What is it?
Mindfulness is the practice of staying aware and in sync with yourself and your surroundings. Through meditation, we learn how to become more aware of our thoughts and bring our attention back to the here and now. Our ‘monkey minds’ are used to overthinking and spending too much time on the past and future; it can take time to train the brain. Meditation requires practice and discipline. Consider spending time getting to know yourself, learn about your mind and breathe. There are a range of different meditations for you to explore such as;
Loving-kindness meditation
Loving-kindness meditation is also known as Metta meditation. Its goal is to cultivate an attitude of love and kindness toward everything, even a person’s enemies and sources of stress. While breathing deeply, practitioners open their minds to receiving loving kindness. They then send messages of loving kindness to the world, to specific people, or to their loved ones. This type of meditation may increase positive emotions and has been linked to reduced depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress or PTSD.
Body scan or progressive relaxation
Progressive relaxation, sometimes called body scan meditation, is a meditation that encourages people to scan their bodies for areas of tension. The goal is to notice tension and to allow it to release. Progressive relaxation can help to promote generalized feelings of calmness and relaxation. It may also help with chronic pain. Because it slowly and steadily relaxes the body, some people use this form of meditation to help them sleep.
Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that urges practitioners to remain aware and present in the moment. Mindfulness meditation is something people can do almost anywhere. While waiting in line at the grocery store, for example, a person might calmly notice their surroundings, including the sights, sounds, and smells they experience.
Breath awareness meditation
Breath awareness is a type of mindful meditation that encourages mindful breathing. Practitioners breathe slowly and deeply, counting their breaths or otherwise focusing on their breaths. The goal is to focus only on breathing and ignore other thoughts that enter the mind. As a form of mindfulness meditation, breath awareness offers many of the same benefits as mindfulness. These include reduced anxiety, improved concentration, and greater emotional flexibility.
Kundalini yoga
Kundalini yoga is a physically active form of meditation that blends movements with deep breathing and mantras. People usually learn from a teacher or do a class. However, someone can learn the poses and mantras at home. Similarly to other forms of yoga, kundalini yoga can improve physical strength and reduce pain. It may also improve mental health by reducing anxiety and depression.
Zen meditation
Zen meditation, sometimes called Zazen is a form of meditation that can be part of Buddhist practice. Many Zen practitioners study under a teacher because this kind of meditation involves specific steps and postures. The goal is to find a comfortable position, focus on breathing, and mindfully observe one’s thoughts without judgment.
Transcendental meditation
Transcendental Meditation is a spiritual form of meditation where practitioners remain seated and breathe slowly. The goal is to transcend or rise above the person’s current state of being.
The Benefits of Mindful Meditation
This ancient practice benefits you physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, and spiritually, and all of those layers blend and harmonize to create the wonderful being that you are. Meditation works on the whole person.
There’s scientific evidence showing how meditation works. In people who are meditating, brain scans called MRIs have shown an increase in activity in areas that control metabolism and heart rate. Other studies on Buddhist monks have shown that meditation produces long-lasting changes in the brain activity in areas involved in attention, working memory, learning, and conscious perception. Read this article for more information.
The parasympathetic nervous system helps your body and all its organs function at their best, keeping you healthy and energized. By activating the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest & digest response), meditation calms the body and soothes the nerves. This has amazing benefits for the physical body, including- lowered heart rate, reduced blood pressure, decreased stress hormones (like adrenaline and cortisol), decreased respiratory rate, improved digestion, boosted immunity, and increased lifespan.
Meditation gets your mind and body deeply connected so they can communicate effectively. In essence, your mind becomes more in tune with your body and its needs. In addition to relaxing your body for sleep, meditation also helps you deal with the racing mind that keeps you up at night with worries and thoughts. When you know how to pull back from your stressful life, clear your mind, and calm your emotions, you are a happier and more peaceful person. Meditation helps you stay in the present moment so that you can ignore distractions. This leads to greater productivity, focus, awareness, clarity, and better decision-making.
People’s ability to focus and hold attention even on boring stimulus improves significantly with mindfulness. The two main factors that determine levels of creativity are: divergent thinking (coming up with lots of ideas) and convergent thinking (solidifying those ideas into one brilliant concept.) Mindful meditation significantly improves both divergent and convergent thinking. Experienced and non-experienced meditators who practice compassion meditation, which is widely practised by Tibetan leaders, show more brain activity in regions linked with empathy while meditating than when not meditating.
By calming and clearing the mind, meditation taps us into a deeper sense of well-being, hope, love, and inspiration that is innate in all of us. Read this article for more information.
How do I meditate?
- This meditation exercise is an excellent introduction to meditation techniques.
- Sit or lie comfortably. You may even want to invest in a meditation chair or cushion.
- Close your eyes.
- Make no effort to control the breath; simply breathe naturally. Focus your attention on the breath and on how the body moves with each inhalation and exhalation.
- Notice the movement of your body as you breathe. Observe your chest, shoulders, rib cage, and belly. Simply focus your attention on your breath without controlling its pace or intensity. If your mind wanders,
- Maintain this meditation practice for two to three minutes to start, and then try it for longer periods. Return your focus back to your breath.
This is just one example of a meditation exercise, the more you practice the better you will get at it.
As Creswell reminds us, “It’s important to train your mind like you train your biceps in the gym.”
Be aware of the ‘monkey mind’ and the excuses that get in the way of improving your health and vitality
You can also check out the following apps to help you on your journey to mindfulness:
- Insight timer
- Calm
- Headspace