Meditation is an amazing way to connect yourself with your inner self and the universe. Whether you’re looking to heal yourself from the inside or looking to just end the day with a little less stress, there’s so many ways to reap the benefits! Today I want to share the dive in to what meditation is and what it’s good for and at the end we’re going to go through a quick guided meditation for beginners to get you started with your practice.
What Is Meditation?
According to Cleveland Clinic, meditation is an ancient practice of focusing and clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques. Depending on what practice you choose you can use it to reduce anxiety, stress, and more! Some people began a practice to even help with various addictions and break negative habits like smoking. For me I use meditation not only as a stress reliever but to reconnect with myself and the universe. Since it is a mindful practice it can be used to help overcome a lot of mental blocks.
Benefits of Meditating
When studying the mind and spirit you can’t really find what goes on inside, it’s a connection things that can only be shown through actions not solely on brain waves. While there has been some optimistic studies on the benefits of meditation, they aren’t widely accepted, yet. However there is great promise that a regular meditation practice can help with1:
Stress
Anxiety & Depression
High blood pressure
Improve pain tolerance
Insomnia & Sleep quality
Help reduce cravings
Weight controls
And Symptoms of PTSD
While the jury is still out on how much improve can be seen over traditional medicine it’s over all unanimous that it improves the over all quality of life.
Types Of Meditation
There are many different types of meditation practices that people practice. Below that I will go in to over a few of the more popular meditation styles2.
Guided – This is great for beginners. A teacher leads you through the meditation either in person, or through a app or course. This way you get an idea of what a typical meditation should flow and be able to control the mind.
Mantra – When you focus on a mantra : a word, phrasem a symbol. This works well when you want to change your mindset or the energy you’re giving/recieving. It helps shift your energy and can raise your vibrations. Simply focus and repeat your chosen mantra over and over again for a few minutes. Repeat it until it becomes second nature, if you get distracted bring it back to your mantra.
Spiritual – If you want to speak to the universe or to something bigger than yourself. This meditation allows you to sit calmly and listen to the universe and wait for them to speak back to you and guide you through your life. Repeating affirmations of surrendering and trusting will put you in the right headspace to be open to what the universe has to offer.
Mindfulness – This is the type of meditation that I talk about the most. This trains us to move from thinking about sensing and becoming aware of the immediate surrounding and what you’re experiencing right now. It keeps you going with the energy of the day and not so focused on what you’re thinking. This is something that you can do anywhere at anytime. When you feel your mind racing focus on what’s around you. What do you smell? What do you see? Remember that your thoughts and your feelings are like waves in the ocean, no matter how rocky the water gets it always calms down so don’t get caught in the waves.
Chakra – This meditation style helps keep the seven chakras open, aligned, and fluid. It’s based on the belief that and unbalanced chakra can harm you mentally, physically, and emotionally. By utilizing this meditation style you can unblock those chakras. Simply visualize the chakra color glowing from with in and have the energy flow through you.
Yoga – There are many different types of yoga just as many as their are meditation practices! One of the more popular styles that focuses on meditation is Kundalini, it focus on using meditative techniques to strengthen and relax the nervous system. You can do this with many styles of yoga I personally do this with Vinyasa practice to help me feel amazing and connected with my body.
Visualization – This is when you visualize something or someone in your mind and nothing else. You don’t necessarily focus on your breathing or body just solely on your visualization. This can help you manifest the things you want it life. If you do this multiple times a day it can help you stay focused on a goal and pour your energy in to them. To practice this style of meditation sit calmly and visualize what you want in life or what you want to let go off. Observe any sensations that you might get once you start your visualization. If your mind starts to wonder then just bring it back to the visualization.
Guided Meditation For Beginners
Now it’s time to practice meditation. I will give you an overall idea of how it should go and guide you through the practice. Today’s intention is to lower stress and help you feel calmer and slow down.
Find an area that is calm and a comfortable position you can stand, sit, or lay down what ever you can focus. Once you’re comfortable begin to just arrive focus on your breathing and allow yourself to just be heavy.
Now check in on your body, start at the feet slowly moving up til you find where you’re holding your stress. once you locate where the stress is in the body. Breathe into the stress, take a deep breath and slowly exhale. Vizualize the ball of stress easing up, leaving the body with every exhale.
Repeat the mantra “I am safe and I am calm”
Do this until it becomes second nature and you feel a wave of ease over you.
Keep this mindset with you as you go through your day.
Whichever style you choose make sure that you do this regularly to have lasting results. Keep it up for a couple weeks and see how you feel, there is no right or wrong way to do a meditation practice. It’s your message to the universe and to yourself. I hope this helps you on your journey and I will see you in the next one.