Nothing comes to my mind which had such a positive influence on my life so far as meditation and I am kind of passionate about it.
I tell my friends, family, my mailman, barber and random people on the street they should start and now I will tell you.
Start meditating!
No worries you dont have to live in a cave or move to India and learn from some guru who held up his arm for several years.
If you have never been in touch with meditation but maybe have been curious to try it, this post is for you. I will give you some guidlines, talk about a few obstacles I had and hopfully we can make a habit out of it for you.
So lets dive in
"Why should I even bother to meditate"
- You will have better focus.
- You will be able to store inforamtion better
- You will experience less stress and be able to handle it better since a bit of stress is actually good for but it will dramaticly decreases the negativ side affects of it
- Meditation is proven to be as effectiv to treat depressions as commonly described anti depressives
- Meditation will increase your willpower ( as a lot of good habits )
- Meditation is not only benecial for your brain but also for your body, it drops inflammation and even slows down the process of aging
- Mediation will make you happier and more gratful
- Meditation will help you if you tend to overthink everything
- Mediation will get you into this moment everyone speaks about you should live
Take a look at really succesful people like Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins who both do some kind of mediation in their daily rituals.
Tim Ferris also said in one of his podcast most succesful people he interviewed within his researches are following one or another form of meditation and giving it a lot of credit for their success.
The astouning thing is most of those benefits you will experience within 8 weeks of regular meditation and I want to give you some tips later to make it easier for you to follow your mediation practise regular.
"Ok I will try it but how do I start?"
Meditation is pretty easy and very hard at the same time. At first you will sit there and waiting for something to happen...but nothing will happen.
It might even feel like a waste of time but please trust me on this or the 1000 studies that have been done about meditation, you already on your path to reap all those benefits and more.
There a lot of different kind of meditations, from cleaning your shakras over developing more gratfulness to help you fall asleep or finding inner guidance. Even praying is a form of meditation.
But we will focus on something different now. In my opinion the easiest way to get into meditation is a mindfulness meditation where we will focus on or breath.
It is so easy it might sound stupid but I want you to take 10 breath very you totally focused on it.
Only breathing in and out with 100% focus. No thinking what you do after this or how stupid this is.
Chances are there will come up thought in your mind during this and thats fine also maybe it will come after the first breath maybe after the 5th but they will propaply show up. Dont see this as a failure. Just acnowolge them and then let them pass. I imagine I let them go as ballons and then come back to breath.
For me starting out it was way easier with a guided meditation. Sombody speaking to you and guide you to the process because it feel a bit weired just sitting there waiting for the enlightmant which will not come.
Also you will notice how you not even realize that you follow a train of thoughts again and the guided meditations are making sure they will get you back.
I like to visualize those thoughts as balloons I just let go or clouds passing by.
It is important to note that it is about acknowledging those thoughts and not to think about nothing.
Imagine your thoughts as a long while you stand at the track as it it is passing by. Each wagon is another thought following the next one but inbetween there are some gaps.
Meditation is slowing this train down and you will have a longer and longer look between those gaps and moments of total emptiness in your head, which is an amazing feeling.
This will usually not last long since you will be judging this moment with "wow so peacful", " I ll never thought I ll get there" "Can I hold it for longer this time" and it will fade away.
The less you pay attention to it and especially the less you are trying to force it, the easier it becomes.
There will be days were nothing will work. Thought will just take over and you cant focus at all. They are called grey days. Your monkey mind is in total control and jumps from thought to thought. This is fine, too. Just try not to judge,which I know is much much easier said then done, but also here you will get better at it over time.
"Yeah, thath all sounds good but my situation is very special and I dont have time because I ha...."
Let me stop you right here! This is bullshit. Everyone has 2-10 minutes a day. (Yes meditation sessions can be very short and if you start out they should) Even when you have children or a stressful job or even both and more.
I am sure you want to be a good parent, Co-worker or friend. Who do you think can provide more value,more love and more joy to their lifes. Somone who is so stressed out and rushed, who cant even take a couple of minutes for themselves or somone who is relaxed, balanced and inlinie with their values.
You ever snapped at a friend or your child over nothing becuase you were so stressed and had to apoligize later (well at least I hope you did). I bet you lost more time in such arguments then just taking some minutes from your schedule for yourself. It is for others also and as I stated earlier even your focus will rise which will make you more effectiv at work,
" I tried it a couple of times but never sticked to it"
Together we will create a habit out of it so it becomes as easy as brushing your teeth.
I want you to find a time you want to meditate. Can be in the morning, evening in your coffee break, whenever.
I want you to find a habit you already have. Brushing your teeth, setting up the water for your tea or coffe in the morning. Something you do everyday and requires no willpower. (your trigger)
After you completed task a, you sit down for 1 minute or even just 30 sec and we completly focus on your breath for 10 rounds of breath circles. Make sure you breath in deeply, so your belly rises. Feel the cold air entering your nose and the warm air exiting it. Try to follow the breath how it enter your lungs. Just be open to every sensation that may occure or even the lack of it. If thought are crossing your mind, just let them pass. Be a spectator without judgment.
Do this for a couple of days with 30 sec if it becomes more and more easy for you, you can increase the time, just make sure it is still so easy that is harder to say no then follow through. I cant stress this enough rather grow very slow then go for the big gains. Chances are you will get a bit frustrated here and there and then it is easier to have those small sessions then big ones. Consistency is key here. Think about it where you can be in a year, even if you start small.
Tada you are doing it.
Let me give you an example on how I got started and what was my trigger
I decided to do it in the morning so I will have a good start in my day. The first time my feed touched the floor for the day I stayed like this, sitting on the edge of my bed and just focused on my breath like I wrote.
Of course you can dig down way deeper. You can do 2 sessions a day but make sure the one you decided is your priority.
There are a lot of youtube channels, books and apps around to support you on your journey and I like to recomned you some.
Apps : "Headspace" is great and they offer a free guided introduction course. I like "stop breathe & think" a bit more but cant really explain why.
Books: I have read a ton of books on meditation. The first one was from Eckart Tolle "The power of now" and to this day it is still the best one I have read so far. But honestly you cant go really wrong with any of his books. For the more sceptical under us, there is a book called "Meditation für Skeptiker" by Ulrich Ott, but I dont know if there is an englisch translation.
Youtube: I really like "the hones guys" and dont use much else, since I moved away a bit from the guided meditations for now.
There are courses and centers and I heard good and bad about them. I attended a vipassana once, which is a retreat for 10 days and you meditate around 16 hours a day, which certain rules the biggest one is that you are not allowed to talk for these 10 days.
Just be aware even or especially in the spiritual world are scammers, too. If somone is offering you quick enlightmant you should be very carful.
Well thats pretty much it. To sum it up
Meditation is good for you and even the people surrounding you and you have enough time. Small consistent steps are key and remeber it is called meditation practise not meditation perfection.
If you have any questions I ll do my best to answer them. I am on my journey myself and started around 3 years ago so by far I dont know a lot but I know more then people who never tried it.
If you read through here and find this post useful please consider resteeming it and of course I am happy for every upvote and follow.