Meditation has become one of the most important habits of my life.
It has helped me reduce my stress and anxiety and live more in the moment.
I have never felt more connected to myself than when I am meditate. Simply put, meditation has changed my life.
If you knew how meditatehow would your life change for the better? If you are ready to live more consciously and experience the benefits of meditation, take a deep breath and read this.
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Why should you meditate?
The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has changed our lives forever. Isolation, job insecurity and fear of the future have had an impact on people’s mental health. In these uncertain times, meditation is a powerful mindfulness-based practice for finding calm in the midst of chaos.
On a daily basis, the majority of your thoughts are focused on the past or the future. In this emotional state, it is easy to become a victim of your mind. Meditation takes your attention away from these places and brings you back to the present moment.
If you’ve never meditated before, it can be difficult to know where to start. For many years I resisted meditation.
For what?
I didn’t understand how the meditation process worked.
Intellectually, I knew that meditating was good for me, but I couldn’t connect to it. I decided to change my point of view. Instead of being frustrated, I decided to take an interest in meditation. I forced myself to meditate every day for an extended period of time.
Not surprisingly, I began to notice the profound benefits of meditation on my mental and emotional health. At that point, there was no turning back. I was hooked.
Some of the mental health benefits of meditation include better concentration, higher self-esteem and lower levels of stress and anxiety.
As an entrepreneur and overachiever, my mind is constantly moving.
I have a lot of responsibilities in my business, which can create anxiety. Meditation has helped me relax my mind, while remaining productive. It has also given me more clarity and less brain fog when doing things like reading, learning, listening, and talking to someone.
Why is it difficult to meditate?
The reason many people resist meditation is because they are addicted to thinking. Your brain doesn’t know how to slow down. Did you know that from the moment you are born, you evolve between 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day?
If ruminative thinking is familiar to you, calming your mind and sitting in silence will be incredibly difficult. When you start meditating, it’s natural to feel boredom.
Meditation challenges you to train yourself to be in the here and now instead of trying to escape or avoid it. I have struggled with various addictions throughout my life, from video games to pornography to binge eating.
The root cause of addiction is the inability to feel comfortable with be. Meditation helped me move from doing mode to being mode. In being mode, my mind is forced to slow down because it has nowhere to go.
In this state, I learned to be fully present, which gave me a heightened sense of awareness. If I have thoughts, feelings, or sensations arising in my body, I don’t feel the need to change or resist them.
Instead, I observe them without judgment.
Meditation teaches you to watch your thoughts and feelings come and go instead of clinging to them.
If you are new to the world of meditation, I suggest you read Meditation for beginners by Jack Kornfield. In his book he offers excellent guided meditations. Having someone lead and guide you through the meditation process is extremely helpful when you are first learning to meditate.
When I started meditating, I used Headspace And Calm. These apps helped me meditate and stay on track until I had the will to meditate on my own.
Meditation technologies
Muse meditation headband
With the Muse headband, you listen to a guided meditation while the headband scans your brainwaves. It will identify when your mind is too active or when it is calm. When your mind is active during your meditation, you will hear birds singing.
Conversely, when your mind is calm, birds stop chirping. At the end of your meditation session, you can identify what your meditation experience was like and track your progress.
The brain tap
The Brain Tap uses light and sound frequencies to entrain brain waves. You wear headphones over your closed eyes and headphones in your ears when you feel these frequencies.
Essentially, it’s a guided visualization and meditation that helps your brain experience higher levels of alpha brain waves. Visualization puts you in an incredibly relaxed state of mind.
HeartMath Inner Balance
This is a heart rate sensor that attaches to your ear. It comes with an app that teaches you how to change your emotional state and create synchronicity between your mind, body, and heart. Not only does this device help reduce your stress, but it also helps with awareness of your breathing and heart rate throughout the day.
How to meditate
You want to make sure you’re in a comfortable sitting position, whether that’s in a chair or sitting cross-legged on the floor. If you choose to sit in a chair, I recommend sitting up straight so your back is fully supported.
There are many different ways to meditate, but one of the most common methods is to close your eyes. Breathe deeply and allow your body to completely relax. Take a scan and pay attention to each part of your body.
I walk through this process in the video above!
If you notice tension, focus on merging into the tension. Doing this body scan will bring you into the present moment. Once you have done this, pay attention to your breathing. Don’t try to control your breathing. Just look at it and observe it.
Through this practice, you will notice that your mind will start to get busy.
This is your monkey mind in action.
When this happens, it’s important that you don’t get frustrated and react. Your only goal is to observe your thoughts. As soon as you become aware of your thought loops, simply return to your breathing.
Although you may enjoy 5 seconds to 1 minute of pure awareness, soon after, other thoughts will arise. Again, you want to observe your thoughts and be with them. When you meditate, certain emotions also arise.
I like to identify the places in my body where I feel emotions and be curious about them. Sometimes the feelings will be so strong that I will want to stop my meditation altogether. However, if I stay with the emotions long enough, they eventually go away. The same thing happens with the physical sensations that arise.
Here’s how to meditate for beginners.
Meditation teaches you so much about yourself. It brings awareness to how you think, feel and move throughout your life. If you are a beginner, I recommend meditating for 10 minutes a day.
Research has shown that many of the long-term benefits of meditation occur when you meditate for 20 minutes a day. If you can achieve this, that’s fantastic.
A daily meditation practice has transformed my life and it can do the same for you. Connect with your breath and go inward. The answers you seek are found in stillness.
Are you ready to connect with your mind, body, and spirit on a deeper level? CLICK HERE to get instant access to my FREE 21 Morning Rituals Cheat Sheet!
