Meditation is about creating a connection between the mind and body. It is a frequent process of training the mind to focus and redirect the thoughts. So, why people are looking for meditation and want to know How to Meditate? As a result, It wipes away the day’s stress and brings inner peace. The goal of meditation is to focus on and understand the mind. And eventually reaching a better level of awareness and inner calm. Let us guide you on the path of how to meditate.
While meditation has its rich cultural history in countries like India, China, and Japan. It’s becoming increasingly popular in the Western world – and with really some good reasons.
So, Is there any need to doing meditation? If yes then how to meditate?
While meditating, we inject far-reaching and life-long benefits into our lives. We lower our strain levels, we get to know our pain, we improve our concentration, and we’re kinder to ourselves. Meditation cherishes the mind within the same way that food nourishes the body. So, yes there is definitely a need of doing meditation these days to keep our mind away from useless thoughts and from overthinking.
There are 2 major types of Meditation:
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation encourages the learner to observe wandering thoughts as they flow through the mind. The intention isn’t to urge involved the thoughts or to gauge them but simply to be aware of each mental note as it arises.
Through mindfulness meditation, you’ll get to know how your thoughts and feelings tend to flow in a particular pattern. Over time, you’ll become more conscious of the human tendency. To quickly judge an experience nearly as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. With practice, an inner balance develops.
Concentration Meditation
Concentration meditation involves focusing on a single point for a period of time. You could do this while, repeating a one-word or mantra, or counting beads on a mala. Since focusing the mind is challenging, a beginner might meditate for less than a couple of minutes. And then work up to longer durations.
In this sort of meditation, you merely refocus your awareness on the chosen object of attention whenever you notice your mind wandering. Rather than pursuing random thoughts, you entirely allow them to go. Through this process, your ability to concentrate improves
Let’s move towards the steps on how to meditate?
Meditation is simpler (or harder) than most people think. Here are a couple of steps that will assist you with how to meditate:
1.) Find a quiet environment: Meditation should be practiced in a peaceful location. Make sure there’s nothing to disturb you before you begin meditation. Switch your phone to silent mode and go into a room away from others. Or you can even choose your backside garden or a park where there is no one to disturb you. For those who are new to meditation, it’s especially important to avoid any external distractions. If you listen to music, choose calm, repetitive tunes to avoid breaking your concentration. You can also play the bird’s noise or quiet nature sounds like running water.
2.) Wear comfortable clothes: This can be difficult if you feel physically uncomfortable due to tight or restrictive clothing. Try to wear loose clothing during meditation and make sure that you are not wearing any shoes and slippers. Wear a sweater or cardigan if you plan on meditating someplace cool, or bring a shawl you can easily wrap around yourself. You don’t want the sensation of feeling cold to interrupt your thoughts.
3.) Do some stretches before you start to prevent stiffness: Meditation usually involves sitting in one spot for a certain period of time. So, it is very important to release any tension or tightness of your body before you begin. Don’t forget to stretch your neck, shoulders, and lower back, especially if you’ve been working on a computer. Stretching out your legs—with a stress on the inner thigh—can be helpful while meditating in the lotus position.
4.) Sit in a comfortable position: It is very important that you are comfortable while you meditate, so finding the best position is a must for you. You can also take the support of a wall if you are a beginner. It helps you in maintaining your spinal cord straight.
5.) Straighten your spine once you’re seated: Good posture will help you keep motivated all the time. When you’re in a comfortable position, focus on the rest of your back. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable, relaxed, and have a balanced torso, so your spine will support all of your weight from the waist up.
6.) Close your eyes it helps you focus and relax: As a beginner, it is often best to try meditating with closed eyes in order to avoid visual distractions. If you’re practicing with open eyes you should need to stare at a point to concentrate on.
7.) Breathe gently: Focus your attention on each inhale and exhale. Alternatively, you can start with a body scan: focus on each part of the body, down from your toes and up to your head, pausing to notice the sensations. Don’t make a conscious effort to vary your breathing patterns. Just breathe normally.
8.) Repeat a mantra to help you focus: Mantra meditation is another common form of meditation that involves repeating a mantra (a sound, word, or phrase) over and over until you silence the mind and enter into a deep and meditative state. If you would like to use more traditional mantras, you’ll use the word “Om,” which symbolizes universal consciousness.
9.) Notice when your mind has been wandered: Naturally, your attention will leave the breath and wandering to other places. When you get around to noticing that your mind has wandered—in a couple of seconds, a minute, five minutes— try simply returning your attention to the breath.
10.) End with kindness: When you’re ready, gently open up your eyes. Take a moment and notice any sounds or any place in the environment. Notice how your body feels right now. Notice your thoughts and emotions.
Hurray, You have done it.
Meditating for just 5 to 10 minutes each day is an achievement to be proud of. Some people like to meditate for as long as 15 to 25 minutes once they become more experienced, but there are benefits even with short amounts of practice.
If possible, try to meditate at the same time every day, as this will help you build a habit so you build meditation into your daily schedule.
You learned How to Meditate, Now let’s discuss the major Benefits of Meditation
Scientific research shows that meditation has really some good benefits for mental and physical health. It may physically change the brain and body and could potentially help to improve many health problems and promote healthy behaviors.
Practicing meditation may reduce blood pressure, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
1. Reduces Stress
Normally, mental and physical stress cause increased levels of the hormone cortisol (stress-hormone). This produces many of the harmful effects of stress, such as the release of inflammation-promoting chemicals called cytokines. These effects can disrupt your sleep, increase blood pressure, promote depression and anxiety, and contribute to fatigue.
Meditation can lower the levels of cortisol — the stress hormone — and help you feel more calm and relaxed.
Research has shown that meditation may also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia (1, 2, 3, 4).
2. Controls Anxiety
Less stress translates to less anxiety. It also reduced symptoms of anxiety disorders, such as phobias, social anxiety, paranoid thoughts, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and panic attacks (5).
Meditation may also help in controlling job-related anxiety in a high-pressure work environment.
3. Lengthens Attention Span
Focused-meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span. It helps in increasing the strength and endurance of your mind.
Several studies shown that meditation can reverse some of these abnormalities, producing salutary functional and structural changes in the brain (6).
4. Improves Sleep
Nearly half of the population is struggling with insomnia at some point. One experiment compared two mindfulness-based meditation programs by randomly assigning participants to one of the two groups. One group practiced meditation, while the other didn’t.
Participants who meditated fell asleep sooner and stayed asleep longer, compared to those who didn’t meditate (7).
5. Helps Control Pain
Your perception of pain is connected to the state of your mind, and it can be elevated in stressful conditions.
A study of meditation in patients with terminal diseases found that meditation may help in mitigating chronic pain at the end of life (2).
6. Decrease Blood Pressure
Meditation can also enhance physical health by reducing strain on the heart. High blood pressure contributes to atherosclerosis, or narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Meditation appears to control blood pressure by relaxing the nerve signals that coordinate heart function, the tension in blood vessels, and the “Fight-or-Flight” response that increases alertness in stressful situations (8).
Blood pressure reduces not only during meditation but also over time in individuals who meditate regularly. This can reduce strain on the heart and arteries, helping prevent many heart disease.
There are many more benefits from doing meditation on mental and physical health you can read out here.
Some frequently asked questions about How to Meditate?
In this section, we gave some of the answers to the questions which are frequently asked about how to meditate?
Q1. How to Make Mindfulness a Habit?
Ans. Put meditation reminders around you, refresh your reminders regularly, create new patterns for memorizing something.
Q2. More Styles of Mindfulness Meditation?
Ans. Body Scan Meditation, Walking Meditation, Loving-Kindness Meditation. You can read more about them right here.
Q3. What is the best time of day to meditate?
Ans. Whatever time suits you. You can meditate anytime right before going to sleep or just after waking up. There isn’t a perfect time, but if you start your day by doing meditation in the morning it will help you stay calm and motivated all day.
Q4. Is the time duration matters?
Ans. Meditation is no more complicated than what we’ve described above. It is that simple but challenging. It’s also powerful and worth it. Your focus should be on doing this daily, no matter even if it is for 2 or 5 minutes.
“Meditation means letting go of our baggage, letting go of all the pre-rehearsed stories and inner-dialogue that we’ve grown so attached to”
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