The Power of meditation needs to be experienced to be believed. It is one of the simplest, yet also the most powerful to reign in focus in oneself. Anyone can cultivate the habit of meditation. It is the least time consuming and the end result is something to be experienced
Most of them believe that meditation requires years of practice and is time consuming. On the contrary it is just the opposite. It is a habit easy to develop and even people who are hard pressed for time can do it in a couple of minutes and experience the amazing power of communicating with one’s mind. Can any other habit be compared to this, in terms of ease and immediate result? I would like to share some lessons learnt through practice which I have developed over a period of time.
Why meditate
There are many reasons one needs to meditate but I would like to list some of the important ones below
1. It helps to relieve stress and most importantly helps you relax.
2. When you practice mindfulness, you can carry it out to the outside world.
3. Mindfulness helps you to savour life, change habits, live simply and slowly and most importantly be present in whatever you do.
4. Meditation has been proven to improve mental benefits like improve focus, clarity and improve performance.
5. Meditation has also been proved to have other health benefit like improved metabolism, improved blood circulation and increase in one’s energy level.
Actually some of the biggest benefits of meditation are hard to explain. You will begin to understand it better and go on a journey of self discovery once you start practicing the same. One thing for sure is that you will tend to have a higher level of self awareness which you would have never experienced before.
Simply sitting for a few minutes of meditation will bring us to an oasis of calm and relaxation that we rarely find in our lives these days.
How to practice meditation daily
There are many ways and means to meditate, but our quest is to figure out a simple and practical way of communicating with ourselves. The important learning from this article is to develop a regular habit of meditation, simple steps to which are listed below
Commit to less than 10 minutes a day
One needs to spare just under 10 minutes to start of the practice of meditation. Committing such a small amount of time initially will make one look forward to it every day. Consciously committing just about 10 minutes a day will be the initial step one would take in the journey of self discovery.
Pick a regular time and trigger
It helps in picking up a regular time during the day. Exact time everyday is not the need of the hour. Pick a time like early morning or during lunch time or even in the evening. The trigger should be something like when you drink the first cup of coffee, read the newspaper or even brush your teeth first thing in the morning. Generally when we associate a habit with a particular time and trigger, it eventually becomes easier to follow.
Find a quite place and sit comfortably
Sometimes early morning when everybody in the house is still asleep is a good time. An unused conference room at work also serves the purpose. Even a quiet corner in a public park is good enough. Do not think too much about how you sit. Being comfortable in the position is good enough. I personally sit on the floor and ensure that I do not have any support for my back to feel the energy flowing through my body. For others even sitting in their office chair or any quite corner at work or home is good enough.
Start small
It is prudent in any endeavour to start small and so it is with any new habit. Practice meditating for 2- 3 minutes initially for a week to ten days and then gradually increase the duration as per your commitment. The crux here is to start small and move forward. Once you master meditating for 2-3 minutes then it will be easier to do the same thing for a longer duration of time. With this method you are more likely to succeed and make it a part of your life.
Focus on your breath
As you breathe, focus on the energy moving in through your nostrils and throat and eventually filling up your lungs and belly region. When you follow the journey of the breath, just be present in the situation. It also helps if one can hold the breath in this position for 10-20 seconds and release it gradually. What I also tell myself when I do this activity is that I am breathing in positive energy and breathing out negative energy. This gives me an opportunity to condition my mind. If you find your mind wandering initially just focus on the breath moving through your body and eventually with enough practice it will become that much easier.
So this is meditation which is simple yet profound and is bound to give results immediately to any person who can commit less than 10 minutes of their time day or night. With most of us hard pressed for time and looking at shortcuts to do things, meditation will stand as a beacon to navigate us towards mindfulness in this chaotic world.
I do hope most of you who go through this article start practicing meditation and share your wonderful journey with others. People who are already practicing meditation can also share some of their creative ideas that they have been using or have learnt over the years.
As usual would love to hear your comments and look forward to hearing from you all.