Meditation is an ancient mind-body relaxation practice that originated in the East. It evokes a sense of calm and focus in your everyday life.
Not only does meditation alleviate stress, improve general health and well-being but it is also a great tool to help you to focus on the present moment, thus enabling you to maximise your efficiency and help you to cope with all that life sets on your path.
Meditation is said to improve anxiety, depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, pain, as well as, sleeping problems.
There are many different types of meditation
- Loving kindness meditation to promote feelings of love and compassion.
- Progressive relaxation which scans the body for tension and releases it.
- Mindfulness meditation to help restore focus and memory and reduce fixation on negative emotions.
- Breath awareness meditation which utilises focussing solely on breathing, to improve concentration and allow increased emotional flexibility.
- Kundalini yoga which is a physical form of meditation that combines movements with deep breathing and mantras (repeated words/phrases), to improve physical strength, mental health and reduce pain.
- Zen meditation is part of Buddhist practices and many people choose this meditation when they are seeking both relaxation and a new spiritual path to follow. You focus on breathing and mindfully observe your thoughts without judgement.
- Transcendental meditation allows you to transcend or rise above your current state of being by utilising slow breathing and focussing on a mantra.
Most of the aforementioned meditation forms, require you to find a comfortable space, utilise slow breathing (with/without a mantra) and require you to clear the mind of distracting thoughts thereby allowing you to look internally, without judgement.
Meditation is not a results focussed discipline, yet it strives to enable the individual to increase self awareness, improve focus and concentration and achieve a higher level of consciousness and being.
There is no right or wrong way of practicing meditation and there is no rigid time frame for practices. Even a few minutes of internal reflection each day can have vast benefits for not only the mind but also the body.
Whilst some people may choose to undertake meditation once a week, a couple of times per day, or whenever they feel stressed or need to realign, the goal is to be able to extend the sensation of meditation (feeling less stressed, whilst increasing acceptance and achieving greater peace) outside meditation practices, thereby evoking calmness into all aspects of life, at all times.
Remember meditation is a skill that needs to be mastered and therefore needs to be practiced. So stay in the moment whilst meditating and try to enjoy every second of it, your mind and body will thank you for it!
Hope this inspires you all to embark on the wonderful meditation journey that awaits you. Happy meditating!
Xxx
J
