"HOW DO YOU MEDITATE?"

©Inner IDEA

Quite a few times, friends and acquaintances asked me this question as soon as the topic of our conversations shifted towards health, wellbeing and daily routines. There is certainly a great number of books out there with lengthy details shedding light on the history and the many techniques of meditation, which I absolutely and definitely recommend reading. But if you, like the people in my circles of friends, happen to be curious and are wondering how and what to begin with, then this post is for you. What follows is key to how I do it, which has been beneficial for a few peeps I know as well.

First, ask yourself WHY you are meditating. Knowing the answer will help you find the right tools. 

Say you are for a reason or another swayed by strong emotions, the first thing you'd want to do is to calm the mind right?

One efficient and undying tool to calm the mind is bringing your attention to your BREATH. It’s classic knowledge and perhaps even a pleasant cliché to say or hear someone throw in a “breathe in” or  a “breathe out” phrase in seemingly odd or out of hand situations. Yet, how much do we know about this powerful tool and how often are we oblivious to its usage.

PRANAYAMA TOOL:

Mindful breathing or in Sanskrit “Pranayama”, meaning control or participation with the “prana” (life force) helps your reflection become clearer and more focused.

A) Basic breathing technique:

1. In your comfortable seated position, notice your breathing pattern and pay attention to the spaces between breaths.
2. Notice the movement of the prana throughout your entire body and gently bring yourself to relax even more (relax your jaw, neck, shoulders, hands and legs. Your back should be as aligned as comfortably possible).

B) “Nadi Shodhana”, my favorite breathing technique:

“Shodhana” means cleaning and “nadis” are the energy channels in Sanskrit.

1. Hold your right hand up and curl your index and middle fingers toward your palm. Maneuvering your thumb and ring finger, deeply inhale through the left nostril.
2. Deeply exhale through the right nostril.
3. Repeat the process x4 (or as many times as desired)
4. In a steady pace, inhale through the right nostril.
5. And exhale through the left.
6. Repeat the process x4 (or as many times as desired)

This breathing technique is known for balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain, soothing anxiety and stress and relieving insomnia as well as obviously calming the mind. 

MANTRA TOOL:

Another tool to calm the mind and bring it to a desired state or perhaps even a certain brain wave is the practice of mantra saying. “Mantra is an invocation of sacred sounds, and as such is yet another form of vibration in the form of organized sound... Vibration affects matter." (Daniel Clement) It is the repetition of a word or a phrase. The word or phrase may be inspired from your own religion or you can simply come up with one that is deeply meaningful to you. My mantras vary and usually involve the sense of forgiveness, gratitude and wonder as well as OM sound for balancing the chakras. Depending on the circumstances, I sometimes experience a sense of emotional release during this phase, as I come to certain realizations and which inform me in turn about the decisions that I need to take.

So back to the basic question: why are you meditating? Let’s suppose you simply want to gain more clarity in your thoughts. In this case, simply observing your mind’s working in your meditative seated position will nicely do it.

OBSERVATION TOOL:

As in someone using binoculars to observe a certain situation or paysage from a distance, you’ll be using your mind’s eye to observe your thoughts without interfering—that is with no judgements. You simply observe your thoughts as they wander, with the knowledge that you are not your thoughts. You are merely observing. The practice of this tool will also allow you to cultivate the principle of non-attachment, whicht is key to leading a more fulfilling life.

As you might have already noticed, meditation, contrary to the current misconception, is NOT about SILENCING the mind. In my case, if I wanted so, I’d simply take a nap or go to sleep. It is about engaging it in a different or certain way: calming, observing and, among other things, bringing the mind to cooperate and perform for our ultimate visions and goals. If you don’t engage it, it will nonetheless stay busy with thoughts and perhaps more often than not, slippery to your total control, wherein the expression "monkey mind".

You may want to experiment in one sitting, as I do, with all different ways of engaging the mind. First, relaxing your mind by calming and centering yourself. Second, observing your thoughts with no judgements. Third, tonifying it! In this phase, make sure to give your mind one task at a time. This phase will inevitably push you at some point to reevaluate your visions, values and goals and the overall quality of your life.

VISUALIZATION TOOL:

I recommend visualization expanding on the following ideas, which are mostly forward thinking based:

1. Visualize how your day will likely unfold and how you are going to respond to events and challenges.
2. Review your day and check on the positive areas and the areas for improvement.
3. Visualize how you want your life to be like in 3 to 5 years from now. As you do so, engage your senses (as in a déjà vu experience) and think about how you are going to accomplish that.
4. Visualize the improved version of your relationships (family, partner, work, neighbors, etc.) and think about the steps you need to take to live that version.

Lastly, gently bring yourself back to the present moment, feel your body and mind in that relaxed state and give thanks to the practice and yourself for practicing. Even more important and perhaps more challenging is to establish the practice as a daily habit. So choose a time (mornings or evenings or both for 15 to 30 minutes or even during lunch breaks for 10 minutes) and a location to do it. I remember the first time I tried meditating, I was not able to sit for more than 10 minutes but then I learnt to enjoy it and now, when time allows, I meditate up to 30 minutes.

For folks wondering about the benefits of meditation, here are 10 of them:

- better grades!
- protect against mental health conditions
- helps process emotions even when we're not actively meditating
- helps the elderly feel less lontely and reduce genes linked to inflammation
- helps treating all sorts of addiction 
- less anxiety
- more creativity and new ideas
- improvement of rapid memory recall
- has the potential to reverse the aging process
 -less stress and the lowering of the stress hormone cortisol 

Voilà!

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