What is Meditation?

Regular-meditation-helps-with-wellbeing

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in cultures across the world. Meditation can be defined as the practice of focused attention. Focusing on the mind can be done on a particular thing – such as your breathing, a sound, an object, or a mental image. Meditation helps to focus the mind on the present moment,  and you can use it to train your brain to understand your emotions, and identify any negative thoughts. Meditation is used in many religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, but in the modern era, mediation has found its own place. You do not have to be religious to practice mindfulness or meditation. 

Types of Meditation

There are two main types of meditation techniques: 

Concentrative Meditation

This type of meditation involves focusing your attention on a particular thing, it can be your breath, a specific word, or a ‘mantra’ or affirmation. The goal is to reach a higher state of consciousness. 

Mediation can be practiced while lying down, standing up, and even when walking. Yoga and tai chi are examples of meditation techniques that involve gentle exercise. You can wear comfortable clothing, find a quiet place where you can be on your own, and dedicate at least 10–15 minutes daily to meditation. 

Mindfulness-based Meditation 

This type of meditation includes mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).  It can be applied to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. The practices improve awareness and help achieve a calm and relaxed state.

Regular-meditation-helps-with-wellbeing

Benefits

Now, the benefits of meditation are scientifically proven. Thousands of peer-reviewed research studies have been carried out on the beneficial effects of meditation. Studies found that meditation changes the actual brain structure.

Some of the physical, emotional, psychological, and  health-related benefits of regular meditation practice include:

Photo by Le Minh Phuong on Unsplash

Guided Meditation

1. Find a comfortable seated position. Either sitting on a cushion on the floor, or in a chair. Allow your spine to be straight and long, and let your shoulders drop. Gently close your eyes, or, if you’d prefer, simply gaze down in front of you with a soft focus.

2. As you sit here, notice where your body is making contact: your feet touching the floor, perhaps your back on the ground, your sit bones on a chair…

3. Notice your breath. For the next five or so breaths, follow each inhale and exhale, feeling or imagining the breath flowing into and out of the body.

4. Now, shift your awareness from your breath to your body, and begin to scan through the body slowly from head to toe, observing any feelings or emotions that are present.

5. You might detect numerous feelings or emotions throughout the body. For the purpose of this exercise, choose one feeling or emotion to focus on for now.

6. Notice where in your body this emotion is located… so what part of the body is holding this feeling?

7. How big or small is the feeling?

8. Where are its edges? Are these edges sharp or soft?

9. Does the feeling have a color? And if so, is the color-changing or remaining the same?

10. Is the feeling heavy, or light?

11. Is the feeling moving, or still?

12. Is the feeling hard or soft? Is it rough or smooth? If I could touch this feeling with my hand, what would its texture be like?

13. Now, if you were to give a name to this feeling or emotion, what would it be? Can you identify it? Can you give it a label?

14. If a name for this feeling doesn’t come to mind, that’s OK. Be kind to yourself, and continue to observe the feeling in the body with curiosity and without judgment, until the nature of this emotion becomes clearer to you. You can use the

15. Continue to get to know this emotion for another five or so minutes. When you feel that you have reached a level of comfort with and understanding of this feeling, gently open your eyes and bring your attention back to the room you are in.

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