Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed. – Saint Francis de Sales
Meditation is one of those practices that everyone recommends for everything. And there is a good reason for this. It’s a highly versatile practice that doesn’t require any additional equipment and can have a powerful impact on your life. Many people describe it as transformational.
What exactly is meditation? It’s a practice of paying full attention to something, be it a mantra or your breath. Of course, there is the possibility of going much deeper with it, but this is what it is on the surface. For many people, it’s a spiritual practice, however, it doesn’t have to be. It’s uniquely open to almost anyone with a desire to try it out.
There are many well-documented and well-studied benefits of meditation. It appears to improve physical and mental health and contributes to well-being. It can open new dimensions in your mind and allow you to develop new ways of thinking, believing, and being.
Meditation affords you more control over your inner states. It enables awareness of what’s going on with you and how you are feeling, what you experience and how you can get it under control. Meditation is not a magic solution but it does teach you to experience your emotions in a different way, without being overwhelmed by them.
Meditation can let you access new states of consciousness and provides a deeper insight into your own mind. It also gives you the opportunity to open new ways of seeing things. You become an observer of your innermost thoughts and feelings and can look at them from a new perspective.
Some types of meditation have specific goals, such as cultivating a mindset of gratitude, loving kindness, or mindfulness. It adds a layer onto your meditation practice and allows you to also open new ways of seeing the world, yourself, and others. For instance, the loving kindness meditation can do a lot to help you recognize others in a positive light, see yourself with compassion, and extend this compassion to the people around you.
Overall, meditation is something most people benefit from, and it’s worth trying. You don’t have to clear your mind to practice meditation, just attempt to keep your focus on something specific and when your mind drifts, bring it back. That’s enough! Try meditation as a key that will open your mind to new insights.
