What is Meditation and Why is Everyone Doing it?

While the practice is not a new one (in fact, it’s ancient!), the need for meditation in our modern lifestyle has become evident now more than ever.

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With the evolving use of technology our attention spans are decreasing, with higher workloads we are getting burnt out faster, with increased pressure on students to excel they are stressed and anxious - the use cases for meditation are plentiful.

Apart from the psychological benefits, doctors in the West are prescribing it to lower blood pressure, increase reaction speed, improve creativity and brain power, relieve insomnia and many other benefits.

While mostly everyone has heard of meditation in some context or the other, it is important to understand that meditation is not simply sitting cross-legged with your eyes closed trying to relax. Yes, relaxation is a natural outcome of meditation but there is so much more to the practice.

So what exactly is meditation?

“Meditation is the art of breaking habits, to purify the mind and to take care of day-to-day things.” - Yogi Bhajan

It is the process of achieving mental stillness by creating harmony between the mind, body and soul.

The main activity involved in meditation is alert observation. As the mind has no real location, the untrained mind wanders here and there, like a monkey swinging from tree to tree. Through meditation, we train to ‘grasp’ the mind by placing it somewhere physical - for example, on our breath, a candle flame, or a mantra.

There are various approaches to the practice of meditation and understanding the subtle differences can help you determine which form is best suited to you.

Here’s a list of the most common forms of meditation and their benefits.

1. Mindfulness Meditation

Simply put, mindfulness means being fully present in the moment. It’s a method of paying attention to the continuous stream of thoughts, emotions and sensations you are experiencing, as they happen. You don't pass judgement or get involved in them, but simply observe, as a witness. Mindfulness meditation can be done almost anywhere and anytime, for example, sitting, lying down, or in daily activity such as driving, eating, brushing your teeth, etc. It is simply witnessing whatever is happening, as you let go of thoughts about the past and future and focus on the now.

Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

• Improves focus and attention

• Improves memory

• Reduces fixation on negative emotions

• Improves mental clarity

• Promotes better sleep

• Helps prevent depression relapse

2. Focused Meditation

Focused meditation requires you to focus all your attention on one sensory stimulus. For example if you’re at the beach you can choose to focus on the sound of the crashing waves, the sound of the birds, the feeling of the breeze on your skin or sand on your feet, or on your breath. The most common one is the breath, because it’s always available to us - as long as we’re alive, we’ll be breathing! Also because the quality of the breath is correlated to the quality of the mind.

But the point is you pick one, and try to stick with it.

What’s great about focused meditation is that you don’t need someone else to teach you how to do it. It can be done by anyone who has a quiet space, something to focus on and a few minutes of time. At the beginning you might find it difficult to hold your focus for more than 5 minutes. However, the more you practice this meditation, the more you will feel the benefits.

Benefits:

• Quickly quietens the mind

• Improves concentration abilities

• Strengthened mind

• Sensation of calm and peace (if the object of meditation is calm)

• Reduce stress and anxiety

3. Moving Meditation

Moving meditation is an active form of meditation where movement guides you into a meditative state. It does not only refer to yoga and can include activities such as walking, gardening, light exercise, tai chi, qigong and even dancing - well suited to those who do not like sitting still. The physical movements help us focus our thoughts to be in the present, which fosters greater awareness and inner peace within us.

Benefits of Moving Meditation

• Reduce stress and anxiety

• Strengthens the body mentally and physically

• Promotes good sleep

• Reduces fatigue and lethargy

• Improves focus and mental clarity

4. Mantra Meditation

Mantra Meditation uses a sound or phrase, chanted repetitively, to calm the mind and body. This can be a seed sound like the popular ‘Om’, ‘Ham’, ‘Lam’, etc., or a phrase that you identify with, and can be chanted silently or out loud. It is a helpful alternative for those who find it difficult to focus on the breath. A single session can drastically change your stress levels, improve your mood and provide a sense of wellbeing.

Benefits of Mantra Meditation

• Calms the nervous system

• Alleviates negative emotions

• Reduces stress and induces relaxation

• Boosts immunity

• Promotes compassion

• Opens intuition

• Heals the chakras

• Reduces anger and aggression

5. Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental Meditation is the most popularised and practiced form of meditation today. It is a structured approach to meditation where individuals transcend, or go beyond, the surface level of their consciousness. This meditation is done with the help of a certified teacher who gives you a specific mantra unique to you for silent chanting. This practice focuses solely on chanting the mantra and does not include other aspects of meditation like mindfulness, concentration on the breath and so on.

Benefits of Transcendental Meditation

• Deep inner calm

• Improves efficiency

• Promotes heart health

• Reduces high blood pressure

Whichever form of meditation you choose, you will no doubt experience positive physical, mental, and spiritual benefits that can help you in our daily life. Meditation creates the required awareness with which we can analyse our inner world (thoughts, emotions, desires, etc.) without judgement - an essential skill to live a more conscious, stress-free life in optimal health. Eventually, the meditator reaches Enlightenment, or Self-Realisation (a whole separate topic altogether!). So start simple and mediate your way to a healthier mind, body and soul.

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Guided Meditation

Here is a guided beginners meditation, which you can do either lying down in Savasana (corpse pose), sitting in a comfortable cross-legged position with your spine elongated, or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor.

If you try any of these, let me know by leaving a comment below! :)

For more guided mediations, yoga, mantras, and pranayamas, head over to my website's Members Area or YouTube!

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