A Beginner’s Guide To Meditation

Perhaps now it is time for you to start getting in touch with your soul, your mind, your body in the here-and-now? We want you to love meditation and live a much richer life in the form of inner peace, a much more focused mind, and a more balanced soul.

Improved physical, mental and emotional health are some scientifically proven benefits that a consistent mindfulness practice has to offer. Before we show you some guides for you to start having a go on meditation, we have collected some more info about what benefits you can gain by practicing mindful meditation and how it can help you.

According to www.helpguide.org/harvard/benefits-of-mindfulness.htm, "mindfulness improves well being. Increasing your capacity for mindfulness supports many attitudes that contribute to a satisfied life. Being mindful makes it easier to savour the pleasures in life as they occur, helps you become fully engaged in activities, and creates a greater capacity to deal with adverse events."

"By focusing on the here and now, many people who practice mindfulness find that they are less likely to get caught up in worries about the future or regrets over the past, are less preoccupied with concerns about success and self-esteem, and are better able to form deep connections with others.Mindfulness improves physical health If greater well-being isn’t enough of an incentive, scientists have discovered the benefits of mindfulness techniques help improve physical health in a number of ways."

Mindfulness can:

• Help relieve stress

• treat heart disease

• lower blood pressure

• reduce chronic pain

• improve sleep

• alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties

Mindfulness improves mental health

In recent years, psychotherapists have turned to mindfulness meditation as an important element in the treatment of a number of problems, including:

• depression

• substance abuse

• eating disorders

• couples’ conflicts

• anxiety disorders

• obsessive-compulsive disorder

"Some experts believe that mindfulness works, in part, by helping people to accept their experiences—including painful emotions—rather than react to them with aversion and avoidance. It’s become increasingly common for mindfulness meditation to be combined with psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavioural therapy. This development makes good sense, since both meditation and cognitive behavioural therapy share the common goal of helping people gain perspective on irrational, mal -adaptive, and self-defeating thoughts."

In this Meditation for Beginners: A 3-Step Guide for Daily Meditation, Thomas Dixon gives us a some good tips on how to start:

"If you want to learn how to meditate, I highly recommend you begin by focusing your attention on something a little more concrete: your breath. So here’s how to do that.

Just follow this simple 3-step introduction, and you’ll be meditating in minutes and on your way to establishing a daily meditation practice."

Meditation for Beginners: 3 Steps to Success

Find a quiet place to sit.Count every breath you take.Stay awake while remaining deeply relaxed.

Step 1: Find a quiet and comfortable place to sit.Try to find the quietest place you can to meditate. The less distractions, the better. If you’re just trying it for the first time, you can sit on a chair or grab a pillow or a cushion and sit cross-legged on the floor. Your posture is important, so don’t slouch–maintaining a straight spine is key–and be sure that you can sit in the same position without moving for the full length of your meditation session. As your experience grows, you’ll be able to sit still for longer and longer periods of time.

Step 2: Count every breath you take.Once you are settled and seated comfortably, you can either close your eyes or leave them slightly open, gazing at a point on the floor in front of you. Now you’re ready to begin practicing the art of attention. As you breathe in, pay attention to your inhalation, feeling it fill your lungs, and then exhale, easily and naturally, counting “One” in your mind as you do so.

Do this with your next breath, counting “Two” as you exhale, and with the next, “Three,” and so on. When you get to “Five,” begin again with the next breath at “One.” 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. If you get distracted and lose count, no problem–just start again at “One.” Don’t force your breathing, but allow yourself to completely relax while remaining fully alert, focused only on your breathing as you count silently in your mind, one breath at a time.

Step 3: Stay awake while remaining deeply relaxed.The trick to meditation is finding the delicate balance between being really alert and really relaxed. Usually when we try to focus our attention, we tend to tense up, however slightly. And when we allow ourselves to deeply relax, we usually get drowsy and may even fall asleep. But by counting your breathing, you combine alert, focused attention (counting numbers in your mind) with deep, soothing relaxation (doing nothing but sitting perfectly still and breathing in and out, in and out).

If you get good at it, repeating smooth breathing counts of 1-5 without getting distracted, sooner or later you’re going to find that you’re in a different state of consciousness–one that feels awake, at ease, free, peaceful, and calm. It’s like the silent depths of a vast, mysterious ocean, forever untouched by ripples or waves on the surface. Everything that you were previously worried about or preoccupied with gradually falls away, and there is only the beautiful simplicity of your breathing, here and now. That’s meditation for beginners.

Note: When you’re finished, open your eyes, and take a minute or two to adjust to the end of the session. If you end and stand up too abruptly, it can be jarring. But if you can transition slowly and smoothly, you are more likely to feel the “aftereffects” of your meditation session carry over into the next activity of your day.

There are some different ways some people go about practicing their daily meditation. Mara Carrico from the Canadian Yoga Journal gives a few:

5 Different Ways to Meditate

Just as there are numerous styles of hatha yoga, so there are many ways to meditate. The first stage of meditation is to concentrate on a specific object or establish a point of focus, with the eyes either opened or closed. Silently repeating a word or phrase, audibly reciting a prayer or chant, visualizing an image such as a deity, or focusing on an object such as a lighted candle in front of you are all commonly recommended points of focus. Observing or counting your breaths and noticing bodily sensations are also optional focal points. Let's take a closer look.

The Use of Sound

Mantra yoga employs the use of a particular sound, phrase, or affirmation as a point of focus. The word mantra comes from man, which means "to think," and tra, which suggests "instrumentality." Therefore, mantra is an instrument of thought. It also has come to mean "protecting the person who receives it." Traditionally, you can only receive a mantra from a teacher, one who knows you and your particular needs. The act of repeating your mantra is called japa, which means recitation. Just as contemplative prayer and affirmation need to be stated with purpose and feeling, a mantra meditation practice requires conscious engagement on the part of the meditator. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation (TM) espouses the practice of mantra yoga.

Chanting, an extension of mantra yoga, is a powerful way to enter into meditation. Longer than a mantra, a chant involves both rhythm and pitch. Western traditions use chants and hymns to invoke the name of God, to inspire, and to produce a spiritual awakening. Dating back to Vedic times, Indian chanting comes out of a tradition that believes in the creative power of sound and its potential to transport us to an expanded state of awareness. The rishis, or ancient seers, taught that all of creation is a manifestation of the primordial sound Om. Reflected in an interpretation of the word universe—"one song"—Om is the seed sound of all other sounds. Chanting Sanskrit often and properly produces profound spiritual and physical effects.

Many beginners find using a mantra in their meditation very effective and relatively easy. Chanting, on the other hand, can be intimidating for some people. If you feel awkward chanting on your own, use one of the many audiotapes of chants on the market, or participate in a group meditation where a meditation teacher leads the chant and the students repeat it. Although chanting in Sanskrit can be powerful, reciting a meaningful prayer or affirmation in any language can be effective.

The Use of Imagery

Visualizing is also a good way to meditate; one that beginners often find easy to practice. Traditionally, a meditator visualizes his or her chosen deity—a god or goddess-in vivid and detailed fashion. Essentially any object is valid.

Some practitioners visualize a natural object such as a flower or the ocean; others meditate on the chakras, or energy centers, in the body. In this type of meditation, you focus on the area or organ of the body corresponding to a particular chakra, imagining the particular color associated with it.

Gazing

Another variation on the use of imagery is to maintain an open-eyed focus upon an object. This focus is referred to as drishti, which means "view," "opinion," or "gaze." Again the choices available to you here are virtually limitless. Candle gazing is a popular form of this method. Focusing on a flower in a vase, or a statue, or a picture of a deity are other possibilities.

Use this technique with your eyes fully opened or partially closed, creating a softer, diffused gaze. Many of the classical hatha yoga postures have gazing points, and the use of drishti is especially emphasized in the Ashtanga style of hatha yoga. Many pranayama techniques also call for specific positioning of the eyes, such as gazing at the "third eye," the point between the eyebrows or at the tip of the nose.

Breathing

Using the breath as a point of focus is yet another possibility. You can do this by actually counting the breaths as you would in pranayama practice. Ultimately, however, meditating on the breath just means purely observing the breath as it is, without changing it in any way. In this instance, the breath becomes the sole object of your meditation. You observe every nuance of the breath and each sensation it produces: how it moves in your abdomen and torso, how it feels as it moves in and out of your nose, its quality, its temperature, and so on. Though you are fully aware of all these details, you don't dwell on them or judge them in any way; you remain detached from what you're observing. What you discover is neither good nor bad; you simply allow yourself to be with the breath from moment to moment.

Breath observance is the predominant technique used by practitioners of vipassana, commonly referred to as "insight" or "mindfulness" meditation. Popularized by such renowned teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, this is a form a Buddhist practice. The word vipassana, which literally means "to see clearly" or "look deeply," is also interpreted to mean "the place where the heart dwells," and reflects the premise that thought arises out of our hearts.

Physical Sensations

Another way to meditate is to watch a physical sensation. Practice this with the same degree of detail as you would when watching the breath. In this context, you will look deeply at, or penetrate, a particular sensation that draws your attention, such as how hot or cool your hands feel. The increased sensitivity you gained due to your asana practice may provide you with other points of focus: the strength of your spine or the suppleness you feel in your lower body, for example. Observing a particular emotion or any specific area of discomfort is also a possibility. Whatever you choose remains your point of focus for the whole practice. You may find that observing a physical sensation can be more challenging than observing the breath. For most beginners, mantras, chants, and visualizations offer more tangible ways to replace or calm the scattered thoughts of our minds, which seem to be perpetually on sensory overload.

Meditation Postures:

Sitting

Although you can meditate, or become fully absorbed in any activity or position of stillness, sitting is the most commonly recommended posture. There are a number of classic seated poses, but Sukhasana (Easy Cross-Legged Pose) is obviously the most basic. More flexible meditators prefer Padmasana (Lotus Pose).

Sitting in a chair also works. It's no less effective and certainly no less spiritual, and it's often the best choice for beginners. The most important things are that your spine remain upright and that you feel steady and comfortable, the same two qualities necessary for performing asanas. To maximize comfort on the floor, place a cushion or folded blanket under your buttocks to elevate them and gently guide your knees down toward the floor. This helps support the natural lumbar curve of the lower back. Some people prefer kneeling "Japanese-style." You can buy small, slanted wooden benches for this position.

Relax your arms and place your hands on your thighs or in your lap, with the palms in a relaxed position facing up or down. Roll your shoulders back and down and gently lift the chest. Keep your neck long and the chin tilted slightly downward. Depending upon which technique you are following, the eyes may be opened or closed. Breathing is natural and free.

Walking

A moving meditation—highly recommended by many teachers—may be an enjoyable option for you. The challenge of this form is to walk slowly and consciously, each step becoming your focal point. Destination, distance, and pace are all incidental. Relax your arms at your sides and move freely, coordinating your breath with your steps. For instance, you might breathe in for 3 steps and breathe out for 3 steps. If that feels awkward or difficult, just breathe freely. Although you can practice walking meditation anywhere, choose a setting you particularly love—the ocean, a favorite park, or a meadow. Remember, getting somewhere is not the issue. Rather, the complete involvement in the act of walking becomes your meditation.

We hope you have helped you to begin your journey into this wonderful way of living a better life by starting your meditation practice. Let us know :-)