MEDITATION

Meditation has been proven to be beneficial to your wellness physically and mentally. It can help you gain insight, aid in digestion, may lower heart rate and may lower blood pressure in certain people.

Each person should try to set aside at least ten minutes in a week to meditate but studies have shown that for the long-term health benefits to kick in should be around 30 minutes. How you choose to meditate is up to you but the preferred way is through the Theravada tradition (Samatha) in Buddhism. This is mindfulness of one’s thoughts and watching the breath. There is also walking meditation where one uses mindfulness as they count each step they take in a methodical fashion.

Through meditation, one can achieve Jhana or Dhyana. Jhana is an altered state of consciousness. As you progress from the first stage and beyond, you will emotionally feel an increase in joy, and with more progress, your ego will dissolve and you become All with nothing. Each stage of Jhana is different. Some cultures have ten stages of Jhana, others just one. There does seem to be a common denominator though, that each stage brings unique sensations to the mind and body.

The first three Jhana are lesser in experience. You will feel calmness, stillness, and content that culminates into joy towards the end. As you approach the fourth through the sixth stage you enter a state of oneness then non-existence entirely like you are experiencing who or what you were before you are born: nothing.

To enter these stages takes practice. The more you force trying to attain it the harder a Jhana state is to achieve. When you experience one it is a life-altering event even more so than your first kiss and maybe on par with your child’s birth. I must start first from the ground up, everything has a start.

HOW TO MEDITATE

There are multiple ways to meditate but this section is going to be the very basic and simplest way to meditate. Before we even get into the steps there are two ways to approach meditation 1) go in with a clear mind, 2) or start with emotional baggage. Choose the latter every time. It would be nice to enter meditation when you are feeling your best but in reality when you are sad, angry, depressed that is the moment you need meditation.

Follow these steps and give it a try. Look online and watch others do it.

1. Set a 10-minute timer. 
2. Sit on the floor and get comfortable. Put down a pillow or a towel or blanket if you’d like. Hang out for a few moments and get all the shifting out.
3. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Take a deep breath in, hold it, and slowly release. After three times continue to breathe normally while focusing on breathing in and out.
4. Repeat this until the timer goes off.

Continue this a few times a month or ideally a week and start to incorporate mindfulness. If you find it hard, then awesome, it is supposed to be hard. Who would have thought that breathing and focusing your mind on nothing was such hard work? Mindfulness and meditation are to the mind, as bodybuilding and weights are to muscles.