MEDITATION
Meditation is a mindful practice where you focus your attention onto your breathing, helping to create a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Meditation also helps us to cultivate wisdom and compassion.
The origin of meditation was in India about 5,000 years ago where people would sit in meditative postures with the eyes-closed for a certain period of time. Today, meditation has become a common practice and it has helped millions of people to find inner peace in their lives.
While practicing meditation takes you just 1 to 5 minutes daily, it can be a really difficult practice to get into if you haven't done it before. The idea of meditation is to find calm during the practice, however, when you start the practice as a beginner, your mind automatically starts wandering and you might find yourself getting anxious, the reason why most of the people resist to try again.
My experience during my first meditation practices wasn't different, I found myself in a restless state while I was trying to sit quietly with the focus on the breath. I often felt my heart rate going up and I really wanted to stop, in fact, I did quit several times. After being consistent with the practice, I noticed that I resisted less and I started to enjoy the benefits of meditating. For a few minutes I could silence my mind and be present.
Meditation is like any other practice like exercising, or learning a new skill. It will always be challenging at the beginning until your body and mind adapts. Imagine if you haven't ever been in the gym before, once you start, your body will go through some sensations, you will feel soreness and discomfort in your body, but then you will adapt and progress, same happens with our mind.
Whether, your day has been very stressful at work, at home or any other critical situation in your life, by taking at least 1 to 5 minutes of your day to meditate, you will be allow yourself to stay present, to create equanimity and to relax your amygdala which is the brain's radar for danger and the trigger for the fight - or - flight response (Sympathetic Nervous System) which has been activated by any of the situations above. After our amygdala has been hijacked due any stressor, a good way to bring us back to full energy and more relaxation is by practicing mindful meditation with a focus on the breath.
Other benefits of mediation include:
* Helps to clear the mind and obtain new perspective
* With consistency, it builds skills to manage daily stress better by increasing patience and tolerance
* Increase self-awareness.
* Keeps you present
* Decrease negative thoughts and emotions
* Increase imagination and creativity
To meditate simply
- Find a quiet place at home or at work where you can be undistracted for a few minutes. If you are at work, you can close your door and mute your phone during this time. Let your coworkers know that you will be taking a short break so they don't disturb you.
- Sit comfortably, with your back straight and relaxed or lay down on your back on the floor or your bed.
- Start noticing any sensation in your body (internal or external), and then turn your awareness onto your breath, allowing the breath to be in and out.
- Breathe naturally and fluid without any manipulation of the breath and when your mind starts to wander with any distraction such thoughts, sounds, sensations in your body, etc., don't try to resist them, instead, invite them all to be there and return your attention to your breath.
The time that you dedicate to meditate can be just as little as 1 minute - 30 minutes, it will depend on how much time you have and how comfortable you feel just to sit or lay down and breathe.