The Beginners Guide To Meditation
Meditation is well-known to be beneficial not only to our psychological health but neurological and physiological health, hence improving our well-being, productivity, and quality of life.
But what is meditation in the first place?
You can find all sorts of definitions out there. But to me,
Meditation is a mental practice (or training) focusing on virtues to obtain inner peace or other healthy states of mind.
First, we get to recognize that our minds are good at focusing.
For example, we could be mad at our partner all day and carry the anger with us for years! We don't need more practice on such a single-pointed focus. Instead, we want to focus on the virtues that serve us: loving-kindness, patience, and wisdom.
However, when our mind is occupied with frustrations and turbulence, we will have too little SPACE for wisdom, love, and compassion.
So it makes sense that we first clear the clutter of the mind, just like clearing the bugs or removing apps in your phone before you upgrade it with new features so it can run smoothly and sharp.
Instead of focusing on a specific theme of thoughts, such as cultivating patience or accpetance, we may use breathing as an anchor to focus during the meditation. The key is that other thoughts will subside when you concentrate on breathing. And when the thoughts subside, you feel peaceful.
Just like if you stop stirring the sand in the water, the sand will subside, and the water will become clear.
So lets' start from the basics and do a breathing meditation together.
Sit comfortably on a chair or a mat.
Decide on the virtue to concentrate on. In this case, breathing is the “virtue.” It is not a virtue in itself, but it acts as a precondition.
Set a timer of a designated time (start small if you first meditate, say 5 or 10mins) and be determined to focus solely on your breathing.
Set intention: Dedicate this 5 or 10 min to training your mind. Your goal is to gain inner peace from within, which is the natural source of happiness. And enjoy this time no matter what.
Turn yourself inwards by disregarding your surrounding. Settle for a while.
Then turn your attention to the sensation of breathing in and out. Pick the area which you feel easier to concentrate on, e.g., the nostril or the rise and fall of the chest or abdomen.
Keep focusing on breathing.
Pull your attention back to breathing when your thoughts wander.
Focus on breathing single-pointedly until you feel inner peace arising from your heart.
Familiarise yourself with this feeling by concentrating on it as long as possible.
If you lose this feeling again, go back to breathing.
The timer dings!
And we will do steps 1-12 again the next day or every other day. What matter is that you decide when to do it and stick to it.
Akin to exercising, we commit the time to do it as a habit to preserve our well-being.
Remember the first time we did a push-up? We didn't move properly or recruit the correct muscle.
It takes a while to activate the long-dormant muscles and experience a certain time of feeling silly, uncoordinated, or even like a robot, which may not be a "good" feeling to experience in the first place. But with practice, you know you will get better.
Your mind muscle is the same.