Basic meditation will improve your focus, make you a happier person, and greatly reduce the stress in your life. And this ancient practice is actually quite easy to learn and apply.
There are many different forms of meditation. This practice is thousands of years old and has been used by warriors, monks, artists, and visionaries since the beginning of history to achieve great peace and focus.
But the really great news is anyone, including you, can very easily learn basic meditation. And once you begin this powerful but simple practice your life will likely change in ways you never imagined possible.
The simplest way to describe meditation is to say it is the practice of sitting still and doing nothing. Quite literally this practice is about sitting comfortably in a quiet room, relaxing completely and allowing your mind to be totally free.
The most basic meditation is the watching of your breath. To perform this exercise you simply find a comfortable spot away from any distractions, sit cross-legged on the floor, and completely allow your hips and shoulders to relax.
It’s best to sit in a room with a closed door. And by all means if you need to place a pillow underneath you to support your back do so.
Once you are in position and have allowed your body to relax, close your eyes. Be very aware of the darkness as you look into your closed eyelids.
After a moment of relaxing into the darkness, allow your attention gently to find your breath. Become aware of your lungs as they inhale, as they pause briefly, as they push the air back out, and finally as they begin the cycle again.
Make no effort to control or change your breathing, and allow your body to find whatever rhythm it wants in the moment. Sometimes your breathing will be very slow and deep. Other times your lungs will work more quickly and will not pull the air in quite as deeply. Accept your breathing for what it is and simply watch it.
There are many specific breathing exercises you can learn to develop the proper lung function, but those should be practiced separately from your meditation sessions.
As you watch your breath rise and fall you allow your mind to rest from the constant forced thinking and internal chatter it endures throughout the day. Releasing your mind from its daily work on a regular basic will change the way your body works, and it will change the way you think.
Meditating for as little as three to five minutes each day is a great start. As your body and mind become more comfortable with the routine you can extend this to ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes.
Most people in today’s chaotic society do not experience relaxation on this profound, intentional level. You may be surprised by the increased focus, heightened awareness, improved patience, and greater sense of happiness and personal power you begin to experience after only a few weeks.
It’s difficult to attain a purely intellectual understanding of how basic meditation can produce these amazing results. And to be honest most traditional schools of thought avoid clouding the experience with excessive analysis and debate.
Once you understand how to experience basic meditation you should not bother with the details of how this practice actually causes the positive changes you begin to notice. Just be grateful you have welcomed these changes into your life and continue to meditate.
