How And When to Do Meditation According To The Experts
You see the bags under your eyes.
You’re so busy that you’ve stopped exercising, started choosing fast food drive-throughs more than the produce section of the grocery store, and you’ve been sleeping horribly.
At times, it feels like it’s hard to breathe due to the stress.
You’ve heard meditating can help you manage stress and clear your mind. You also hear it’s good for your health.
What you’re wondering is when and how to do meditation. This guide will share when the best time to meditate is as well as some simple tips to start your meditation practice.
Benefits of Meditation
According to Dr. Mathhew Thorpe, there are 12 scientific benefits of meditation — meditation can be both physically and emotionally beneficial.
Knowing there are so many benefits to meditation makes it hard to walk away from learning more about meditation, and learning how and where to meditate.
Benefit 1: Stress-Reliever
One of the biggest benefits of meditation is it drastically reduces your stress level. Everybody has some sort of stress in their life.
Instead of turning to an unhealthy habit, like drinking alcohol or overeating, to reduce your stress level, meditation might be exactly what you’re looking for.
How Does Meditation Help Stress?
When you get stressed out, your body releases a stress hormone called cortisol. This stress hormone can cause all sorts of problems inside your body.
Cloudy thinking, disruption of sleep, high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety are a few of the side effects of cortisol.
Studies show that meditation can reduce stress and studies also show that meditation can reduce the symptoms of stress-related conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and PTSD.
Benefit 2: Physical Benefits
When you think about meditation, you might be thinking it’s all about your mind. While it’s true that meditation can help with mindfulness and emotional health, meditation also has physical benefits.
What Sort of Physical Benefits Can You Get From Meditation?
Forbes says studies show that meditation can make physical changes to your brain. These physical changes to the brain create emotional stability, reduce stress, and so much more — all relating to the physical health of your body — and one of the most important organs in your body — your brain!
Benefit 3: Understanding Ourselves & Consciousness
Meditation helps us to better understand ourselves so we can create the best version of ourselves.
How Does Meditation Help Us Understand Ourselves?
Different forms of meditation exist that specifically promote self-awareness. These types of meditation help to understand yourself better and better understand how you relate to others.
Meditation can help you identify negative affirmations — negative things you tell yourself — and turn them into positive affirmations.
Maybe every time your spouse shares an idea with you, you respond with everything that could go wrong with his idea. You tell yourself you’re a negative person because it seems to be all that spews out of your mouth.
What is really happening?
What you’re really doing is protecting yourself and your family.
What if you reframed the negative affirmation to be a positive affirmation?
“I am thoughtful and I take care of myself and my family,” is a way to reframe a negative affirmation into a positive affirmation.
Studies show that meditation improves self-esteem, reduces feelings of loneliness, and can create more creative problem-solving skills.
How To Meditate Depends on the Person
The good news is that meditation is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The great news is that there are different ways to meditate, which means you can find a way that you are comfortable with and that works for you.
There’s Not One “Best Way To Meditate”
Since there are so many different ways to meditate: transcendental meditation, breathing meditation, walking meditation, and the list goes on and one from here.
One particular type of meditation might not be the best option for you. If one type of meditation is not working for you then you can try out another method.
Some meditations might be better for different situations. Let’s take a look at how some of the experts meditate.
How Does Wim Hof Meditate?
Wim Hof focuses his meditation on breathing exercises. Wim Hof finds a quiet place to focus on his breathing as a way to meditate and clear his mind.
How Does The Dalai Lama Meditate?
The Dalai Lama focuses his meditation on mindfulness. He suggests you find a “natural state of your consciousness.” He teaches that your natural state of consciousness affects your relationships with others.
How Does Dr. Joe Dispenza Meditate?
There are four main types of meditation: walking, seated, standing, and laying down. Dr. Joe Dispenza practices all four types of meditation.
While he teaches and practices all four types of meditation, he created a walking and standing meditation. Dr. Joe believes people who consciously meditate do so in a sitting or lying down position.
He created a meditation his students can take “on the go” so they can meditate while walking.
Basic Meditation Tips To Get Started
As a beginner, the best place to start with meditation is with the basics. You don’t have to have a fancy meditation outfit or specific gear. You can start out by sitting with your thoughts and focusing on your breathing.
Close your eyes, slowly breathing in and out, in and out. If your thoughts wander, make a note of it, and then redirect your thoughts back to your breathing.
As you focus on your breathing, begin a “body scan.” Start with your head. While you continue to breathe in and out, in and out, focus on the feelings and sensations you have in your head. Once you’ve noted these sensations, move on to the next part of your body — the neck.
Continue this body scan until you reach your feet.
Where Should You Meditate?
Ideally, you want to meditate in a quiet and relaxing environment, avoiding stressful areas, such as your office. As you get better and better at meditating, however, you’ll notice that you can meditate anywhere (and anytime), even in places where there are distractions and noise and are not the “perfect setting.”
Download a free meditation daily planner from Clarity Council™.
