Meditation is sublime. It’s blissful – allowing us to enter this mental oasis called relaxation and inner peace. You’ve heard why meditation is important and how it can reduce stress, depression, anxiety, and illness.
We have probably experienced and bombarded by negative energies through people, situation, or media. To counteract unwanted forces of distress, we need internal influences and power to rout bad vibes. And meditation can help you with that.
Now, before you can say, “aum,” (please, it’s not “omm”) here’s what you need to know.
Benefits of meditation
Meditation allows connect within ourselves and feel our natural rhythms by clearing the mind. If we embrace that elevated sense of being we can achieve positive, healthy benefits.
If you need more convincing, without the mumbo-jumbo out of my mouth, here are benefits of meditation backed by science.
Relieves headaches and migraine. When they say, “it’s all in the mind,” well, it’s true. Based on research, mindfulness meditation is a promising treatment option to reduce headaches. Studies show that meditation can help relax muscles and ease chronic pain in most patients.
Reduces depression. Meditating for 30 minutes can boost mood. In fact, it can lessen stress, anxiety, and depression. Doctors discovered that meditation lets people have more control over how their brains respond to negative sensations and thoughts. That doesn’t mean to say, people won’t feel sad or stressed. They actually have more control over their thoughts and lives.
Makes you happy, kind, and patient. Having a sense of well-being makes you more empathetic to other people. It also helps you approach a tricky relationship situation with a calm mind and better mood by eluding you to have that “blew your top off” moment with people.
Boosts memory. Did you forget something? If you often fail to recall important memos and to-dos, you might want to turn to meditation for a memory boost. Meditation is shown to improve memory and focus by cutting back distracting thoughts. If you’re someone who jumps from one thought to another, you might try a little breathing and meditating exercise.
Makes workout more effective. After working out, you put your body system into a lot of stress and aches. Meditation can help improve and hasten recovery by dulling pain, inflammation, and stress. It allows you to rest your mind and body by lowering cortisol levels priming you for a great cool-out session.
Quiets the mind before sleeping. If restless thoughts keep you awake at night, then meditation can shut those thoughts away and help fight insomnia. A mind-calming practice will banish stress, reduce high blood pressure, and decrease anxiety from a racing mind.
Protects your heart. Meditation and health are often linked together, and this benefit is a no-brainer. Trust me – I keep hearing it from my cardiologist too. Meditation can boost heart health because it relieves stress (as I keep writing over and over again), lowers high blood pressure, and improves blood circulation in the body. A study confirmed that patients who practice mindfulness have a lower risk of getting a heart attack.
Breaks creative blocks. Think you’re stuck in a creative rut? Meditate. If you tap your inner self, mind, and soul, you get into a position of generating and receiving new ideas for your projects. A calm mind always produces an “Aha!” moment at the least time you expect of it.
Makes you more productive at your 9-to-5 job. Back when I was working with the government, a colleague of mind arrives in at 7:30 AM and meditates for at least five minutes before starting his work at 8 AM. He’s a programmer, by the way. And for someone who multitasks around the office, meditation improved his performance and memory of the tasks at hand for the day.
Banishes work or social burnout. Meditation helps alleviate feelings of work-related exhaustion and social stress. By emptying your thoughts of negativity, you get to renew yourself and start afresh.
Cuts out emotional eating habits. Stress and boredom can trick the mind in telling you that you’re hungry. Meditation can help you assess and determine your emotions, which leads to establishing a healthy reaction and choice. By being mindful of feelings, you get to identify what’s stressing you instead of indulging one potato chip per second!
Helps knowing yourself. Well, meditation allows us to know ourselves better and helps us understand our life’s purpose. You can gauge your inner strengths and weaknesses by divorcing yourself from stress. Meditation let us tap our lost natural rhythms by shutting negative dynamism from the world around us. By clearing our mind of unwanted distress, it gathers enough positive energy to fuel our daily lives.
Meditation is many things to people. It can be used to enhance productivity or improve habits. Almost all of us meditate to deal with sadness, anxiety, or depression and regain strength and appreciation in life.
Now, you know why meditation is good. But, how can you start meditating?
How to meditate
Meditation is fairly easy if you can discipline yourself to banish those undesired vibes. There are different meditation techniques and all are effortless to do – you just need a certain degree of concentration to handle it.
Here’s a basic meditation technique you can do.
Sit in a relaxed position. You can cross your legs or sit straight. Do it in a way that makes you comfortable.
Breathe regularly. Try to inhale deeply and hold it for three seconds. Now, exhale and hold it for six seconds. Repeat.
Stop thinking about your problems and push away any far-off thoughts from creeping in. You can concentrate on your breathing rhythm, recited credo, or visual imagery to focus meditating.
For beginners, you can start doing this for five minutes. Otherwise, if you think you can handle 20 minutes or so, then, set aside that amount of time for your mindfulness session.
Other meditation techniques you can do
If you want more than just sitting down and breathing, here are other meditation techniques you can do.
Mantra or prayer meditation
You can pray or echo a calming phrase over and over to clear your thoughts. You can pick any mantra or credo you want and repeat it to yourself.
The most used word and source of all mantra and prayer meditation is “aum.” Aum is believed to be the first sound made by celestial pulsations that resulted in the creation of the universe. Therefore, by saying “aum,” you’re channeling the cosmos and tapping the heavens in search for inner peace.
You can always make a mantra of your own like:
“Great things take time.”
“This is me.”
“If you dream it, you can do it.”
“Never give up.”
“I can, therefore I am.”
“Dream big and dare to fail.”
“I am a fighter. You can’t break me.”
“I invite happiness in my life. Come!”
Bonus: the best mantras found in movies (just for fun)
“Inner peace.” A reference to Kung Fu Panda
“Speed. I am Speed.” Lightning Mcqueen Cars
“Yaaaaaaa Moouuuu Ahhhhhh Doooou Fuuuu Daaaaa” Mulan
“Just keep swimming.” Finding Nemo
“Hakuna Matata” Lion King
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die” Princess Bride
Yoga meditation
You invite calmness by performing a series of positions while breathing deeply. The focus is on the movements and keeping your varying positions altogether to make one harmonious flow.
The most common position for meditation is the Lotus Pose where you sit down and cross legs with both feet up. But contrary to the case, the Lotus position is not mandatory in order for you to meditate.
You can prop up to any yoga pose you want as long as you do it comfortably. Mine is the Snake (not Cobra) and Child Pose! Other great poses are:
Four-limbed pose (similar to a plank)
Crescent pose (in exercise terms, it’s known as a high lunge)
Tree pose – you stand on your feet and put your right foot on your inner left thigh. Place your hands in prayer.
According to some yogis, the least position you should try to do is the “Corpse Pose” or lying down – unless your goal is to fall asleep. If you’re someone who has a strong degree of concentration, then this pose is no problem to do so.
Physical activity as meditation
Going for a walk or run can be blissfully calming. Exercise is known to reduce stress and enhance happy hormones in the body. ‘Nuff said.
But, it doesn’t have to be a full-blown exercise. Physical activities like gardening or taking your dog out can fight diseases, strengthen mental fitness, and improve focus and alertness.
My own meditation technique
I’m that girl who works around the clock to deliver my projects to clients on time and of high-quality. Now, ask me what I do for a living:
Writing
Graphic Design/Illustration
Web design
Animation and video editing
Like all of them? Yes. Sometimes, I do them all at the same time.
You can fully imagine what my mind looks like. Here’s a strong depiction:
Stressful, right? But, how do I get to handle everything in one piece altogether? My secret: meditation and time management.
But, what’s my meditation technique?
Tea drinking and wall staring.
Ever since my mom painted my then-green-bedroom walls to white, I couldn’t help but stare into its clean, vast, errr…emptiness. My meditation technique is simply sipping a cup of tea and staring at the blank walls for 15 to 30 minutes (depending on break time).
My daily schedule is like:
5:30AM – Wake up
6AM – Early work
7AM – Breakfast and tea
8AM – Back to work
10AM – Break
10:30AM – Back to work
12PM – Lunch
1PM – Back to work
2:30PM – Break
4PM – Work
6PM – Break
7PM – Work
10PM – End day
Although it depends on my deadline, I do usually work around 8AM at my personal office. I can tackle more about time management and work hours later on.
So, there you go! Hope you get to fall in love with meditation and find your inner peace!
