Good day, Steemians!

Meditation is one of my favorite practices:
it's life changing, and it never fails.
When I started meditating,
I set a timer for 5 minutes and told myself to sit still and breathe.
In the beginning, my mind bounced around and told me
I needed to get up and tend to this or that literally dozens of times,
but thankfully I maintained my commitment to those 5 minutes.
It didn't take long for me to fall in love with how great it made me feel,
and pretty soon I could sit for extended periods of time.
I recommend starting with 5 minutes a day and working your way up when it feels right.

What's happening in your brain and body during meditation?

Your mind is not going to stop when you meditate; it's in its very nature to keep on keeping on. Rather, you're giving the mind something to focus on (the breath is a super accessible focal point) so it can calm down and your nervous system can relax. Eventually, you retrain it.

The very real promises of meditation - inner peace, expanded consciousness, spiritual insight - persist after a session. Meditation is more than simply entering a deep level of relaxation; it causes changes in physiology as well! 

The brain has an incredible property called neuroplasticity - you can literally rewire the brain using your consciousness. The brain/body constantly generate electricity; during meditation, alpha (8 - 12 Hz) and theta waves (3 - 8 Hz) are activated (here's a reference), and these are super powerful, healing frequencies. Continued meditation practice leads to denser gray matter in areas responsible for attention, compassion, learning, and memory, and decreased density in areas responsible for anxiety and stress (here's a reference).

You can go super deep into learning more about meditation, and/or you can just do it and see for yourself. 

Suggestions for meditation:

There are a zillion practices that can achieve various goals. I share here a basic technique that has worked for me, in sincere hopes that it helps you find stable peace and inspiration.

• Find a quiet spot where you won't be disturbed. Set a timer if you want to; sometimes I burn a stick of incense and get up when it goes out.
• Sit comfortably on the ground or in a chair.
• Close your eyes.
• Bring your awareness to the breath. Inhale to a count of 8, notice the pause at the top, exhale to a count of 8, and again notice the pause at the bottom.
• If the mind wanders, remind yourself to come back to the breath. Just notice that you've wandered again, and calmly redirect back to your inhalations and exhalations. Let the thoughts float away like clouds in the sky, without attachment, without judgment.

💛 Sara!

^{image source}