Meditation 1 - Meditation Techniques
Meditation 1 - Meditation Techniques
Meditation 1 - Meditation Techniques
Meditation techniques are often thought of as a hidden treasure that belongs only to those Buddhist, ascetic, celibate monks. We, average hard working Joes, are not meant to learn it. It's too hard isn't it? Sitting still with eyes closed for one hour! "Leave alone one hour, I can't even do it for 5 minutes!" I mean, how could you? You've got things to do, right? You've got to work, you've got to pay your bills.
But here's the truth: meditation is something natural not only to humans, but to all creatures on this Earth. Have you ever seen a tree in your life? It meditates for a life time! It's never distracted, but always fully focused on what it has to do: to be a tree.
We, on the other hand, are never focused, but always distracted... Can you count 50 breaths without allowing any thought to cross your mind other than the counting itself? Can you do that with full focus? If you can count 10 breaths, you already have a head start over most people.
Meditation is nothing more than practicing mindfulness. It is simply paying attention.
Life has many distractions which take you away from your Self. The meditation techniques help you come back to where you should be: "NOW". The past is gone and there's nothing you can do about it and the future is always uncertain. All you have is this moment, the present. You cannot live more than one moment at a time, life happens moment by moment. If you get distracted, the moment is forever gone. When you learn to fully live the present moment, you learn to fully live life.
People are always out to "do" something. They have their to-do lists, appointments, problems to solve, traffic jams to complain about. There's no more time for being, because you are always doing. In the end, you become your thoughts, your job, your appointments. Through meditation, you acknowledge these things for what they are: external things. They are not you.
Meditation techniques are a practice just like the practice of a musical instrument. Becoming aware and mindful is a skill to be developed through time and work. Think of an orchestra: no matter how good it is, it'll fail miserably if the musicians don't practice and tune before playing Mozart. So why don't you tune your body, your heart and your mind before starting your day? Practicing meditation is like tuning your instruments. Living Life in full awareness and mindfulness is like playing the symphony. That is the ultimate goal of meditation.
Get back in touch with your true Self. Become aware of your own being. Your Self is your connection to all Life around you. When you live trapped by your thoughts and illusions, you lose connection with your Self and thus, with all Life.
Meditation is letting go of worries, of the past, of the future. It is paying attention: to your Self, to your Life, to "now".
Benefits of Meditation
As if learning how to live wasn't enough reason to get you started in the meditation techniques, there are many more tangible benefits meditation brings. If you need some fast, concrete results in order to get you started into something, here's what's in it for you:
Learning to live life in awareness
Increasing ability to focus
Lowering oxygen consumption, decreasing respiratory and heart rate, thus improving your body's energy management
Building self confidence, by becoming aware of your own strengths and weaknesses
Increasing serotonin production. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, obesity, insomnia and headaches
Enhancing the immune system
Getting in closer contact with your thoughts and emotions
Reducing stress
Increasing ability to solve problems
I have problems, you have problems. Everybody does. But, how can you solve them without paying attention? If you're constantly distracted, you might not even see what needs improvement in your life. It doesn't matter what your problem is, you can only fix it through careful attention. Being mindful is essential (have you noticed how many times I've linked you to "Mindfulness"? =) for self improvement and for living as best you can. Meditation is one way to achieve that.
If you want to get started right away, here's a great article to get you going:
How to Meditate
Also, this website has a lot of awesome content:
Insight Meditation Center
Be mindful!
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