A guide to meditation and mindfulness

Getting started

In todays society there are not a lot of people that engage in meditation and mindfulness. Instead, it can be judgment and preconceived notions about meditators. In my experience, that this is some kind of hippie behavior, even though it is proven to have profound benefits. Even science is backing up meditation, saying that it is incredible for stress relief, relaxation, energy, mood, clarity and so on. There are so many benefits to this practice that there is really no excuse not to try for yourself. This is not something you have to do for half an hour to an hour. Meditation works in all increments, and any amount of time spent meditating is beneficial, even if it’s just for 5 minutes or less.

This is a practice that can profoundly change your life. All it takes is a little effort and dedication to get it into a routine, and stay consistent. This is how you will notice the difference, like all new health-related habits.

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How does it work?

Meditations is actually very simple, and here I’m going to give you some guidelines and ideas on how to perfect this practice for your own life. Anyone can do this, it just takes practice and patience, which will also be developed underway. For something that has numerous benefits for physical, mental and spiritual health, there are really no excuses to not give it a shot.

First off, meditation is a practice in which you work on staying mindful (aware), so it can be applied to almost all things, even your life’s experiences. Staying present in each moment, but that is a high level practice. The ability to stay aware is what is being trained, learning not to react to every thought, and not following every thought train. This takes you out of awareness, and out of sync with the present moment.

Mindfulness is teaching you (or rather you teaching yourself) to stay observant on a higher level, taking in perspectives without reacting and getting emotionally involved with your own thoughts. Furthermore, not getting emotionally involved with what happens around you, to the best of your ability.

Examples

Reacting to everything really takes a toll on your energy, and you can tell if you’ve had an argument with someone and afterwards you feel drained and really want to stay by yourself. This means you’re recharging from an energy-exchange (emotion = energy in motion).

Another example is when you have an internal discussion and your thoughts lead you to anxiety for the coming days, or stressed out about what happened last week. This creates an emotionally spiked reaction, even though it’s not something that happened in the present moment. This is how we get drained, and stay in emotional limbo, which is not healthy for your body or your mind. Which means living in emotional fear or stress, creating this in your own experiences.

Key points:

Practice and patience.
Awareness of reactions.
Observe, acknowledge, let go.
Where attention goes, energy flows.
Meditation = the focused practice of mindfulness.

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To sum up, mediation teaches us to stay mindful and aware regarding what happens outside and inside of ourselves. Which makes it easier to stop your trains of thought, and emotional spikes during interactions with others or internal conversation. This means you can stay objective/neutral, until you choose not to.

How can i practice meditation?

There are endless ways to meditate, so you can always find a practice that suits your preferences. As long as you practice mindfulness, you’re good to go. The only goal with meditation is to observe your thoughts, acknowledging that they’re there, and let go. Increasing the gap between thoughts, and not judging anything that shows up. Your thoughts will never completely disappear, but they become less frequent, in addition to you not getting triggered, and learning to let go.

By the way, no specific pose is required, whatever makes you feel comfortable. Lay down, sit, walk, do yoga. Whatever fits with the circumstance.

Here is a list of different types of meditation:

Focus on the breath. This is the most used practice because the breath is always with you, and it is an easy focus point. Feeling how the breath moves, and how it expands your diaphragm and lungs.
Body scan. Moving your awareness through your body, usually moving from the feet and up. You can be very detailed or work with parts/muscle groups. Works well to relax the body.
Listening to music. Relaxing music that helps you center yourself, or meditation music with a specific purpose. Preferably music without words, these can be distracting and influential.
Visualization. There are many of these online, or you can create your own (my favorite). You can visualize how energy moves through your body (good combination with the breath), seeing energy enter from outside your body, or focusing on a specific point.
Listening to sounds. If you are out on a walking meditation, or laying on a grass hill, you can cycle through all noises appearing around you. Birds chirping, wind brushing, planes flying overhead. Then you just continue focusing on these noises.
Guided meditation. For example a guided meditation on YouTube. This can be great if you have a specific purpose, just want to be told how to do it, or are tired of your old routine.

Tips for an awesome experience

Before meditating you can set a certain intention if you have a specific purpose in mind. For example, an intention to connect with the full moon and manifest a desired outcome for the future. This can increase the intensity of the meditation because you have a desire, often a visualization with it, and emotions connected to the outcome. Here you can make the intention the focus point, and easily combine the three factors above.

It can be beneficial to perform privately, free of distractions, and in silence. Making it easier to focus and keep a discipline on your practice. This also increases the intensity, when you turn the meditation into a daily ritual, treating it with respect, and making this investment in yourself a priority.

The meditation can also be powered up by being performed in a group setting, and even more if an intention is shared.

Meditating is referred to as going inwards because you are most of the time, cutting off information from the outside, and paying attention to what is happening on the inside. Thoughts that trigger you will show up, emotions will spike (positive and negative), maybe you start feeling pain or tingling in a specific point, maybe you find yourself in euphoria and experience a profound revelation. Anything goes, and this is the great learning experience. Expect nothing, accept everything.

Feed emotions like gratitude, compassion and happiness, and you will create a blissful experience for yourself.

And lastly, meditation teaches you how you deal with emotions of fear, stress and anxiety. This is where you grow the most over time.

That’s it for now. Have an awesome meditation, and a nice trip to the inside!