice all these benefits of meditation. Science research study proves that you become more creative while meditating. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141028082355.htm

Meditation helps with rheumatism

Science research studies also show that meditation is helping to ease impact on how you go through the illness, it is reducing tension, stiffness as well as sense of pain, source for interested ones: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-mindfulness-rheumatoid-arthrit/mindfulness-program-may-improve-some-rheumatoid-arthritis-symptoms-idUSKCN0JB24220141127

Meditation helps with Alzheimer disease

Studies show how meditation is slowing down progress of Alzheimer disease, more information on that: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131118141817.htm

Meditation helping us with learning ability

Meditation practises have positive influence on our parts of the brain responsible for learning processes, memory as well as emotion control, another source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/

Meditation is also:

• higher levels of serotonin in the brain
• reduced receptivity to stress
• increased objectivity (ability to reduce judgement of certain situation from our point of view)
• reduced level of fear and anxiety, even before death
• increase the productivity at work

Types of meditation

The history of meditation is as old as human culture. There is many “schools” of meditation and here are four of the most popular ones:

• Zazen – basic form of the Zen Buddhist tradition. You seat with your legs crossed. Main element is ability to sit in correct position, breathing and not connecting focus to your thoughts.
• Vipassana – Buddhist technique, in short you concentrate on natural reactions around you, perception of things and surroundings are what they are in reality
• Mindfulness – Also based on Buddhist tradition form which is popular in Western World. It is also the most popular one for us. You focus on present time, observe what is around you and concentrate on incoming feelings, thoughts and emotions
• Mantra – this one comes from India, people use certain words and sounds like “om”, “yam”, “rama”, they are meant to clean your mind.

Ok, we know the basics, so how to meditate and when?

How to meditate? Simple, sit down comfortably in quiet, calm please. You can sit either on the floor, or on the chair, make sure to not sit down on overly comfortable object such as bed or pillow as you don’t want to fall asleep while meditating, you will be able to do that in future after you learn the basics.

When you sit, keep you back straight, close your eyes and start to breath slowly and deeply. Try to focus on that breath, when you intake the air think of how it goes to your lungs, think of your each muscle in your body from top to bottom, from head to toes. Let your mind catch on sounds and smells which are surrounding you, don’t focus, just simply acknowledge them, come back to your muscles again, this time go from toes to head, and come back to breath.

This at first will take few minutes, usually less than 5, have you done it? Congratulations, you did your first meditation class. Now you just need to allow yourself to have sessions like that every day and after 3-4 weeks you will master it and you will see how it is changing your life, for better!

Few practical tips:

• As with working discipline, you need to gain the ability for meditate every day, it is best to allocate time during the day, always same time, same length and just practise it every day for 3-4 weeks until it will become a habit.
• When to meditate? – best timings are in the morning or by the lunch, usually you want to do it no later than 2pm (you can later after you master the skill)
• How long to meditate? – You don’t want to spend hour or two meditating, otherwise you will quickly decide that you don’t like it and you will not come back to it, start with 5 minutes, if you can with 10, fine, but don’t spend too much on it for now, you need to focus on doing it everyday and doing it properly, that’s for now anyway.
• Don’t worry that you cannot focus and you get disturbed at things around you, this is absolutely normal, every time your mind goes away and hang on something which it shouldn’t, come back to monitoring your breath and scanning your body from head to toes and toes to head.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch by using “Contact me” tab on the top of the page.

All the best,
Lucas