We live in an extremely anxious society today. That’s why people have been looking for different ways to deal with stress and anxiety. The causes for those vary from the feeling of belonging up to family, traumatic, sociological, governmental and political issues.
Everything nowadays has contributed to people feeling anxiety and stress. So, if you are feeling overwhelmed, this article is for you.
Who can practice Mindfulness Meditation?
Anyone can practice Mindfulness Meditation. It’s indicated for anyone who wants to get rid of their stress.
This type of meditation has been used in different parts of the world since it became popular. It has been really popular in Hollywood.
The Mindfulness Meditation started to get famous after famous gurus in the United States started to introduce this type of meditation alongside with yoga. It became totally popular and people fell in love with it.
What do I need to do Mindfulness Meditation?
You don’t need anything but comfortable clothes. Although there are several ways to do meditation, you will not need any specific gear to be able to do it.
You can just lie down in a place where you feel comfortable, buy a yoga mat, and sit in the lotus position or stand in a way that your spine is straight and you don’t feel uncomfortable.
It needs to be a quiet environment, without too many external sounds that can disturb you. It’s also essential that you use a place where you can feel at peace, as silent as possible.
Before the meditation begins, you need to prepare your body and mind. So look for the place in your home where you feel the most relaxed in. It will make all the difference.
You always have the option of wearing comfortable and baggy clothes, so avoid tight clothing. Especially in the waist area, it can hinder your breathing and make your body tense.
Any discomfort can hinder you from reaching a satisfactory level of relaxation. Not to mention that meditation also involves breathing, so your lungs and diaphragm need freedom.
Is it hard to meditate?
The first thing you should understand about meditation is that it happens in some stages. In the beginning, it can be very stressful to learn it. When a person is quiet, they are unlikely to be able to be silent easily.
So understand that it may take a while for you to get used to it. Generally, in the first experiences, there is a greater difficulty in reaching a state of relaxation, and you might also take longer to achieve mental silencing.
The first thing that happens are negative thoughts going up in your head, such as the ones involving the garbage you didn’t take out, something you have to do right after it and any kind of responsibility or fear.
It is usually at this point that you try to clean your mind and practice some mental processes. Look at the situation patiently. Have you ever stopped to think that you have this great range of ideas all the time on automatic mode and you never notice it?
That is the first step for you to understand the state of your mental processes. You need to find a way for your mind to follow your body. If you have a busy routine, it can be more difficult.
When you try to meditate, your mind is still racing, so be patient. Meditation is extremely important, as it can teach you how to become a more peaceful person.
Why is meditation important?
The practice of meditation has been linked to a significant improvement in concentration, low stress, reduced blood pressure, reduced likelihood of heart problems.
It also showed improvement in breathing problems, such as allergies, as well as the release of feel-good hormones and hormonal regularization, among many other things that are extremely beneficial for those who practice it.
Just understand that we have an average of 40,000 thoughts daily. Your mind can only process 3% of it. This excessive mental waste can be extremely dangerous to an individual’s psychological and mental health.
Mindfulness Meditation teaches you how to practice silence and how to silence your mind. In a world so agitated that it forces us to have an agitated mind, this is a real blessing.
Step by step on how to meditate
In order for you to do the Mindfulness Meditation, we will offer you an important step by step so that you can do it in the best way. So here are some tips for you to do a complete meditation. Shall we?
Look for a comfortable place
The first thing you need to do is finding a comfortable place. Search in your home which place you feel the best in. Don’t forget that it’s important to keep an upright posture. Get rid of noises, distractions and anything that can disturb your silence. You can do it while lying down or sitting, as long as you feel good.
Wear comfortable clothing
It is important that you choose the right clothes to be able to meditate. So choose an outfit that is also relaxing. Don’t wear any tight clothing. Choose large blouses and cotton shorts. Avoid jeans, tight gym pants or any type of clothing that reduces your breathing or circulatory capacity.
Look for a guided Mindfulness Meditation
You now need to look for a guided Mindfulness Meditation. One of the best recommendations for this is on YouTube. You can type it in the search bar and you will find several types. If you are still a beginner, look for the shorter videos. There are 10-minute meditations.
In the beginning, it is preferable that you are guided by a voice. It can be very difficult, initially, for you to reach an state of silence of the mind while alone.
Enjoy the moment
Despite having many responsibilities and chores, try to seize the moment. Take your phone away or put it on silent; this will be important. A simple notification can distract you and disturb you, creating a process of anxiety.
So keep in mind that this is your moment and it can’t be wasted in any way. Make sure you are connected with your present. The Mindfulness Meditation is intimately connected to the idea that you are totally in the present. That is the intention of it.
Don’t be afraid of your emotions
When you meditate, it is normal to try to silence many thoughts in your mind as soon as they show up. Probably many of them will act as triggers for bad feelings, such as stress, sadness, anxiety or restlessness.
Although your automatic thinking pattern is to block them, that is not the best way. If any negative thoughts show up, let them go over you until they are gone. It may seem confusing at first, but you will understand that it does happen.
The more you try to avoid a thought, the more you will think about it. Isn’t that obvious? No. But most of the time, we are not aware of it.
For example, if you feel very anxious about a task that you want to do after your meditation, let that anxiety arrive. Feel the nuances of all this worrying, talk to it, explain that everything will be okay because you already have everything under control, then let it go.
At first, getting negative thinking through you can be difficult, so try having positive conversations.
Feel grateful
One of the best ways for you to connect with the energy of the Mindfulness Meditation is to work on your gratitude. Gratitude, like any other type of thinking, needs to be trained.
You are not going to wake up one day and just become a grateful person. If you have mental processes that sabotage you and make you feel impaired in some way, it can be difficult for you to simply feel some kind of gratitude.
That’s why it’s extremely necessary that you understand that practice leads to perfection. Start thinking about things that make you feel grateful about. Start to enumerate them and, with time, you will realize that there are many more things to be thankful for than things you feel bad for not having.
Positive thinking is a rational practice, not something that comes from the wind. So don’t expect sudden changes; it requires improvement.
Try eating a Mindfulness meal
One of the most interesting ways to practice the Mindfulness Meditation is through a meal.
Considering that one of the Mindfulness Meditation’s goals is to bring you into the present, there’s nothing more interesting than using something to bring your attention to the present.
When eating a meal, pay attention to details, colors, noise and every bite. Start to pay attention to sounds around you, take your phone away, don’t eat near a television or a radio.
Be extremely and 100% in the present. This is one of the easiest experiences for people that are just starting – and the most effective one too.
After developing this habit, you will feel a big difference. Our meals tend to be damaged because we eat without feeling it and without being present at the moment. This will also help you a lot in case of binge eating.
Mindfulness Meditation Benefits
- Improvement of academic performance and concentration: Meditating makes you become a more focused person. This can dramatically improve your ability to study and to be aware of things around you. This can even improve your job performance
- Help with binge eating: Meditating can also help you regarding binge eating, especially if you make some use of the Mindfulness Meditation during meals. This will make you feel more present, so you can analyze how much you are eating. This can help you a lot in relation to weight loss and self-conscious eating.
- Stress reduction: Meditation is able to dramatically reduce the body’s stress levels. Nowadays, people generally have chronic stress. They are so used to it that they don’t even realize how stressed they are. Meditation is very effective against it. It will make the person feel calmer and this can even reduce the risk of more serious problems.
- Improved brain function: Meditation can improve the way the brain performs its daily processes. That is due to the reduction of excessive thoughts, so the brain is able to rest and not be in a stressful state.
- Increases immunity: One of the most incredible benefits of this meditation is the improvement of the immunologic system of those who practice it. Mindfulness Meditation creates such a profound process of tranquility so profound that it eliminates the excessive production of stress hormones like cortisol. This causes the person’s immune system to remain balanced and strengthened, which is something we know that stress can prevent.
