Try Meditation To Improve the Quality of Our Lives, Here’s How

Meditation is something that I would suggest to everyone who feels that they need a break. I myself believe that meditation is beneficial both for our bodies and souls.

One of my friends once said, “Meditation is boring. You just sit and do nothing,” when I suggested meditating to him. Well, meditation is something much more than that.

According to Wikipedia, Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

If that’s too complicated for you, let’s just focus on the “achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state” part. Because in my opinion, meditation is all kinds of practice to just relax, take a break, and try to achieve a certain state where you feel mentally and emotionally stable and calm.

This state of mind and emotion will lead to decreasing stress level. Our mind will regain its focus and we would be able to think much more clearly. As a result, we can have a better performance in our lives, either it’s for our work or our social interactions. We will become a happier person and tend to deal with problems better. 

So How Can We Do This Meditation?

The answer is: easy. We all can practice meditation and it requires nothing at all. Anyone anywhere can practice meditation, and I mean anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re on your way to school or in the waiting room, or even in the middle of a class or meeting. 

But before we jump further on that, let’s take a look at the history. Meditation is a practice that has been used for thousands of years. It is originally used to deepen the understanding of sacred and mystical forces in our lives, to help humans understand that there are other forces and beings in this universe, and how to align with them. But nowadays, it is mostly used only to help people reduce stress and anxiety.

Meditation is simple. You just have to focus your attention and eliminate the negative thoughts that have been bothering your mind that might be the cause of your stress or anxiety. Simple, but not that easy. But if you manage to do this, you will get an enhanced physical and emotional state. In short, you will feel more calm and stable.

What’s In It For Me?

Yes, I have said a few times already that meditation can give us a calm and stable state of mind that can be beneficial for both our bodies and soul. But that is not all. Meditation is not only beneficial when you do it, but it also gives a sustainable benefit that can affect our mental state even after meditation. 

As I stated before, meditation can help us deal with problems better. And this is actually can be beneficial in managing symptoms of certain medical conditions. Hence, it will increase your immune system as well.

With this calm and stable state of mind that we achieve by practicing meditation, we would notice that we become better at managing our emotions and become more aware of ourselves. We become more aware of what we feel, what we need, and what we want, so then we would know what to do next.

And because meditating requires us to be focusing on the present, this will help us to get rid of negative emotions and increase our sense of mindfulness, so we can focus on the bright side of everything we face. Especially people who suffer from anxiety, tend to overthink things and meditating can help them to overthink less often. But of course, meditation cannot replace medical treatment. 

A Few Types of Meditation

To my surprise, there is a lot of type of meditation. And every single one of them has something in common: they help us achieve a calm and stable state of mind. They have different names and techniques, so you can use anything that works for you accordingly.

• Guided meditation: Practice meditation by forming mental images of places or situations that we find relaxing.
• Mantra meditation: Practice meditation by silently repeating calming words, thought, or phrases to focus and prevent distracting thoughts.
• Mindfulness meditation: Practice meditation by raising awareness of living in the present.
• Qi gong: Practice meditation by combining it with relaxation, physical movement, and breathing exercises. Qi gong (Chee-gong) is a part of traditional Chinese medicine.
• Tai chi: This is one of the Chinese martial arts, the gentle one. Tai Chi is practicing meditation by performing a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner and combines with deep breathing. 
• Yoga: I’m sure this one is familiar to all of us. Yoga requires us to perform a series of movements that are combined with controlled breathing. Not only a calm mind, by doing Yoga, you can also get a more flexible body. 

What Do You Need In Practicing Meditation?

Even though meditation requires nothing at all physically, but it requires a certain state of our mind to make it work. Take these steps to help you in practicing meditation.

• Focus your attention and clear your mind
• Breath steadily and relax your body
• Preferably practice it in a quiet place so you can focus better
• Be as comfortable as you possibly can
• Open your mind and let the negative thoughts disappear

If you practice meditation often, you will improve your meditating skill, and later you would be able to practice it anywhere, at any moment needed. Isn’t it convenient?

But just because you don’t have the time to do these steps, it doesn’t mean you have to be stressed about not being able to practice meditation. Simply do whatever makes you calm whenever you can. Simple things like listening to calm music, or go somewhere that can make you calm will do. 

Meditation is like a relationship with ourselves. We have to try and see which one is the best type for ourselves. Once you enjoy doing meditation, you will notice that your stress will melt away. 

I hope it helped. Have a lovely day!