How to start meditating at home
Meditation is a philosophy and technique, which together allow a person to achieve an internal balance between physical, emotional and mental states.
In a broad sense, the value of meditation is that it creates the prerequisites for a person’s self-realization, eliminating the barriers and encouraging new steps in the direction of spiritual growth. When a person comes to the decision to meditate, this intention should, above all, be linked to his attitude to life in general and his consciousness in particular. Below you can find a few tips on how to meditate.
Meditation is a step to emotional comfort
Although we use our brain in our lives, only a few of us seek to understand its nature and ways of functioning. As a result, we know almost nothing about the state in which our brain and consciousness are in each moment of time. And the question of what really exists in the reality around us, and what we think, often remains open. A simple example will help to understand the danger of such confusion.
Imagine that you have your favorite chocolate cake in front of you, and you are looking forward to enjoying it. At this moment you sincerely consider it tasty and attractive. But, when you eat two or three pieces and eat enough, you will already look at the cake in a completely different way. It will not cause former enthusiastic feelings. It is quite possible that you will try to move it away from yourself. Note that the taste of the cake has not changed, but your ideas about taste have changed.
The idea that objects themselves and the world as a whole do not evoke certain feelings in us, but we ourselves are the sources of these feelings, and underlies the philosophy of meditation. Achieving a balance between the world and our attitude towards is the goal of mediation training. Happiness and suffering are equally rare experiences and states of our mind, and both appear in us not under the influence of the external world, but as our internal response to something.
Understanding this makes us relatively independent in what and how we can and should feel at each moment of time. Therefore, if we want to reduce our suffering and prolong our state of happiness, we must learn to manage our feelings, without giving them away to external influences.
Meditation is a step to self-regulation
Sometimes something goes completely differently from what we have in mind or expected, sometimes we are confronted with difficult circumstances or a real challenge of fate. But the way we react to it is the result of the work of our brain and nothing but this.
When, in response to difficult life circumstances, instead of experiencing and suffering, our brain accepts the challenge and begins to solve it as an interesting task, we are surprised to find that we are beginning to manage the most difficult situations. So, a positive mindset rebuilds our perception of the world for the better. That is why control of the mind and state of mind is an important condition for well-being and happiness.
Look around you and you will see that there are more and more new ways of influencing people's consciousness (such as, for example, advertising and the Internet). Think about it, if these ways affect your mind easily, what prevents you from managing your mind at your own discretion? At first, you can learn the rules of how to meditate at home, and then you can move on to more complex meditation programs.
Meditation is a step towards brain development
Meditation is a useful tool to increase your overall performance. This may seem strange. After all, everyone knows that meditation is “doing nothing” for some time. How does it affect the productivity of our work?
So, here are just a few of the results of meditation that neurophysiologists pay attention to:
• the need for sleep decreases, and the person sleeps less than before;
• high relaxing and soothing effect;
• energy and strength increases;
• blood supply to the brain improves;
• aging of the brain structures is slowed down and an increase in the grey matter of the brain is detected;
• concentration of attention increases;
• assisting the brain in processes that support the defragmentation of thoughts, which, in turn, makes it possible not to get stuck in one information space, but to think for the future.
This can be achieved with the help of simple mediation exercises, moreover, meditation at home is quite possible.
“Brain detoxification” is a small but very effective exercise that will help you to do a “general cleaning” in your brain and, thus, get rid of the usual, but already outdated mental practices and thinking techniques.
What is the idea of meditation?
The basic idea of meditation is quite simple: learn to manage your attention and condition voluntary. To do this, use special exercises. To begin with - the most simple, aimed at ensuring that attention within a certain time (say, half an hour) was directed "inside". During meditation, attention is distributed, it spreads. It has no focus. It does not pick up on our thoughts or experiences, but slides across the surface of our consciousness, never clinging.
This is quite a difficult task, especially for beginners, to keep their attention “on nothing”. Therefore, the focus is on ... breathing. Here are typical tips for those who are beginning to master the technique of meditation:
• Each time your attention switches from your breath to something else, bring it back.
• You should keep your breath in the field of your consciousness all the time.
Thus, you will begin to train your mind, returning it from the objects that attract it (your thoughts or distracting sounds around) to the object that you ask (your breath).
This is the basic idea of meditation for beginners.
How to start meditating at home
You need two things for this:
• seating position
• timer.
You can meditate standing or walking, but this will be the next step of complexity. For beginners, it is better to meditate while sitting. You can choose from the following options:
1. The chair. Especially recommended for those who have back problems.
2. Pillow for meditation. For beginners to use it is quite difficult.
3. Bench for meditation. It is recommended for those who have problems with their feet.
The timer will help you stay in one tempo all the time and not be distracted from the main object of your attention - your breath. You can even use your mobile phone for this purpose.
Where to start
• Touch your back and keep upright throughout the meditation process.
• Your eyes may be closed or open. If you find it easier to concentrate on your breathing with your eyes closed, then close your eyes. Sometimes focus your eyes on the space on the floor in front of you.
• Let your arms lie free. Legs can be crossed.
• Direct your gaze down a bit, even if your eyes are closed.
What to do - 6 basic actions during meditation
• 1) Create a state of comfort for yourself - external to the body and internal to consciousness. Stop the flow of your thoughts, distract from worries. Focus on the situation in which you are now.
• 2) Start the timer. Start with 10 minutes of meditation.
• 3) Focus all your attention on breathing. Breathe with your nose. Close your eyes and watch your breath fall into you and out through your nose. Find a balance between your attention to breathing and your state of relaxation.
• 4) What to think about during meditation? - Do not think. Do not analyze or evaluate your breathing. Only careful tracking of inhalation and exhalation.
• 5) Return your mind to breathing every time you are distracted by something.
• 6) Release your mind and stop the meditation at the signal of the timer.
Useful tips for beginners
There is perhaps no direct answer to the question of how to meditate correctly. But there are some tips that may be useful to you:
• It is better to meditate for 10 minutes daily than 70 minutes once a week. You may experience boredom or even anxiety at the beginning of mastering meditation. These are normal conditions. And do not be afraid of them.
• Start with a short amount of time. Do not immediately set the timer for 30 minutes. You can even start with just 5 minutes of meditation. It is only important to do this regularly, best of all daily.
• Choose a nice and soft timer signal.
• Choose a place for meditation that is calm and closed from outside intervention. To focus you will help either a weak dim light or darkness.
• Note that attention is more easily lost on exhalation than on inspiration. Exhale more control.
• If you cannot concentrate, count to five. Then repeat the count.
Meditation is a relatively uncomplicated practice. However, it requires a certain amount of self-discipline and perseverance. But the effect of the mastered skill exceeds all expectations.
