The Power of Meditation

Meditation is a skill that carries a huge amount of benefits including reduced anxiety and stress, decreased blood pressure, increased sense of well being, clarity of thought, development of intuition, visualisation, increased creativity and a more positive outlook towards life.

The ultimate goal of meditation is to be able to enter a state where by the sitter is no longer aware of conscious thought. I refer to it as the “space between thoughts” and when encountered, it is a place of indescribable beauty, tranquillity and bliss.

For many, the word meditation conjures up images of monks, sitting cross legged and Omming, Ahhhing and Chanting.

In my experience, meditation is a far cry from these stereotypical images and once mastered can lead to a tremendous sense of well being, fulfilment, contentment and inner peace.

I have engaged in meditation for over 5 years and began sitting regularly with the goal of experiencing greater inner peace while also developing my intuition to assist my work as a Reiki Practitioner and Personal Trainer.

Learning to meditate isn’t easy but patience, commitment and dedication has paid off and I now feel more connected to my surroundings, more in control of my destiny and ultimately happier and mentally stronger than I have ever been before. I have complete faith when I have a gut feeling and have acted upon these “feelings” which has in no uncertain terms assisted me greatly with the development of my personal training business.

When sitting for meditation it is essential that a room or space is chosen that is quiet and during a time when disturbance is unlikely. All phones and alarms should be turned off and any lighting should be dimmed.

It is important to sit in a comfortable position but not too comfortable. My own preference is to sit on a dining room chair with a high back. Eyes should be closed and feet should touch the floor and back should be supported. I suggest avoiding lying down as the chances of falling asleep are high and sleep is not meditation!

One of the biggest hurdles faced by those starting out in meditation is overcoming the “Monkey Mind”. Our mind is like a conveyer belt of thoughts. It is only when sitting quietly trying not to think about anything that it becomes apparent just how noisy the mind can be. This is also the exact reason why an over active mind can result in stress and anxiety. Like the body, the mind needs a rest too from time to time!

In order to limit the dancing of the monkey mind a good practice is to begin by using a simple visualisation. This can be anything from visualising the breath travelling slowly and evenly in and out of the body, visualising a single object such as a flower, repeating a mantra in your head or taking an imaginary journey.

The purpose of the visualisation is to feed the monkey mind and give it something to do. By focussing on your visualisation completely and wholly the chances of experiencing destructive mind noise are reduced. Becoming a master of visualisation paves the way for the more difficult task of completely letting go……but that’s for another blog post.

Going back to visualisation and using the example of breathing, imagine and picture the air travelling in through the nose, down through the body and lungs, passing gently into the blood and around the muscles, organs and tissues. Notice how it feels, how it smells, tastes and so forth. The more detail that is visualised the less likely the mind is to wander onto chores, people and work!

Should the mind be caught wandering (and it will, a lot) don’t stress, simply return to the visualisation where you left off and continue……….above all, be patient, stay relaxed and engage in the moment.

My next blog post will supply an example of a very effective meditation that I used when I first started developing. Thanks for reading.