Meditation for beginners
November 2022
Meditation For Beginners
By Darshan Goswami
Darshan Goswami guides beginners on how to meditate and bring
happiness in their lives by relieving stress and diseases associated with it.
In today’s fast-paced busy lifestyle, many of us feel anxious, tired, frustrated, and overextended.
It’s difficult to find a balance and take some time out to relax and do the things we enjoy. If we don’t find a way to relax and rejuvenate, stress levels tend to build. This can then have an ill effect on our health. If you want to feel more relaxed, happy, and calm throughout your day, meditation can help achieve the inner peace you need.
Meditation is a practice that has been around for centuries. Steps on learning how to meditate properly for beginners are very easy. Meditation is one of the easiest and life
changing skills that could help in relaxing the mind and body. It also helps in enhancing a person’s understanding of his body, thus developing the potential skills of the mind. Becoming enlightened, or Self-realisation, is perhaps the main objective of meditation. It lets us unravel things spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.
For a beginner, the most important thing to know at the early stage is that meditation is not something that you can measure in terms of success or failure. The very first step in learning how to meditate is to clear your mind. Meditation practice is a lifelong journey that can be used to focus and train your mind to experience a more peaceful and calm mode of consciousness. Many people mistakenly think that they are failing at meditation because thoughts arise in their mind when they try it. This is perfectly normal.
For a beginner, several easy methods can be used to learn meditation. Following are some of the popular ways to meditate:
Breathing Meditation: Conscious diaphrag matic breathing is a great way to meditate for beginners. It is extremely relaxing to the auto nomic nervous system and a powerful weapon against stress, depression, and anxiety.
Mantra Meditation: The person simply repeats a sentence or group of words that have a pho netic significance to attract positive energies. Transcendental Meditation (TM): TM is a technique for avoiding distracting thoughts and promoting a state of relaxed awareness. The person repeats a single word or phrase
called a mantra and is taught to allow other thoughts and feelings to pass.
Mindfulness Meditation: This is one of the oldest forms of Buddhist meditation. A typi cal meditation consists of the person focussing their full attention on their breath as it flows in and out of their body. Focussing on each breath in this way allows one to observe thoughts as they arise in the mind and, little by little, to let go of struggling with them. One comes to realise that thoughts come and go of their own accord; that they are not their thoughts. More and more psychologists recommend mindful
ness meditation because it is a very effective natural treatment for stress reduction, depres sion, anxiety, and other emotional difficulties.
Guided Meditation: The person learns medi tation with the help of a guide or meditation teacher or by listening to a guided meditation recording.
Walking Meditation: The person can meditate while they are on the move. One can turn the simple act of walking into a tranquil, medita tive experience.
Imagery Meditation: The technique involves the use of visualisations to tailor one’s medi tation to achieve specific outcomes, from heal ing to stress relief, personal development, and much more.
Chakra Meditation: This meditation focusses on the energy centres in the body and can be as long or short as one would like, depending on the time one spends on each element. This method uses specific visualisations to open and cleanse the seven major energy centres in the body. Chakra Meditation is an excellent way to recharge your body, mind, and soul to revitalise you from the inside out.
Meditation for Beginners
Meditation is an effortless experience; it requires no exertion. For some people, this is an unexpected realisation. Meditation for begin ners could be pretty simple and can be taught in a few steps. However, the execution may seem to be difficult at the beginning because it’s not easy to train your mind. It could be sim ple enough to empty your mind of thoughts, but to prevent them from coming back is a lot harder than you would ever expect. Let’s look at the easy way to learn how to meditate.
The most common meditation technique for beginners is the focussed conscious diaphragmatic breathing method. Sit or lie comfortably while focussing on the sound of your breathing. Close your eyes and turn your attention to your breathing, keeping its rhythm constant. While focussing on your breathing, you may find random thoughts suddenly coming into your mind. Simply brush them aside and return to the sound of your breathing. Concentration is very vital for meditation. Concentrate on your breathing and feel the tension in the body disappear. Meditating with eyes closed can be challenging for a beginner. Lighting a candle and using it as your point of focus allows you to strengthen your attention with a visual cue.
As your conscious mind begins to let go, you will feel your body relaxing and you may experience tingling sensations, indicating that you are getting deep into your relaxation. Let this wonderful, relaxing feeling spread across your whole body.
Some tips for Beginners
• Set aside a regular time for your meditation. • Find a clean, quiet place, where you will not be disturbed. Make sure that phones, the television, etc. are turned off.
• Wear comfortable clothes and put yourself in a comfortable position.
• Warm up and stretch a little bit by doing some yoga postures or pranayama.
• Sit down in a comfortable position, relax, and rest your hands on your lap. Your back, neck, and head should remain straight. You may feel best cross-legged on the floor, in a straight-backed chair, or lying down on a comfortable surface. Regardless of how you sit, it’s important to maintain the natural curve of your back.
• Breathe slowly and deeply and focus on relaxing your body. Close your eyes softly. Begin by taking a few slow and deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling from your nose with your mouth closed. Don’t force your breathing. Let it come naturally. The first few intakes of air are likely to be shallow, but as you allow more air to fill your lungs each time, your breaths will gradually become deeper and fuller. Your breathing will eventually slow down and become deeper. This, in turn, will relax your muscles and reduce your heart rate.
Focussed diaphragmatic breathing works well for beginners
• Keep bringing your attention back to your
breathing gently. Take as long as you need to breathe slowly and deeply.
• Be aware and centre your attention on your breathing. When you are breathing deeply, you’ll begin to feel calmer and more relaxed. Continue focussing on your breath for as long as you like. As you develop greater focus power, you will find it easier to concentrate.
• Practise the above for 10–15 minutes every day. Meditate first thing in the morning, as your mind is peaceful and relaxed.
• When you are ready to end the session, open your eyes and stand up slowly. Stretch yourself and extend your increased awareness to your next activities. You’ve done meditation!
Make a commitment to meditate daily. Over time, you will enjoy the benefits of deeper consciousness and awareness, which increases happiness, decreases stress, and provides overall wellness.
Many health experts have recommended medi tation as a part of our daily routine to give time for some quiet moments. It offers many health
benefits that can change a person’s life, solve problems, and help attain a greater level of life satisfaction. Meditation practice can take you inside for an out-of-the-world experience.
Daily meditation can help in improving one’s health and breathing, balance the mind, and create a surge in mood-stabilising chemicals and hormones such as serotonin. Many health experts have proven its amazing benefits to the body, mind, and soul. It is one of the most ef
ficient ways to relieve stress-related diseases, decrease heart rate and blood pressure, lower metabolic rate and cholesterol, and increase the body’s energy levels, thus relieving tired
ness. It is like a pill that takes away all the pain that life gives.
Even popular celebrities, athletes, and per sonalities are into meditation because of the benefits that it brings to the body and mind. As little as five minutes of deep breathing is enough to lower blood pressure, ease muscle tension, and boost immunity.
Darshan Goswami, has more than 40 years of experience in the energy field. He worked as a project manager for Renewable Energy, Micro-grid and Smart Grid projects at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in Pittsburgh. He is an electrical engineer with a passion and commitment to promote and develop renewable sources of energy. and the Hydrogen Economy. Dedicating his life to serving humanity and poor people, the author supports India Foundation for Children Education and Care, Inc. (http://www.ifcare.org/).
We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article.
Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net