by Understanding Meditation and Self-Awareness
With the emphasis on not clearing one’s mind completely but rather learning how to be observant of one’s thoughts without getting too emotionally involved with them, many individuals have discovered new levels of self-awareness and personal growth through daily practice of meditation. Many beginning meditators experience difficulty and uncertainty with meditation initially.
But there is no need to have special talents or to spend long periods of time practicing meditation in order to create a regular daily practice; once an individual finds a simple way of developing a regular practice, they are able to develop a consistent pattern that contributes to both their mental and physical health over an extended period.
What Is Meditation: Why It’s Important
Meditation is a mental and/or visualization practice that can be used to help someone become aware of their present moment experience. Individuals can use meditation to establish greater emotional stability, clarity of thought and past future experiences, therefore promoting inner peace or calmness.
There are many types of meditation practices however, each one has the same underlying purpose; to develop the ability to be mentally aware in the present moment. Studies and research from organizations like Mayo Clinic have shown that meditation can promote stress reduction, decreased incidences of insomnia, and improved overall health/wellbeing.
The Fundamental Principle of Meditation
In essence, meditation is about slowly developing one’s ability to be aware. When you meditate, rather than trying to control your thoughts, you are able to simply allow yourself to be aware; thereby allowing you to eliminate the mental clutter that surrounds you and to develop the focus that you need.
- Developing awareness instead of control
- Reducing mental clutter
- Improving focus
Many beginners think that you have to “not think”; however, the real goal of meditation is simply to learn how to notice your thoughts and bring yourself back into your present moment experience. In today’s busy world, there are many avenues of stimulation; social media, job stress, and an overload of information.
The Core Purposes of Meditation
At its basic level, meditation is an exercise in awareness. Rather than controlling every single thought that crosses your mind, you learn how to observe your thoughts from a distance, and over time this allows you to reduce the degree of noise in your head and increase your level of focus.
Most beginners think they are supposed to “stop thinking” during meditation, but the goal is actually very different.The true purpose of this activity is simply to be aware of your thoughts and to gently return your awareness to the present moment.
Importance in Today’s World
- Calming the mind and reducing racing thoughts
- Control of anxiety and increased positive outlook on life
- Greater ability to handle stressful situations and decreased reactivity to stressful situations
The cumulative effects will lead to increasing your ability to control your reactions and maintain a balanced mind in times of stress. There are also numerous recommended physical benefits of meditate; typically these will be overlooked but include; improved sleep quality and reduced fatigue.
- Decrease in tension caused by your body from stress
- Improved sleep patterns
- Better concentration when performing daily tasks
Creating a Meditation Environment
Due to the above mentioned values alone, meditation should be an important part of your daily routine. To support your success at this activity, it may help you if you prepare your meditation environment ahead of time by selecting an area free of distractions and will provide you with the most comfort when you meditate.
Meditation can be done anywhere; however, by having an area specifically set aside for meditation, you create a “safe place”, and therefore a routine and/or focus. This could be a small area of your bedroom floor or even a part of your balcony, but as long as you can be uninterrupted is the general idea.
Environment Setup
As you meditate in your designated area, keep your environment uncluttered so that your mind will associate that area with a sense of calm/focus over time. Get Ready for Your Mindfulness Practice
- Find a seated position that is comfortable
- Turn off your phone
- Start off with meditations between 5 to 10 minutes
Basic Practice of Meditation For Beginners
Beginning with basic meditation will allow beginners to ease into the practice, versus feeling “stressed out” by difficulty in practice. By establishing basic meditative practices into your daily practices, you can provide great benefits based on the changes you are making.
The easiest way to begin basic meditation is by using the technique of breathing; thus you will overcome the hurdle of being concerned about the “right way” to use meditation, while also developing the ability to use your natural talents as soon as possible.
Guided Meditations and Tools
The best form of meditation for the beginner may be guided meditation as it creates a more uniform way to meditate and a better way to fulfil the desire to meditate. The guided instructions create a way to keep your attention focused and reduce the feeling of being confused.
Many of the popular meditation applications such as Headspace and Calm offer guided meditation techniques specifically for beginners so that they can build a daily meditation routine.
- Step-by-step instructions through guided meditation
- Better focus and reduced confusion
- Opportunity to discover what works best
Discovering Emotional Triggers
The best way to discover personal triggers is to note your reactions closely when your emotions seem out of control or are suddenly powerful. Take time, without self-judgment, to check in on what happened just before the emotional event occurred to identify what activated you.
- Note your reactions closely
- Check what happened before emotional events
- Identify triggers
By pausing; you’re able to become more aware of each emotion. Doing so helps you to become more present to your emotions throughout the course of a day.
Physical and Mental Signals of Emotion
There are numerous ways that your body physically shows emotion; heartbeat and breathing patterns change, in addition to muscle tension. In addition to physical signals there are numerous mental cues that accompany emotions.
Stressful encounters are a normal part of life; however, your reaction to a stressful event is what ultimately gives the event its significance. The goal with stress management is to manage your responses to stress in a manner that facilitates a balance of your emotional and physical responses.
Grounding Techniques and Being Present
Grounding techniques are very effective for taking your attention away from distressful thoughts or feelings and bringing your attention back to the present moment. You can accomplish this by noticing the environment around you, by noticing how you feel physically, and participating in a simple activity.
- Noticing the environment around you
- Observing physical feelings
- Participating in simple activities
Conclusion
Accepting a thought is considered to be giving yourself the ability to have a thought, without feeling you need to take any action. You will develop the awareness that you do not have to take an action for every thought that you have.
