The benefits of meditation

Meditation has been a huge subject of consideration for the last 50 years. Hence, with the birth of the New Age movement, everybody is now accustomed to hearing about the benefits of daily meditation on the mind, body, and soul.

Nevertheless, one often remains powerless in front of the idea of meditating. What kind of meditation (transcendental, dynamic, tantric, etc.) is good, and for whom? How to find the time to do it each day? How to stick to the practice? Many questions that tend to inhibit, at the end of the day, the first impulse towards the practice of meditation.

The thing is that there’s no need to sit for hours to experience the power of meditation, neither does one need to follow one particular technique or method for meditating. Above all, since meditation is a way to get in contact with yourself, you decide what’s good for you; you are your own guru.

The only idea that one might first consider is that our feelings and emotions are the filters through which we experience life. Like a mirror would reflect one’s frowning or smiling face, one has to modify the expression of his/her face first to see it reflected in the mirror. Our inner state, in other words, tends to determine the way we respond to external circumstances in our life.

Here are some tips to help everyone get in a state of calm and relaxation in less than 5 minutes:

• find a comfortable position (either lay down or sit) and close your eyes
• take one deep breath, count for 3 seconds and on 4, hold your breath, on 5, exhale
• repeat it 3 times

  -Next, imagine yourself surrounded by pure white light. Breathe that light inside your body, let    it penetrate every cell and wash away all worries, negative feelings, and emotions.

Breathe in the light, breathe out any thought, feeling and sensation that you would like to let go of.

-Do it as many times as it takes to sense an openness, a sense of relief inside the body.

-Open your eyes and start your day knowing that you just gaved yourself one of the most beautiful treats one can wish.

This is a very simple yet powerful exercise, highly useful in times of stress or challenge, or when one has to make an important decision that requires a clear mind. This exercise tends to quiet the stream of thoughts in our head, put the attention back into the body, reduce stress and anxiety, and eventually bring peace and clarity. With 5 minutes of daily meditation, one can enjoy tremendous improvements in the quality of one’s inner state in terms of focus and calm. Reaching that state every day invariably impacts one’s external conditions.

As we begin to discover this power within ourselves, we begin to see life in a slightly different way, understanding that the changes we want to make in our lives start within ourselves.

Because there can be no change apart from us, as Mahatma Gandhi said, start through meditation by being “the change you want to see in the world”.

By Christina You

Africa Global News Publication