So what can make you happier, more focused and energetic in just a few minutes a day?
You can do it in your bed before you get up in the morning or before going to sleep at night. You can do it while having a relaxing soak in a nice hot bath. You can do it on an aeroplane to help pass the time on a long journey. In fact, you can do it wherever you are, at any time of the day, as long as you have the time and the inclination to do so.
You probably guessed it by now. Yes, it’s meditation.
Do you know someone who meditates? Probably you do as more and more people take on the practice of meditation. For some of them, it’s a daily practice, while for others it’s just for emergency situations. What are some of those emergency situations? It’s those moments when you feel like your life is spinning out of control. It’s for times when you can’t seem to get out of your own way.
It was also an “emergency situation” when I first turned to meditation. I was extremely stressed and overwhelmed trying to juggle work commitments and motherhood, up to the point when I started to have panic attacks out of nowhere. I was desperately trying to find a solution to relieve stress.
As working less, walking in nature, self-care and other recommended approaches were not feasible at that moment, I figured I could meditate for a few minutes every night before I fall asleep and see how it goes. And it worked, I felt fresher, happier, more focused, and more energetic than usual. I was able to deal with stressful situations much better. Then it became an almost daily practice.
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.
– Amit Ray
Using Zen12 meditation you can have the benefits of an hour-long meditation in just 12 minutes.
You can download the first level of the ZEN12 meditation MP3s for FREE at http://zen12.com/gift
What is Meditation?
First of all, let’s see what meditation really is. Some people think you have to be a highly spiritual person or a specially trained yogi to be able to meditate.
This is not the case. Meditation is available for everyone.
The practise of meditation has been around for centuries. People have used it for religious purposes and cultural reasons. There are many forms of meditation.
The art and practice of meditation basically have one goal in mind – to slow down the mind. Especially in today’s culture, we all have such busy lifestyles and even busier minds. Stress levels are up, blood pressure is up and relaxation is down. This is where meditation comes into play.
When you meditate, you allow yourself and, most importantly, your mind to relax, rest, and rejuvenate itself. You take time to practice the art of breathing, slowing down your mind and coming back to the centre. What is the centre? Centre is the place where your deepest desires live.
The true history of meditation is really the practice of not letting the mind wander. However, this is something that takes time and practice.
For me, the purpose of meditation is to be in the present and experience present-moment living.
Silence is not an absence but a presence.
– Anne D. LeClaire
What makes meditation so attractive to everyone?
One reason lies in its simplicity. Anyone can meditate, anywhere, at any time of the day. Truly, it is just a few minutes of the day which are only yours. That could be a few minutes alone in a quiet room, or it could just as easily be a walk in the park, a few laps in your local pool or a few yoga movements.
Don’t worry about whether you are making progress or not. Just keep your attention on the Self twenty-four hours a day. Meditation is not something that should be done in a particular position at a particular time. It is an awareness and an attitude that must persist through the day.
– Annamalai Swami
You don’t have to close your eyes and try to concentrate; instead, switch off your phone and devices, go outside, breathe in some fresh air, and let your senses be filled with whatever you see and happen around you.
Even if you don’t consciously try to meditate, you’ll be alone with your thoughts, and that’s all it takes to practice meditating.
What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life is the creation of our mind.
– Buddha
Benefits of meditation
There are so many benefits to meditation that will delight and surprise you.
1. Meditation is good for your health
Meditation has been proven to boost the immune system, make it easier to manage pain, fill you with positive emotions, and give you a feeling of self-satisfaction. It also decreases anxiety and stress, making it the simplest and least expensive form of therapy you’re ever likely to experience.
2. Meditation is good for your brain
Research shows that meditation actually increases the volume of your brain and the grey matter associated with thinking and memory. A few minutes of meditating every day could improve your powers of concentration and help you remember things with greater clarity and detail.
Incoming information can be slowed down when meditating:
- Emotions are not as strong
- Sensory input slows down
- Over-thinking ceases
- Information overload slows down
If every 8-year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.
– Dalai Lama
3. Meditation is good for your relationships
You might think that the nature of meditation could result in feelings of loneliness or isolation. But, oddly enough, the reverse is true. Regular meditation has been shown to increase positive emotions and decrease feelings of depression, making it easier to connect and interact with others. It keeps you balanced and centered so that you feel more like spending time with other people.
Not bad for just sitting around and basically doing nothing.
What is the Power of Meditation?
While some people might view meditation as some sort of woo-woo practice which doesn’t really work, the truth of the matter is that there is science behind meditation. When you meditate, your brain waves change. Meditation actually has the power to change your mind, or at least your mindset.
It feels good. Kinda like when you have to shut your computer down, just sometimes when it goes crazy, you just shut it down and when you turn it on, it’s okay again. That’s what meditation is to me.
– Ellen DeGeneres
When someone meditates, their brain waves have the capacity to slow down. With proper breathing techniques, beta waves in the brain are more easily reduced. When the beta waves calm down and slow down, there’s a sense of overall calm and well-being as an aftereffect.
Imagine being able to control your brain to some degree and be able to relax, focus, and have more clarity. All of this can come from meditation.
The more advanced the meditation, the deeper the brainwave frequencies, and the greater the benefits in your life.
With Zen12 meditation you can have the same benefits of an hour-long meditation in just 12 minutes. The reason is that Zen12 uses brainwave entrainment to reach those deeper brainwave frequencies in a short amount of time.
It’s perfect for busy people.
It’s like having a charger for your whole body and mind. That’s what Meditation is!
– Jerry Seinfeld
You can download the first level of the ZEN12 meditation MP3s for FREE at http://zen12.com/gift
Meditation to help you feel your feelings
If you have trouble with eating your emotions, i.e. suppressing them with food or distracting yourself from them with eating you will find this meditation very helpful. I’ve made this meditation to help you sit with your feelings when you have the urge to overeat. Listen to this meditation often and you’ll learn how to process your feelings. You’ll be presently surprised to find that you won’t need to eat to suppress or numb them anymore.
After a while, you won’t need to listen to this meditation. Feeling your feelings becomes automatic and you will be free from emotional eating triggered by negative feelings. You’ll start eating your feelings much less often.
I hope you found this post helpful.
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