How And Why To Meditate? (Quick Guide)

(Photos credit: Pixabay, colage created with BeFunky)

I started practicing meditation 8 years ago. In the first 2 years, I did it constantly, almost every day. After that, with pauses. But somehow, I always go back to the practice because I love the benefits. But first, here's a step by step, intro-level guide on how to meditate and then we'll go through the benefits of meditation.

• find a place to be alone for 10 minutes; it's important not to be disturbed
• sit down (either on a chair, on the couch or on the ground); the idea is to keep your back straight
• close your eyes
• focus on your breathing
• breathe deep, into your belly
• on the inhale, count to 4
• on the exhale, count to 8

During the meditation practice, your mind will begin to wonder. That's perfectly OK. Gently bring your focus back on the breathing. Repeat the practice for 2 weeks, once in the morning and once in the evening. What will happen in time, if you keep doing this? Check out the list below.

The benefits of meditation

It relaxes the mind and you don't get worried very easily

Your ability to focus on one thing at a time becomes laser-like, even when the environment you're in might might usually be distractive

It helps with controlling impulsive behavior. This means better self control over personal reactions, which increases self confidence

It increases your ability to observe your thoughts and internal dialogoue without judgement, reaction or labeling or attachment

Over time the practice brings forth more moments of inner peace; that's because the mind gets used to the peaceful moments during the meditation and starts accessing them more often

It becomes easier to access creative thinking

It helps you become more aware of your own emotional states. Why is this good? Increased awarenes helps breaking reactive behaviors

You become more connected to your intuition

It becomes easier to fall asleep

It makes you more aware of what is going on around you, in the moment, instead of thinking about the past and worrying about the future

It makes you more calm and forgiving in traffic

You become more understanding and forgiving with those people who might wrong you

Through constant practice, you build up better discipline

You develop better self control in tense situations

You start attracting quality people in your life, because your overall energy shifts

You become more grateful for everything that life has to offer, even if it's not perfect

So this was the quick intro. There are countless forms of meditation, like

1. OSHO's dynamic meditation
2. guided meditation
3. walking meditation

But all methods boil down to training your focus, the end result being conscious control of where your attention is going. And no, you don't have to convert into a buddhist monk to do this or change religions. The only downside is that meditation doesn't teach you how to levitate (bummer)...