Hello, hi. Thanks for all of your questions about meditation. Some overlapped, some were general, so I decided to answer everything together as a little primer to help you out. If you still have more questions, send them my way.
In the mean time, I’m taking a break for a few weeks. Part self-care, part travel related. I always think I can keep up with this when I travel and I always find myself stressed out. If you’re paying peeps, don’t sweat anything, I’m putting payments on pause.
What is Meditation
Meditation is the practice of separating yourself from and observing your thoughts. Meditation is the practice of training your mind to remain in the present. Our brains have a tendency to flit all over the place: daydreaming, obsessing about the future, replaying the past, worrying, thinking about our to-do lists. A regular meditation practice helps your mind let go of these thoughts so you may be fully present.
Why meditate:
While humans have been meditating for centuries, the scientific community has only been studying its positive effects for several decades. In that time, scientist have explored and proven myriad health benefits, including:
Reduces stress
Controls anxiety
Improves memory
Improves attention span
Helps control pain
Enhances sleep
Chills you the fuck out
How to meditate
I want to say there is no wrong way to meditate, if you’re making the effort, you’re most likely doing it right. Please don’t sit down to meditate expecting your brain to just empty itself, then feel disappointed when that doesn’t happen. Your brain will never empty itself.
If meditation were a video game, you would be at the center of the screen attempting to focus on the present moment, either your breath, a mantra, a flame or something else. Thoughts would come flying across the screen at you. Your mission is to gently send the thoughts away and maintain your focus. It will be challenging at first, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Except it’s not a video game. It’s your brain. And there is no top score. The only way to “win” is to continue with the practice.
Step one: make yourself comfortable, remove as many distractions as possible.
Step two: set a timer or find a guided meditation. (There are so many apps, websites and videos offering free guided meditations--see resources on the last page of this book.) Start with 3 minutes, after a few days you can work your way up to 5 minutes, then 10.
Step three: Find your focus: If you’re not using a guided meditation (100% okay either way) find a focal point: your breath, a candle flame, a flower, the waves, a mandala, or whatever feels most comfortable to you. Maintain this focus, allowing your breath to flow freely. As thoughts pop into your head, acknowledge them and let them go. Return to your focus.
Step four: When your timer goes off, thank yourself for showing up.
Step five: repeat at least once every day.
Types of meditation
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but gives you an idea of some of the many varieties of meditation.
Mindfulness: the practice of bringing yourself to the present moment without judgment.
Metta or loving kindness: the practice of directing positive energy to others, both known and unknown. It is a proven method to dispel anger while bringing about a sense of calm and peace.
Guided: Any kind of meditation in which someone else talks you through the process. This is a very helpful technique for finding your way into meditating, and is a valuable tool for all levels of meditators. You can finded guided meditations for everything from increasing compassion or reducing work anxiety to feeling less stressful in a medical setting or on an airplane.
Visualization: The practice of directing your focus towards picturing something in your mind.
Mantra: in this practice, the focus is brought to a word, phrase, or syllable which is repeated silently or out loud.
Yoga nidra: a powerful guided meditation to induce sleepiness and relaxation.
Body scan: an embodied practice where you scan your body for sensations of pain, tension, tightness of any feelings that may appear. It is a way to relax and release stress being stored in the body.
Transcendental: a very specific type of meditation which involves chanting a mantra which has been given to you personally (usually for a $$$fee) for 15-20 minutes twice daily.
Walking: A meditation in which you walk back and forth in a space for 10-15 minutes cultivating an awareness for all of the motions and muscles involved in walking.
There is (almost) no wrong way to meditate.
Tips and tricks
Your mind will wander. When it does, just bring it back to your breath or your mantra
Picture your thoughts flowing like a stream at your feet. They are not you, they are separate from you. During meditation, when a thought pops in your head, acknowledge it, then let it fall into the stream. Return to your focus.
Take yourself out of the way of distractions. Turn off the TV, any loud music. Find a quiet space.
There are so many guided meditations available online and through apps. My favorite is Insight Timer.
Let me know how meditation is going for you.
And I’ll see you a few weeks.