Meditation is aimed to create stillness and presence within ourselves. When we meditate we are connecting with ourselves, we are listening, we are receiving. We are coming back into our bodies, connecting with and integrating mind, body and spirit which is the true essence of being human.
Different meditation techniques
There are different ways to go about meditating. The most common and effective way to meditate independently is to adopt a mantra or a sutra. To keep this agnostic of religion, a mantra in this context is not taken from any book or scriptures.
A mantra means:
- has no syntactic structure or literal meaning
A sutra means:
- is a word that contains meaning that is something we want to bring into our lives by repeating the word.
The most important is to keep the mantra / sutra to a word or a short phrase, whether the word or phrase has a specific meaning or not during meditation.
There are also facilitated forms of meditation where someone guides the session that is focused on a specific topic, aimed to achieve a specific result.
You can also apply a specific focus or topic into your meditation when practicing independently.
Meditation and thoughts
You will never free of thoughts completely during meditation. Thoughts will come up for you all the time while you are meditating. Simply acknowledge the thought(s) that come up and get back to your practice. If you are not meditating regularly you will have more thoughts for sure. The more you practice the more stillness and connection you will experience. As you get more advanced in your technique and practice or can establish a daily frequency, you will find that you are able to maintain longer periods of complete silence and stillness during your meditation. Initially you might have a minute or less of silence and then your mind will start racing. That is completely ok. That is how it is when you start out.
Benefits of meditation
If you meditate frequently and for a period of time (months, years) you will be able to achieve the following benefits:
- bring that silence, stillness, presence and peace into your daily life while you are going about your daily activities
- be less negatively impacted by all the environmental activities and people around you
- maintain your own space and presence more effectively throughout the day.
Meditation creates a harmonious balance between mind, body and spirit that supports a healthy, peaceful and happy life.