Meditation – A Simple Introduction

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November 23rd, 2009 2 Comments

Meditation – A Simple Introduction

Meditation is a practice I endeavor to talk about a lot on Simpleness, as I believe it helps put you in the perfect state of mind and calm to truly achieve the simple and effective lifestyle you want.

Many that promote meditation preach its health benefits (such as better blood pressure, stress-relief, cell-regeneration) and whilst those are very valid reasons to take up meditation, I will mostly focus on the mental effects of some daily time for you.

I personally started meditating because I tried it, and enjoyed the feeling. Eastern guru’s often say you shouldn’t meditate for a reason, just meditate. I wasn’t far from that, but in the West, it is very difficult to untie yourself from the cause and effect, the reason for doing things. The feeling I receive from meditation is something akin to euphoria.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is not hypnosis, not sleep, and not going to give you magical powers of flight or invisibility (well, probably not!). You don’t lose control of yourself, in fact you will undoubtedly feel more in control. And to tell you the truth, you’ve probably had many many experiences of meditation already.

Times such as daydreaming, staring in to nothingness with no thoughts, dancing in a club feeling like you’ve entered nirvana, and staring in to your partners eyes all feel very similar, and actually are very similar, to the experience during meditation.

My main positive in practicing meditation is quieting the mind – no thoughts chattering through your head at a thousand miles per hour. This allows me to become more aware of other things during the rest of the day, things I may have missed if I had a consciousness going at the speed of sound.

Meditation should be daily, I certainly get withdrawal symptoms (anxiousness and heightened-sensitivity) once I’ve gone a couple of days or more without taking the time out. Some practice twice a day. But everyone, and that’s everyone, must have at least 10 minutes a day? It is surely worth it, I promise you.

A Simple Meditation Practice

Below is a very very basic first practice, to settle you in to the habit of taking time out. Further posts will build up to deeper and deeper meditations, with more complexity and more effect. But for the absolute beginner, I recommend the following:

Either take a seat on a comfortable but properly-backed chair, with your spine upright. If you can’t find the spot which is “upright”, gently lean back and forth until you feel the crossover in the centre.
If you are unwilling or unable to use a chair, laying flat on a bed is also fine, but be sure not to fall asleep!
Place your feet flat upon the ground, and relax your arms completely on your thighs, palms up.
Close your eyes and take stock of your body – what you are feeling now both emotionally and physically. Just note how you feel – don’t wander off thinking why you feel this way or similar distractions.
Slowly and gently breath in through your nose, concentrating your “mind’s eye” on following the breath as in travels in to you. Notice how pure that air is, or is not.
Breath in until your lungs are as full as you can take, and hold for roughly 5 seconds. Don’t worry about counting, though.
As you breath out, let the exhalation relax your shoulders, back, lower back, and hips, as if the tension is leaving those areas. Exhale as completely as is comfortable (the more the better).
Repeat 3 times, or as desired!
As you open your eyes (whenever you are ready) take stock again of how you feel emotionally and physically. Note any significant changes to how you feel.

Try this practice once or twice every day for a week, and please do let me know how you get on! I would love to hear people’s experiences.

Before I go, if you are interested in meditating because of some apparent stress in your life, I am releasing an eBook later this week entitled “10 Ways To Bring Calm To Your Life”, so please do check back (or leave a comment and I will personally email you upon its release)! Also, meditation related paraphernalia (including books and mats) will be appearing in the Simpleness Store very very soon.