You don't have to be a Yogi to meditate. Everyone can do it, regardless of age, ethnicity, or background. The key to meditation is the breathing patterns and clearing of the mind. Usually, when a person starts to partake in meditation, they start to get bombarded with thoughts coming from all directions. That is completely normal, and with time you will be able to control those thoughts or simply let them pass by. The idea is to not get distracted with every passing thought that you get.
Some Benefits of Meditation
*Stress Reduction
*Revitalization
*Helps with focus & concentration
*Awareness and clarity
*Increases blood flow and slows the heart rate
*Harmonizes our endocrine system
*Relaxes our nervous system
Those are just a small fraction of the benefits of meditation. Basically it's the best way to maintain natural health, physically, psychologically and spiritually. No matter what you are going through in your life whether good or bad, you can not go wrong with meditation. I have been meditating for quite some years now. I do not meditate everyday yet, however it is recommended. In the morning is the best time, before eating anything. Of course you can meditate anytime of the day. As long as you can do so without being distracted or disturbed. It's suggested that you don't meditate on a full stomach or right after eating.
How to Meditate
I have read and come across a lot of books based on meditation. Normally one would think that the only
way to go about it is to sit on the floor with your legs crossed in the lotus position. This is the way that has been done for centuries but it is not the only way. You can sit on a chair and meditate,you can even lay down. Not everyone has the flexibility to meditate in the lotus position, I certainly don't. So whatever is the easiest way for you is the best way to do it.
So the next part is breathing. Breathing in a certain way is what starts to initiate your mind to go into alpha mode, which means its slows down your brain waves. In a typical day, as humans, we operate at a beta level, which is for reacting, thinking, just being on our toes and being alert. We live in a reality that appears to be on auto-pilot, not everyone, but a substantial portion of the population.
You wake up, get ready for work, leave to work, come back home, eat something, watch t.v. or any other type of entertainment, and do it all over again the next day. That consists of us being on beta mode.However, when you come home to relax after a busy or hectic day, you tend to sit back and relax. Naturally, you go into alpha mode by just relaxing, that's why its easy for our subconscious mind to store all the negativity from the news and media when your watching this on the television,
it's an easy way for fear to be injected into you. In alpha mode or at a lower brain wave state of mind, your subconscious mind has access to store thoughts and ideas, even personal goals.
Subliminal messages and binaural beats work when you want to program yourself in the right way. I will get into that type of topic in a different post.
In any case, back to the breathing...
The best way to breath when your in meditation mode, is breathing through your nose in a slow and smooth matter, and exhaling slowing out your mouth. That's all you want to focus on,is your breathing. This allows you to not get distracted from other thoughts. Just simply focus on the rhythm of your breathing. You might want to start with only 5 minutes if your new at meditation, and eventually increase the amount of time that you meditate. As long as you do it at your own comfort is what matters.
There is different ways to go about meditating, such as visualization, and deep breathing techniques which can be intermediate - advanced, and you can always learn that in the future. For now, I suggest just doing the slow rhythmic inhaling and exhaling breathing. After a couple days of meditation, you will notice the subtle changes in your overall health, physically and mentally.
I believe it is important and vital for all of us to use meditation whenever possible, the benefits to our health are invaluable when you incorporate meditation into your life.
