What is Meditation?
In a world filled with distractions, meditation offers a simple yet powerful way to stay connected and grounded in our physical sensations. Whether new to meditation or looking to deepen your practice, this guide is here to help you navigate the journey.
Meditation is simply sitting physically still and feeling however you feel in that moment, giving yourself the chance to gain a deeper connection and understanding.
Many people misunderstand meditation as an exercise for emptying the mind. However meditation is more about allowing the natural flow of your thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go as they need, understanding that they’re there for a reason.
Over time as you gain a deeper understanding of meditation, you’ll notice that when you don’t give your thoughts any attention they’ll gradually fade into the background.
In this blog, we will explore the concept of meditation, its benefits, and practical ways to incorporate it into your daily life. Let’s begin by understanding what meditation truly is and how it can bring clarity, calmness, and control to your life.
Why Meditate? Understanding the Appeal
Meditation should never be viewed as a luxury but as a necessity in everyday life because it offers clarity and answers and allow you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself, and therefore, your life.
But why should you meditate? Most of our lives are governed by what mood we’re in, how our mental or physical health is going, or what is going on in the environment around us. When these things decline, it affects every area of our life, including work and personal.
Introducing meditation into your daily routine allows you to process your daily stresses rather than letting them build up inside. This frees you up to approach life with ease and clarity, allowing you to respond to and cope a lot more easily with life and what it throws at you.
Here is what meditation can offer you:
- Connection: It helps you gain a deeper understanding and connection within yourself.
- Calm: It assists in resolving the tensions and stresses that build up over time.
- Clarity: It clears mental fog, enabling sharper thinking and decision-making.
- Control: It empowers you to respond rather than react to life’s challenges.
Real-life Testimonials
People from all walks of life, from busy executives to stressed students, have found healing and a deeper self-understanding through meditation. You’ll find stories of real individuals who’ve transformed their lives through this simple yet profound approach.
“From this approach, I’ve resolved my fear of pain, which we are all encouraged to take on at a very early age. I now know pain is the body’s language when you’re too busy, distracted, resistant, or egotistical to listen to the soft option! To have a fear of a perfectly natural healing process is a tragedy and only one of the things that this approach restores.”
—Lee Trenton, Accountant
Meditation isn’t a trend or a quick fix; it’s a lifelong companion. It’s a simple way to just be with the physical sense of yourself and be content in just feeling that.
Another practitioner, Sarah Jameson, shares: ‘I’ve struggled with anxiety for years, but incorporating 15 minutes of meditation into my daily routine has been life-changing. Not only do I feel more grounded, but my anxiety levels have drastically reduced, allowing me to function better in all aspects of my life.
How to Meditate: Your Guide
When you first learn how to meditate, adding it into your daily routine can sometimes feel quite daunting. Here are a few tips to make it simple and easy.
A Basic Meditation for Beginners
- Create Your Meditation Space: Find a place free from distractions that can serve as your designated place for meditation. This could be a chair in your room, a dedicated meditation area in your house, or even just the end of your bed. Decorate this space with items that make you feel comfortable and motivated to meditate, such as a few cushions, a blanket for warmth, and a clock or timer to keep track of time.
- Get Comfortable: Most people meditate while sitting cross-legged on a firm yet soft cushion, mat or folded blanket, often with a smaller pillow supporting their bottom. If you’re unable to sit cross-legged, you can meditate whilst sitting upright on a comfortable chair. Typically, meditation is done with your eyes closed. Still, it’s essential not to be too rigid, as there may be times when meditating with your eyes open feels more appropriate, especially if you’re tired or fatigued.
- Sit Physically Still: Our bodies can hold onto tension and discomfort that often remains hidden in our daily lives, masked by distractions and movement. Sitting physically still during meditation allows these tensions and aches to surface, allowing us to feel, address, and ultimately heal them and their underlying causes in our own time.
- Allow Your Thoughts To Be There: Thinking is a natural process of the body. Thoughts will naturally arise and fade away during your meditation. Instead of trying to suppress them, allow them to come and go without getting caught up in the stories. Acknowledge their presence without giving them undue attention, and over time, they will gradually fade away. Think of thoughts as the smoke that rises from the fire of your meditation.
Going Further: Beyond the Basics
As you become more familiar with meditation, you might feel the urge to go deeper.
- Extended Sessions: As you delve deeper, meditate longer. Follow this urge and sit for as long as you feel necessary. The longer you sit with your pains and distress, the deeper you’ll go into yourself and your meditation.
- Mind-Body Connection: The longer you meditate, the deeper your understanding of yourself becomes. This is especially true as you sit with any pains or tensions in your body; as they release, you will start to understand the roots of your behaviours, feelings, fears, and more.
How Much Should I Meditate? Creating a Balanced Practice
Meditation is different for everyone. The processes you go through and the pain you heal are unique to you. So, instead of adhering to a one-size-fits-all approach, the path to a balanced practice should resonate with your lifestyle. You need to find how to fit meditation into your life and routine, rather than trying to work around it. You’ll find yourself incorporating it quite easily the longer you practise, and when you start seeing its benefits in your life.
Meditation Tips: How to Make Meditation a Habit
While meditation is straightforward and easy, our thoughts and ideas can overcomplicate it and make it seem daunting. Here are a few quick tips for how to make meditation a daily habit.
- Don’t Set a Goal: Avoid beginning your meditation with an intention, goal or a preconceived idea of what you want to achieve. This can block what you actually need to resolve in that meditation session. Instead, sit down and feel whatever arises for you. Some days, it may be nothing, while others, it may be too much. Nevertheless, whatever occurs is precisely what you need to address on that particular day.
- Establish a Routine: Choosing a consistent time and place for daily meditation fosters a regular habit, enhancing its impact on your life. Meditating in the morning sets a clear tone for the day, helping you manage disturbances and maintain energy. Evening meditation releases daily stresses, potentially improving sleep quality. If insomnia strikes, consider meditating until drowsiness sets in. Regardless of when you meditate, consistency is crucial in being able to experience its transformative effects.
- Be Patient and Kind to Yourself: Meditation isn’t a linear process. Some days will be challenging, while others will be easier. It’s natural for your meditation experience to vary based on what you’re going through.
Finding Your Rhythm
Identify what works for you and your life.
- Respond to yourself: Start noticing when you need to stop and be with yourself and what’s going on for you. For example, I often find myself becoming overwhelmed by work deadlines. By taking just 10 minutes to sit quietly and stay with the sensations in my body, I can feel the tension dissolving. This simple pause helps me regain clarity and feel more grounded, which positively impacts the rest of my day.
- Be understanding: Understand that there will be some days when you don’t want to meditate, and that’s fine. But those are the days when you should push through and meditate for at least 10 minutes. The resistance to meditation is part of the pain you’re activating and healing by meditating; it is you unintentionally avoiding what you need to heal that day. When you meditate, instead of going along with the resistance, you’re pushing through and healing another barrier.
- Get help when you need it: When you find yourself struggling, fidgeting or just lacking motivation to meditate, reach out for outside use, such as guided meditations. You can find guided meditations on YouTube or through a meditation app.
Meditation as a Lifestyle
Adding meditation to your daily routine will change your life in so many ways, on and off the cushion. Meditation isn’t a practice to apply; it is a way of life.
- Listen to your Body: Your body’s signals guide you in meditation and daily life. The longer you meditate, the more attuned to your body you will become. So you’ll quickly understand and respond to your feelings in everyday life.
- Embrace the Ordinary: Allow the understanding you’ve gained from meditation to expand into other areas of your life. If you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed at work for example, rather than getting caught up in your thought processes and making the stress or issues bigger, come back to the feeling of stress, and feel that in your body as you work. You don’t have to meditate to resolve the issues in your life, you can resolve them in action, too.
Over time, meditation helps you gain a deeper understanding and connection with, yourself. You’ll find that stressful situations become easier to manage, and your responses to challenges will be more thoughtful rather than reactive. Additionally, regular meditation can improve your decision-making skills by giving you the clarity and focus needed to evaluate situations from a calm, grounded perspective.
Common Questions Answered
How Does Natural Meditation Differ from Other Types of Meditation?
The natural meditation approach awakens you to a clear and common sense understanding of how you function, as well as how your thoughts and feelings affect your health, relationships, and ability to work adequately and effectively in all areas of life. Understanding all this is the basis for navigating your life effortlessly.
Isn’t This Just Mindfulness?
Natural meditation is not about a state of mind or something to attain. It’s about establishing a solid sense of yourself in the body. From this solid basis, your ability to function well in daily life is remarkable.
Traditional approaches to meditation – like mindfulness – try to make you be something or someone other than what you are. Their ideas and goals of improving upon yourself reflect the superficial and narrow view that you are insufficient as you are. But that is their trap, which is not what Undo is about. We aim to restore the unique individual that you are.
Do I Need Meditation Assistance for This Practice?
Guidance from a trusted meditation app can be helpful. Once you have gotten used to this approach, it encourages personal exploration and connection with the body.
Is This Suitable for Beginners?
Absolutely! Natural meditation is the simplest form of meditation because you’re not applying anything or trying to achieve anything. You’re simply sitting with however you feel in the moment and just being with that.
Additional Resources and Practices
Embarking on a meditation journey can be deeply rewarding, and having the right resources can enrich the process. Here are some tools and practices to explore:
- Meditation Retreats: Explore in-person or virtual meditation retreats facilitated by experienced meditation teachers. They offer immersive experiences catering to beginners and seasoned meditators, providing a deeper connection and understanding of the practice.
- Books on Meditation: Dive into meditation books by experts in the field to deepen your understanding.
Author Bio:
Ovais has over 2 years of experience in meditation. He works with Undo, which is a meditation app that has guided individuals from all walks of life in developing a meditation approach helping them navigate stress, anxiety, and life’s challenges with greater ease.
