Have you tried meditation to solve your stress and health problems? 

If you haven’t done so yet, now may be one of the best times to make that experience a reality. Mediation is one of the most sought-after forms of stress relief and is even recommended by many doctors. Something that valuable is something that you should be striving to learn. If you are someone that spends your evenings worrying, stressing about all that needs to get done and even feeling physically bad without being sick, then meditation may be an ideal solution for you. In meditation, you transform the way that your mind is working. While you can’t say that it’s a simple process, meditation is something that you can easily learn to do and then use daily. In fact, studies show that when you do allow yourself (especially your mind) to meditate for just a few minutes each day, you can reduce the stress levels you face improving your quality of life. Indeed, lowering stress levels also can improve your physical self. 

In this Article, you’ll learn how meditation can change your life. It is merely a guide to get you started, though. Most individuals that are successful at meditation are those that seek out resources locally to help them to learn the process as well as to practice it. Meditating with others is something that can be powerful to the individual. With more and more meditation clinics and classes popping up around the country, you are likely to find one relatively close to you. But, first, you need to learn a bit more about how meditation works and what it can do for you.

This Article will prepare you to begin meditation and take you into a world that far too many people don’t realize exists with such benefits. If you are skeptical, there is nothing to lose by investing a few minutes in learning this process. In fact, you’ll find yourself striving to learn more once you have just one or two sessions of meditation. Learn to meditate alone or with friends. In either case, you’ll find many different methods to select. More so, you could be improving your health and well-being. That’s worth just a few minutes of your time!

 

Exactly What Is Meditation Anyway?

Before you can begin practicing meditation you do need to understand what it is and why you need to use this method of relaxation. The brain is the primary tool that you’ll use to define this process. But you may not realize that when the brain is in a “normal” state that it actually is very abnormal in what it is doing. To help you to understand meditation, we must first break down the different stages in which the brain functions so that you can see the state of mind that you are functioning in most often.

The Stages of the Mind

There are three unique stages in the brain that depicts how it is functioning at any one time. When you consider meditation, only going through these three stages can actually get to you achieve the serenity that you are after with meditation.

Stage One:

The Normal Mind In the “normal” state of mind, your mind is working in various directions. It is functioning as it usually does which means it is bouncing from one idea and thought to the next. In fact, this is quite abnormal activity for the brain because it needs to focus on a less ideas if it is to be successful in resolving problems.

 

Stimuli from all over the place are coming in at the brain. When something new stimulates you mind, it moves from its previous thought to the new one. Although you feel like you are completely in control of yourself during this type of brain function, you likely aren’t. 

You have very little control over the way that you behave and think during this type of situation. Not only do your thoughts move from one thing to the next thing quickly, but your physical being is doing the same thing too. Your emotions follow suite, too. 

 An example of this type of brain activity can be as simple as seeing a child playing. If you see that child while you are driving, your mind goes from control of the vehicle to the child. She’s cute, playing and riding her bike. Then, your mind moves to thoughts from your own childhood. You feel good and smile at the happy memories. 

Of course, it doesn’t always play out so innocently. You can go through these same thought and emotional processes with negative images too. Consider if that child was a teenager, doing something that they shouldn’t be. Now, you are wondering about your own children, what they are doing that you don’t know about. Your emotions follow you too with thoughts that are fearful and tense.

In a negative situation, you are likely to become distracted by the thoughts playing through your mind which then directly impacts the way that you drive your vehicle. Perhaps you run a red light or, you narrowly miss a car accident.

As you can see, in your normal state of mind, your emotions as well as your physical being are at stake. Each plays their own role in the outcome of these events. Often, stresses build up during this process and since it is our “normal” state of mind, they pile on over time. You can find yourself unable to concentrate on anything and overtime you can have trouble balancing all that you have to do in your everyday life.

For the most part, your “normal” way of thinking may be one of the worst things that you can do for yourself.

Stage Two:

Concentration When you enter into concentration, you enter into the first state that will lead you to meditation. Yet don’t confuse concentration with meditation. It’s very much something quite different.

During the second stage of meditation, you can begin to get control of your mind. When you learn to keep yourself in this type of mind frame, chances are good that you’ll improve the quality of your life considerably.

In concentration, your goal seems simple but it actually quite difficult to master to any amount of degree. You need to concentrate on one sole thing or object.

To be successful, you need to keep your mind focused on that one thing and not distracted by any type of diversion that happens to spring up. Focus on it, without allowing your mind to wander. It’s very difficult, actually.

During concentration, although the process of focusing on one element is simple enough, the problem is the mind’s ability to trick you back into its “normal” state of being. By pulling off the actually concentration topic and focusing on another, it pulls you back.

For example, if you need to concentrate on a paper for school, you could be sitting down thinking and working. You’ll allow your mind to focus and relax on the topic at hand. You think to yourself about the topic and can really clearly see what it is.

Then, you think of what your teacher had to say about the paper. That leads to thoughts of what your friend said next to you while the teacher was talking. Within a matter of minutes, you are thinking about something completely different than the original thought.

The end result is that you are distracted so much so that you are back at the “normal” stage of thinking, having accomplished little in way of concentration. That’s not what will help you.

The goal with concentration, though, is to realize what’s happened. When you can realize that you’ve been distracted and that your mind has fooled you into making its own decisions then you can come back and actually concentrate.

When you can master the art of keeping your mind focused and concentrating, you will experience a new type of thinking. You’ll be able to relax more and you’ll be able to actually feel better about life. That’s an amazing feeling!

Stage Three: Final Meditation

In meditation, the third stage of the process, you enter a completely different realm. Now, you are able to fully concentrate on the object or thought that needs to be accomplished without falling for any type of distraction. Here, no distractions or mind tricks happen to you during the process.

It’s a stage that you should strive for because it really can offer you a new way of looking at things. In many ways, you’ll be able to fully focus so much so that you can better understand and educate yourself. You make better decisions that are focused.

During concentration, your mind is only really concentrating on the objects you present it in a minimal way. Distraction breaks the continuously stream of concentrating thoughts. This leaves you with having to recognize the problem and to go back and change it.

In meditation, though, this is no longer the case. Now, you are keeping an ongoing stream of thought moving. There’s nothing breaking it and nothing that is able to pull your mind from it. This is the ultimate experience in meditation because of the amount of focus it provides you.

In an example of what meditation can do for you, consider this. If you think about just one topic, over and over again, anything and everything connected to that topic will come to you in one form or another. Let’s say that the word that you use is that of love.

If you think of love in a meditation stage, you concentrate on that one word which leads to other love terms. You love something, you love someone, different types of love, and so on. Eventually, you have connected virtually every way possible to love. You physically feel it, you emotionally feel it. You have thought everything about it. And, eventually, you have connected everything you can to love.

When you have achieved this type of meditation, you’ve elevated yourself to a new enlightenment. You’ve gone far beyond the simple level of concentration. Now, you have entered the final stages of meditation which is called contemplation. This part of the final stage of meditation is the very best level of consciousness that your mind and body can enter.

 

Understanding Contemplation

Contemplation is the final level of meditation. In this state of mind, virtually anything and everything is possible. Yet not many can understand what contemplation is without experiencing it.

During contemplation, you enter an entirely new world of thought and mind. Instead of thinking about yourself and your own problems, you are now connected with the entire universe. Here, your body and your own mind are let go. Now, you are experiencing a level of consciousness that allows you to connect with the cosmos.

You realize now that you are part of a much grander scheme of things. You know that you are just one small part of a very large world. But, the key to contemplation is the ability to become united with all of this.

When you obtain this highest level of meditation, you enter into the state of Realization of Cosmic Consciousness. Now, you have entered into a very enlightened, meaningful and completely connected level.

Those that practice meditation know that this stage of being, of being in the highest form of meditation is what you should be experiencing. In fact, most believe it is something that you are born with the need and ability to accomplish. 

The process of meditation is rather drawn out, but each stage in the game is something that must be fully understood if you are to find yourself experiencing all that it can offer.

Look at the way that your mind works today, right now. How does it feel? Are you thinking about this book, reading it, but have the commercials from the television drawn you in? Or, are the kids bellowing for you? Each time that you face a distraction, your mind is pulled in another direction making it nearly impossible for you to focus and to obtain true meditation.

Yet, this is something that you can learn. In fact, it is something that you are born with the ability to achieve and even given the right to obtain. Allow yourself just a few minutes a day to work towards total enlightenment with meditation and you’ll find yourself in a completely different frame of mind.

As a beginner, don’t let the process of meditation worry you. The fact is that it is easy to understand and fully something you can obtain.

Wait! What Will Meditation Do for Me?

If explaining to you what medication is happens to not be enough for you to dive right into it then consider what meditation can do for you by what it does for others. Meditation is something you should consider, and these are just a handful of reasons why.

The largest and most profound benefit of meditation is reaching enlightenment through the Contemplation phase of meditating. Achieving this allows you to become a whole new person, one that has the ability to live a full and happy life beyond that of what a person dealing with only “normal” brain activity can.

You can learn to be more compassionate. You’ll learn how to become a good person. You can learn to be more understanding, more interesting, and more educated. You’ll also become a person that is able to enjoy their life to the fullest, knowing what is out there and what role they play in that universe.

When you can fully reach this state of being and of consciousness, the fact is that you can transform yourself and experience true Grace.

 

Benefits You Experience

In addition to this, there are additional benefits that can come from meditation. Here are some of the many benefits your experience.

• Meditation allows you to focus, allowing you to accomplish your tasks in a better method as well as faster.

• Meditation allows you to improve your level of stress. By reducing stress, you will make better decisions and fully handle problems effectively.

• Meditation allows you to communicate more effectively, through more defined words that ultimately lead you to a better realm.

• Meditation allows you to improve your health including helps to improve heart conditions, cancer risks, high blood pressure and plenty of other conditions. By lowering stress levels on the body, you can heal faster and more effectively from any of these experiences.

• Meditation allows you to be a better friend and family member. Through the dedication of those around you, you all can become enlightened and therefore on a higher realm of being.

• Meditation promotes health of the mind, too. By allowing your mind to enter this improved state, you can create for yourself an amazing of being, which allows you to think clearer. It helps to keep your mind sharp.

• Meditation allows you to become the real you, the one that you want to be, rather than the person that is held captive by the world around them. If you meditate, you can learn quite a bit about yourself as well as the world around you!

There are many more benefits to meditation. For each person, this experience is going to be quite unique. If you wish to find out what it can offer you, you must learn to meditate. There is nothing negative that can come of meditation and what’s more there is quite a bit of good that can come out from it.

The Types of Meditation

As you will learn the further you look into meditation, there are many different types of meditation. Some are very ancient methods that have been used for thousands of years by various cultures. Others are much more modern and, in such, are sometimes more popular. Yet, learning about these types is something you should invest in.

Finding the right type of meditation for you is key and the process means educating yourself about the various types of meditation that you can select from.

Yet, all of these methods of meditation will fall into one of two different classifications. If you were to select meditation on any sole factors, it would be based on these two methods available.

Thoroughly exploring both of these methods of meditation can be very important to finding success. You’ll need to experiment with both types, eventually, to determine the bet route for you to take.

Concentrative Meditation

The first type of meditation is that of concentrative meditation. In this type of meditation, the focus is on the way that you breathe, on an image, or on a sound. Sound, or mantra, is often used. By using these tools, so to speak, you are able to clear the mind and allow for greater awareness as well as clarity.

To focus on meditation, you’ll use one of these elements to help you to focus. By focusing on it, like you would a camera lens, you can then effectively reach the state that you are in.

Breathing

One method of concentrative meditation that is commonly used is that of concentrating on your breathing. It is probably the simplest of methods to use because you can do it any time without much need.

Breathing is effective because of how it plays a role in your daily life and wellbeing. Many of those that practice other alternative medicines, such as yoga, also believe that breathing is essential to maintaining the correct state of mind. In meditation, it is believed that breathing must be regulated in order to meditate properly.

You can see this clearly in your everyday life without considering meditation at all. When you are relaxed and comfortable, your breathing is slowly and deeper. But, when you are worried, stressed or anxious, your breathing speeds up. If you are distracted, this happens as well. By regulating your breathing, you can focus your mind and gain control over it more effectively.

But, how does breathing effect meditation? Have you ever felt overwhelmed and anxious? Where you afraid or even terrified? If so, then you may have told yourself to take a deep breath and to calm down. As you can see, you can control your own breathing.

As a tool in meditation in the concentrative methods, you can gain control over your mind using breathing. To do this, you must regulate the breathing. To do this, you’ll need to focus on the rhythm of your breathing. The rhythm is the movement between inhaling and exhaling.

When you do this, sit and close your eyes. Focus on your breathing, the movement of air in and out of your body. You’ll need to concentrate on that breathing and only the breathing you are doing.

Soon, your meditation on breathing will become something that helps to ease your mind. You’ll see this as your breathing becomes more regular and then deeper and slower.

When this happens, your mind too is changing. It becomes quiet, calm and collected. You’ll feel serenity and peace. You are also more aware of your surroundings and more likely to gain the benefits of meditation.

Breathing is just one example of concentrative meditation. There are many other forms, some of which we will talk about later in this book. Yet, remember that there is another type of method of meditation that accompanies concentrative meditation as the two forms that all methods and techniques of meditation fall under.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindful meditation is quite unlike that of concentrative. If we use the example of a lens to help show the difference, you can see this. In concentrative meditation, you are concentrating on one single thing, focusing the lens on that one element, like breathing or something in the room that you are in.

On the other hand, is mindfulness meditation. Here, you are not focusing your lens, but widening it to include more and more information.

You may wonder just how including more of what is happening in any one moment can help you to collect your thoughts and focus your mind. Yet, the fact is that you can do this because of how you do it.

Using your abilities, you’ll become very much aware of everything around you including all of your feelings, the things that you see, the things you hear, the smells and sounds, the very elements that you may want to filter out of your mind.

From here, though, something is unique. You’ll notice and be mindful of these things, but you will not react to them. Instead, you are simply taking in whatever is happening in your mind. Don’t become overly involved with these elements. You won’t allow for images, thoughts, or memories to filter into your mind here as they do when you are concentrating.

Because, you are not becoming involved with the images and elements that are filtering through your mind; you actually calm down. Your mind is now clearer because it has taken in many of the things that are happening around you.

You aren’t focusing in on any one thing. Instead, you are aware of everything going on, but not participating in it.

Although this method of meditation is one that is less well known and used by beginners because of how challenging it can be, it is still an ideal choice because it allows for a renewed sense of being and wholeness. By focusing on everything but not on one single thing, you can clear your mind fully.

All types of meditation fall in one of these groups. You will either use methods that are concentrative, in which you will concentrate on one thing to enter into a meditative state or you will use a mindfulness meditation method to enter this state.

For those that are looking towards these methods and wondering which to choose, don’t. You can use both types of meditation to gain benefits and sometimes one method will work better than others will. With the ability to learn either type, you’ll be that much better at meditation that fits what you are doing and what your body and mind needs at any one time.