HEALTH|EDUCATION
Meditation is Free, Easy, and Great for Everyone. Here’s Your Chance to Get (re)Started
We can all use less mindless scrolling and more mindful breathing, yet many find it hard to make the time to meditate. Let’s change that
When I was younger, there were many books I came across that advocated the benefits of meditation. I was intrigued, but lazy.
I was curious about the innumerable benefits I read about meditation, but it took me around two years to finally begin any of the countless methods I learned.
I grew tired of merely reading about what it was like to meditate.
Many proponents of it said that you can describe only so much about it. I knew I had to do it in order to see what it was really like.
One bright summer day in Seattle, I sat my butt down in a comfortable cross-legged position on top of a hill in a park by the water, closed my eyes, slowed down my breathing, and got to work.
I focused on my breath and the color blue.
I saw this patch of blue behind my eyes. I noticed that it had texture and observed the details of it, all while continuing to breathe slowly and deeply into the bottom of my belly. I became absorbed by this.
My thoughts became simplistic and breezy.
I completely lost track of time and was someplace intangible in my mind. Once my legs started going numb, I opened my eyes and smiled.
I felt like I went on a journey and was quite pleased with my first meditation experience. I felt more at peace, relaxed, and connected to life in ways I had never known before and I was hooked.
To this day I credit meditation with being one of the best things I have ever started doing for my sense of well-being.
It costs no money, only time, and the benefits of meditating, even for just 5 minutes, especially on a regular basis, are pretty damn incredible.
However, I know how hard it can be to carve out the time to do the things that we know benefit us.
So I decided to share some of favorite ways of meditating that are geared toward those of us who have a hard time making the time to meditate, as well as those who have no idea where to begin.
1. The Four-Fold Breath Meditation
There are plenty of YouTube videos that can guide you through this, as well as articles were written about it. A quick google search will yield many results. Basically, you breathe in slowly for 4 seconds, hold your inhale is for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds, and hold your breath for 4 seconds before starting the cycle all over again. It’s simple, easy, and effective. I find that setting a timer for 5 minutes while doing this is a great way to stop thinking about how long you’re doing this and allow yourself to just focus on the technique while observing your thoughts and feelings.
I have heard and practiced many guided meditations over the past 25 years. The person speaking takes you through the process of meditating step-by-step. Sam Harris is one of my favorite people to listen to during a guided meditation. He has an app called, “Waking Up” that offers a few guided meditations for free.
I find Harris’ voice to be extremely soothing and his methods very effective. He is a neuroscientist, lecturer, author and has practiced meditation for more than 20 years. There are plenty of guided meditation apps and videos on the Internet. Find what suits you. These are great for when you want to simply follow along. You can choose how short or long you want the practice to be and the options are seemingly endless, just start somewhere.
3. Listen to Instrumental Music for 5+ minutes while taking slow, deep breaths
Traveling the Stars, by Deuter is one of my favorites to listen to while meditating, or actually traveling somewhere. It’s about 9 minutes long and helps me slow down my thoughts and breathing within a relatively short period of time.
You have to find what works for you.
I find that instrumental music is best for observing your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them.
One of the goals of meditation is to observe how you think and feel without becoming attached to your thoughts and feelings. Music, particularly instrumental music, can greatly help with this.
Decide how much time you can spare and want to spend doing this, find a comfortable position in which to sit or lay down, push play and commit to taking slow, deep breaths until the song ends. It’s as simple as that.
Meditation has been shown to: reduce the many adverse effects of stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), help insomnia or quality of sleep, help concentration and focus, improve digestion, calm inflammation, quell anxiety, contribute to weight loss, increase fertility, manage pain and more.
I speak from my own experience as well as from others whom I know personally and countless studies and books I’ve read on the top for almost three decades.
Consider trying it out for yourself to see what I mean.
You just might fall in love with it.
Regardless, there is absolutely no harm in trying it.
Feel free to leave some of your favorite simple ways to meditate in the response section.
If you’ve written stories about your personal experience/s with meditation, please leave the link for me and others.
We can all stand to learn more on this topic.
