What is meditation?

​​Meditation is our gym for the mind. Contrary to popular belief, it's not actually all about relaxing and giving our mind some time off, it's about training ourselves in skilful mental states. By using techniques like mindfulness and visualisations we cultivate these skilful mental states -states that will inevitably lead to beneficial outcomes for us. These states are things like concentration, presence, kindness, dis-attachment and forgiveness. By practising meditation, we can alleviate the suffering and unsatisfactoriness that we so often find in our day to day lives. In doing so we relieve ourselves from things like stress, anxiety, depression, addiction and sleep problems. Just like going to the gym or exercising stimulates muscle growth, meditation conditions our mind to be more able to tackle the ins and outs of life and takes us on a journey of personal growth and self-discovery along the way.

 

There are hundreds of different “types” of meditation and you may have heard of some of the most common. These include mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, yoga nidra, vipassana meditation, guided meditations and visualisations. These types of meditation vary tremendously in their techniques and outcomes and different forms of meditative practices are associated with different skilful mental states and different patterns of brain activity. While there are many similarities and while they mostly branch from the same evolutionary tree of meditation as a whole, different meditations will cultivate different mental states and so different levels of calm, insight, compassion, wisdom and impact on our mental health. Again, think of exercise and how not all exercise is equal in all ways. 

 

Perhaps most common of all in our western context are mindfulness meditations. These meditations focus our attention on aspects of reality that are based in the present moment, for example, our breath, bodily sensations, or our experience of awareness itself. They are essentially based on the theory that much of our experience is tied up in thoughts that are based in either the future or the past. Thoughts like, “what am I going to have for dinner” and “I shouldn’t have done it like that”. We get caught in these thought patterns and struggle to come back to the present moment, which is where life is really happening. For a lot of our lives we are actually absent, stuck inside our own minds. By practicing mindfulness we train ourselves to come back to the present, time and time again, widening our awareness as we go. Amazingly, when we do this the result is always greater understanding, acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy. 

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Skilful Mental states​

Here are some examples of some skilful mental states, and what cultivation of them can lead to:​

Concentration                  Relaxation, calmness, stability and inner peace

Kindness                            Deeper relaxation and reduced anger    

Presence                            Clarity and self-awareness

Compassion                       Empathy and the desire the relieve suffering

Letting Go                          Freedom from suffering, joy, liberation

Forgiveness                       Emotional healing and better relationships

Patience                             Inner peace and stress reduction

Equanimity​​​​​​                        Balance and non-reactivity, impulse/addiction control

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Meditation and health

For decades now (in the west), meditation has been shown to help to benefit many aspects of health and well-being. Numerous scientific studies and peer-reviewed articles have shown that meditation, has significant benefits for us. Here are some examples:

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Meditation is like a silver tortoise, it might not be as fast as a bullet, but if you give it a good shot it really can help you with almost any mental, emotional or physical ailment. It has an amazing way of meeting the practitioner where they require the help because it is a self directed practice. 

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So why not give it a go? You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

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