Meditation
Meditation is the practice of turning your mind inward, and silencing all the noise. Once the noise is silenced (Depending on your beliefs) you can begin to see reality as it is, form greater connections with yourself, your world, and/or a higher power.
“The thing about meditation is: you become more and more you.”
The Absolute Simplest Way to Begin with Meditation:
1. Find a Quiet Place.
2. Sit Comfortably with a Straight Back.
3. Focus Your Attention on Your Breathing.
4. Allow Thoughts to Come and Go.
5. Return Your Attention to Your Breath.
That’s it. You don’t have to breathe any certain way. You just observer your breaths. As you focus your attention on your breaths everything else will slowly become quieter and quieter.
There are, obviously, all kinds of different techniques and ideas. Some based in science, most based in religion. But everyone I’ve ever read about starts with this. This is the commonality. Sit straight, pull your attention to your breathing. If you want to go deeper or explore various other benefits you may get from various techniques. Feel free. If you’re just getting started, this is all you need.
If you want a more complicated or detailed step by step, there are all kinds of audios on YouTube, or apps, or books that will talk you through it. Some are listed below. I recommend starting simple.
“Meditation is the action of silence”
I Practice Meditation Daily Because:
For me, meditation is like a drug. Seriously. I’ve been on various anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds, and none of them come close to touching the peace that I find in my mind when I take 10 minutes to meditate every day. It’s literally training your mind to be quiet. And for me anxiety was just an awful thought tornado, and depression was a deep emptiness and hopelessness.
Meditating teaches you control of your mind. You can toss the thought tornados away.
It brings you peace, and with more peace comes more joy, which slowly lifts the fog of emptiness and hopelessness.
The quieter your mind is, the more you start to really see. When you stop being so wrapped up in your thoughts and feelings, reality and possible realities all become much clearer to you.
This is my experience. The quieter my mind is, the more connected I feel to everything around me. The more connected I feel, the more peace and joy I feel. The more peace and joy I feel, the more capable I become of doing the things I need to do.
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there — buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day”
Meditation Can Improve Your Life in Many Ways:
1. Meditation can teach you peace.
Practicing meditation, is practicing peace. The more peaceful you are, the more likely you are to think before you react. The more peaceful you are, the less full of stress and anxiety you are.
2. Meditation can teach you to be more observant.
As you practice focusing your attention on your breath; As you practice allowing all the noise to quiet; You’ll find it much easier to quietly observe everything happening within and around you. You’ll quickly find yourself noticing things you never would have before.
3. Meditation can teach you patience and how to let go.
As you practice watching your thoughts come, and watching your thoughts go. You’ll soon find yourself doing the same thing when you aren’t meditating. Those intrusive thoughts, watch them drift on by. Those past hurts, suddenly don’t feel so significant. That guy that cut you off in traffic, whatever he’s probably just having a bad day.
4. Meditation can improve your attention span
As you practice focusing on your breath, you’ll quickly notice you find it easier to focus on other things. Focus is a skill. Focus can be learned. And focus is one of the things you practice in meditation.
5. Meditation can improve your creativity and self-awareness
As you practice quieting the constant cacophony in your mind, you’ll start to see the quieter and more true parts of you. You attention will veer away from the chaos of constant struggle and into the peace that promotes creativity; into the quiet that allows you to find who you really are.
Different Things for Different People: Since we are all wholly unique individuals. Some thing will work great for one person, and do absolutely nothing for others. Meditation is less likely to benefit you if: Honestly, I think there are approximately 0 people on the planet who won’t benefit from meditation. It has some religious connections, but a lot of key aspects of it are science backed. So, atheists, and spirituals alike should find no fault with it. You can easily blend your religion into it. Use meditation in your prayer practice, find the quiet to better connect with your god.
““Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality”
Practicing Meditation Can Help You Overcome Many Obstacles
1. Anxiety
Teaches you control in your mind, so you can will the thought tornados away
2. Difficulty Focusing
Meditation is literally practicing focusing, but in a very peaceful way
3. Stress
As you let go of thoughts in meditation, so can you throughout the day
“The more regularly and the more deeply you meditate, the sooner you will find yourself acting always from a center of peace.””
Go Deeper into Meditation:
1. You are More than You Think you are by Kimberly Snyder
2. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza
3. Calm App
