There are four different levels of awareness: being awake, sleeping, dreaming, and meditating. Meditation is the most subtle and least understood of these. If you’re interested in understanding how the mind works during meditation, you can look into the teachings of the Patanjali Yoga Sutra.
There’s also plenty of research showing the goodness meditation can offer you. Even though understanding meditation might be tough, actually doing it and feeling its benefits is much simpler. It’s more like how it’s hard to explain the science behind sleeping or relaxing, but it’s easy to do those things and feel better afterwards.
Your body is part of the universe. It’s made of the same stuff and powered by the same energy as everything else. Inside your body is a brain that creates what we call the “mind.”
There’s nothing wrong with how you’re made by the universe. It’s silly to think we know better than the universe how we should be built.
Science struggles to fully understand how meditation works because it hasn’t figured out exactly how the mind operates. Even though scientists can observe chemical and electrical activity in the brain and identify which areas are active during meditation, they still haven’t fully grasped its internal workings. People who practice meditation and experience feelings of bliss often don’t fully comprehend what’s happening either. This becomes apparent when spiritual leaders attempt to explain the processes involved.
In simpler terms, the mind is consciousness, a type of energy that we haven’t fully discovered yet, interacting with the brain. Typically, humans focus their consciousness on the brain, often dwelling on areas related to fear and anxiety.
Bliss occurs when consciousness disconnects from these fear and anxiety centers, especially when it’s in harmony with the entire body. It’s similar to the contentment a relaxed animal feels basking in the sun, fully aware but without any worries. This sensation is extremely pleasant, and with regular meditation practice, we can carry some of this feeling throughout our day.
If we can prove something consistently happens in controlled situations, we call it scientific. Many doctors around the world suggest meditation to people with high blood pressure because they’ve seen it consistently helps. If you want to learn more about meditation, keep reading. But it’s important to know that meditation, like any type of yoga , should be done with a teacher’s guidance.
So, what is meditation? Think about when you take a bath. You do it to feel fresher and cleaner. You use soap or cleaning products to get rid of the dirt in your bathroom. Similarly, your mind needs cleaning, too. Some of it happens when you sleep, but what’s left behind becomes stress or even sickness.
That’s where meditation comes in. It puts your mind in a special state where your body can clean out all the built-up stress chemicals, making you feel lighter and fresher.
But meditation isn’t thoughtlessness at all. If you try not to think, that’s just another thought.
Just sit quietly for 20 minutes to half an hour on a cushion or a chair. Keep your spine straight, chin tucked in a bit, and don’t slouch or tilt your head back. Be consistent with it, and you’ll see the wonder of the universe within you, just as you are, without needing to change anything. What’s there to change?
Here are three don’ts:
Just like a spinning fan doesn’t stop right away when you turn it off, it takes time for your thoughts to slow down and stop. And how quickly that happens depends on how stressed you’ve been and what’s been bothering you lately.
There’s also plenty of research showing the goodness meditation can offer you. Even though understanding meditation might be tough, actually doing it and feeling its benefits is much simpler. It’s more like how it’s hard to explain the science behind sleeping or relaxing, but it’s easy to do those things and feel better afterwards.
Your body is part of the universe. It’s made of the same stuff and powered by the same energy as everything else. Inside your body is a brain that creates what we call the “mind.”
There’s nothing wrong with how you’re made by the universe. It’s silly to think we know better than the universe how we should be built.
Science struggles to fully understand how meditation works because it hasn’t figured out exactly how the mind operates. Even though scientists can observe chemical and electrical activity in the brain and identify which areas are active during meditation, they still haven’t fully grasped its internal workings. People who practice meditation and experience feelings of bliss often don’t fully comprehend what’s happening either. This becomes apparent when spiritual leaders attempt to explain the processes involved.
In simpler terms, the mind is consciousness, a type of energy that we haven’t fully discovered yet, interacting with the brain. Typically, humans focus their consciousness on the brain, often dwelling on areas related to fear and anxiety.
Bliss occurs when consciousness disconnects from these fear and anxiety centers, especially when it’s in harmony with the entire body. It’s similar to the contentment a relaxed animal feels basking in the sun, fully aware but without any worries. This sensation is extremely pleasant, and with regular meditation practice, we can carry some of this feeling throughout our day.
If we can prove something consistently happens in controlled situations, we call it scientific. Many doctors around the world suggest meditation to people with high blood pressure because they’ve seen it consistently helps. If you want to learn more about meditation, keep reading. But it’s important to know that meditation, like any type of yoga , should be done with a teacher’s guidance.
So, what is meditation? Think about when you take a bath. You do it to feel fresher and cleaner. You use soap or cleaning products to get rid of the dirt in your bathroom. Similarly, your mind needs cleaning, too. Some of it happens when you sleep, but what’s left behind becomes stress or even sickness.
That’s where meditation comes in. It puts your mind in a special state where your body can clean out all the built-up stress chemicals, making you feel lighter and fresher.
But meditation isn’t thoughtlessness at all. If you try not to think, that’s just another thought.
Just sit quietly for 20 minutes to half an hour on a cushion or a chair. Keep your spine straight, chin tucked in a bit, and don’t slouch or tilt your head back. Be consistent with it, and you’ll see the wonder of the universe within you, just as you are, without needing to change anything. What’s there to change?
Here are three don’ts:
- Don’t start any new thoughts.
- Don’t keep thinking about the same thing.
- Don’t try to force thoughts to stop.
Just like a spinning fan doesn’t stop right away when you turn it off, it takes time for your thoughts to slow down and stop. And how quickly that happens depends on how stressed you’ve been and what’s been bothering you lately.
When you meditate every day, over months and years, it physically changes the structure of your brain. Scientists have done a lot of research to prove this.
If you want to change how you feel inside, you need to be careful about what you feed into your brain. You can do this by learning to be mindful. At first, you practice mindfulness while meditating, and then you try to keep that calm mindset even when you’re not meditating. This helps you see things differently inside yourself. It doesn’t happen right away, but after about 5 to 20 years of meditating daily, you might start noticing some positive changes in how you react to things. If you work directly with a teacher, it might happen even faster.
If you give it a try, you’ll feel calmer, more focused, and happier.
Meditation helps you become emotionally stronger because instead of getting caught up in your feelings, you see them as separate from who you are. This makes it harder for them to make you feel like you’re on a crazy, exhausting roller coaster.
To become good at meditation, all you need to do is focus on your breath. That’s it. Try to do it every day, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes. Find a quiet place and time. Maybe wake up a bit earlier than usual or hide in the bathroom whenever possible. For a while, give yourself a break from distractions. Sit with your back straight.
Your mind will wander and think about all sorts of things, like what you need from the store or what’s on your to-do list. It might even try to convince you that being busy is more important or make you feel sleepy.
Just let those thoughts pass by without getting caught up in them. Focus on your breath instead.
Whether you’re doubtful at first or you’ve been meditating routinely, I think it’s exciting to learn how new habits change our brains. You should check out meditation to see what happens in our brains when we do it, and I’m sure what you will discover would be pretty neat.
Welcome to one of the best things you can do for yourself, your life, your sanity, and your happiness.
Are you looking for a spiritual leader who can teach you how to meditate and be mindful? If yes, then you are at the right place. You can get in touch with me by scheduling a session on www.samarpanhealingspa.in, or you can come see me at Samarpan Healing Spa in Vakola, Santa Cruz, Mumbai.
