Meditation. A what and how to guide.
The word meditation is an often misinterpreted word. Many believe it to be a word for simply daydreaming, others think of it as a word for thinking of nothing. The fact is meditation is neither of these.
Meditation is an ancient practice, carried out by human beings for thousands and thousands of years. There are numerous health benefits associated with the practice which have been known for a long time, but have only recently been proven through western science.
So the big question. What is Meditation? You know when you watch television, you aren’t really thinking of anything but what is on the television, well meditation is pretty much the total opposite. Instead of being distracted from yourself as we are with cell phones, laptops, television, games consoles etc. meditation takes you back into yourself. It allows for a thing called self reflection where you effectively dive into your thoughts and feelings. In doing so you develop a greater understanding of your body and mind, you realize and release any underlying issues you may have and gives you a chance to escape from your hectic life and reflect upon it.
People first practicing meditation can often find it difficult, especially when they are stressed or feeling angry. The mind is your greatest barrier, as with anything in life. Your mind can often be unruly, wanting to think of other things rather than self reflection. Our minds are lazy and its default setting is to take the easiest possible path. To beat this you must be strong, you must focus and you must believe.
Where to begin?
There are thousands upon thousands of meditation techniques used all around the world in various different cultures and religions. For me the most simple meditative practice I use with my clients at boot camps and personal training sessions in Northampton focuses on the 7 main chakras. What I do, and what I get my clients to do is imagine a ball of sunlight that slowly moves up the body. This sun warms the body, relaxes the muscles and removes all of the negative energy and fills it with positive energy. Each breath in is deep and brings with it positivity, beauty and love. Each breath out removes negativity, hate, jealousy, stress and pain. To many of you this is sounding pretty far out, don’t worry I thought that to but gave it a go anyway and it felt amazing!
Move your focus and the sun slowly up from the base of your spine; the root, up to the sacral (2 inches below the belly button), then up to the solar plexus (2 inches above the belly button), then to the heart, then the throat, then slowly up to the third eye (between your eyebrows) and then finally out to your crown (2 inches above your head). Take your time and feel your worries and tightness simply melt away. Try and make this practice last around 20 minutes, but any amount of minutes will do. Perform this each day for optimal results.
Stay tuned for an article on the benefits of meditation.
Liam Phillips
Primal Human Needs