What is Meditation?
Meditation Simplified
My mind is a garden, my thoughts are my seeds - I will harvest either flowers or weeds. |
Meditation is for Everyone
For many years I thought that meditation was for religious people who were very devout, and who had chosen to do miserable things to themselves, like meditate. When I thought about the idea of sitting still with myself, the idea not only sounded foreign, but it sounded impossible.
And that's exactly how it felt after I began practicing meditation as well.
I felt that meditation was not for me. I just wasn't able to do it.
Today, meditation has become one of the best tools that I have to manage my mental health and it is mindfulness that stands at the heart of what I teach my clients.
Meditation is, quite simply, a focus practice. It is placing all of one's focus on one simple thing. That thing, always starts with the breath. It starts with focusing on breathing, and as most of us do that, the first thing that we discover, is that we are not breathing right.
The breath is intended to travel all the way through your torso into the lower regions of your diaphragm and lower stomach muscles. If you place your hand right beneath your belly button and you do not feel the rise and and fall of your breath, you are breathing wrong. You are not taking a full breath, and this can lead to anxiety, depression, and various other mental issues.
By simply focusing on the breath, or trying to focus on the breath, you are beginning to take control of one of most out of control beasts on this planet...the modern mind.
Our minds have become very full and busy as a result of the lifestyle that we have adopted. We are trying to get more done than ever before and we are being pushed to produce more than ever before. As a result, we are turning to things like medications and drugs more and more as a way of release.
What if I told you that true release was in the power of your breath?
Each day you are holding onto more than you need to as you are not breathing through the issues in your life.
Training the mind to be more mindful through the art of the breath is not something just for ninjas, yogis, and gurus. It's is something that you were born with the right to tap into. Your first act on this earth was a breath and the last thing that you will do is breathe your last breath. Between these moments we pay little attention to the breath, taking it as a given. As long as we keep breathing, we don't pay a lot of mind to this very powerful natural function.
The driving force of your life is your breath. Nearly 96% of all the energy that you need to function in your day come from the breath. That means that food, supplements, water, and all the other things that we intake for our survival only account for less than 4% of our daily energy need.
No matter how far along a master advances in meditation, the master must always begin by drawing focus on the breath. In this way, it acts as a doorway to our mind and hearts.
As you work to cross the threshold of this doorway, you are going to be challenged by the thoughts in your mind. They will immediately begin to work against you. These discursive thoughts are a glimpse of what's going on in your mind without you even realizing it.
You will begin to recognize and see these thoughts and then begin to see them for what they really are...just a thought.
You will begin to be able to pop these little thought bubbles like a child popping bubbles for joy. Even your most hard and hurtful thoughts will begin to slowly become manageable, instructional, and something that we can make to work for us instead of against us.
Raw Meditation, or meditation made simple, is the simplest form of meditation you can imagine, and the value is in the simplicity.
As you begin your meditation practice, stop thinking that you need someone else to guide you or help you. You are the adventurer in the story of your life. You are the one who has the power to dive the deepest and see the farthest. No one else can take you where you need to go in your heart to uncover the roots of bitterness, lies, and anger. You have to uncover these thoughts yourself and begin to change your meditation.
It is good to enjoy meditation with others, but this exercise is completely up to you.
You must take control of the thoughts in your mind and the beliefs of your heart. Meditation is your tool to do this.
So here is the simple version of meditation:
1. Be Still
2. Breathe
Bring your mind to focus simply on the breath.
Nothing but the breath.
Be still in your mind.
Follow the breath.
Practice this until you have this mastered.
And that's exactly how it felt after I began practicing meditation as well.
I felt that meditation was not for me. I just wasn't able to do it.
Today, meditation has become one of the best tools that I have to manage my mental health and it is mindfulness that stands at the heart of what I teach my clients.
Meditation is, quite simply, a focus practice. It is placing all of one's focus on one simple thing. That thing, always starts with the breath. It starts with focusing on breathing, and as most of us do that, the first thing that we discover, is that we are not breathing right.
The breath is intended to travel all the way through your torso into the lower regions of your diaphragm and lower stomach muscles. If you place your hand right beneath your belly button and you do not feel the rise and and fall of your breath, you are breathing wrong. You are not taking a full breath, and this can lead to anxiety, depression, and various other mental issues.
By simply focusing on the breath, or trying to focus on the breath, you are beginning to take control of one of most out of control beasts on this planet...the modern mind.
Our minds have become very full and busy as a result of the lifestyle that we have adopted. We are trying to get more done than ever before and we are being pushed to produce more than ever before. As a result, we are turning to things like medications and drugs more and more as a way of release.
What if I told you that true release was in the power of your breath?
Each day you are holding onto more than you need to as you are not breathing through the issues in your life.
Training the mind to be more mindful through the art of the breath is not something just for ninjas, yogis, and gurus. It's is something that you were born with the right to tap into. Your first act on this earth was a breath and the last thing that you will do is breathe your last breath. Between these moments we pay little attention to the breath, taking it as a given. As long as we keep breathing, we don't pay a lot of mind to this very powerful natural function.
The driving force of your life is your breath. Nearly 96% of all the energy that you need to function in your day come from the breath. That means that food, supplements, water, and all the other things that we intake for our survival only account for less than 4% of our daily energy need.
No matter how far along a master advances in meditation, the master must always begin by drawing focus on the breath. In this way, it acts as a doorway to our mind and hearts.
As you work to cross the threshold of this doorway, you are going to be challenged by the thoughts in your mind. They will immediately begin to work against you. These discursive thoughts are a glimpse of what's going on in your mind without you even realizing it.
You will begin to recognize and see these thoughts and then begin to see them for what they really are...just a thought.
You will begin to be able to pop these little thought bubbles like a child popping bubbles for joy. Even your most hard and hurtful thoughts will begin to slowly become manageable, instructional, and something that we can make to work for us instead of against us.
Raw Meditation, or meditation made simple, is the simplest form of meditation you can imagine, and the value is in the simplicity.
As you begin your meditation practice, stop thinking that you need someone else to guide you or help you. You are the adventurer in the story of your life. You are the one who has the power to dive the deepest and see the farthest. No one else can take you where you need to go in your heart to uncover the roots of bitterness, lies, and anger. You have to uncover these thoughts yourself and begin to change your meditation.
It is good to enjoy meditation with others, but this exercise is completely up to you.
You must take control of the thoughts in your mind and the beliefs of your heart. Meditation is your tool to do this.
So here is the simple version of meditation:
1. Be Still
2. Breathe
Bring your mind to focus simply on the breath.
Nothing but the breath.
Be still in your mind.
Follow the breath.
Practice this until you have this mastered.