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What it is
Meditation involves a series of techniques
originated in the East which, through calm and stillness, can give
us a great inner and outer calm, despite any external events that
may be taking place in our lives.
How you can do it
You can start by sitting
down. You can sit cross-legged or in any other comfortable position,
as long as your back is kept straight. Once you are conformably
seated, "all" you have to do is keep calm and try to be "constantly
aware". If you have intruding thoughts, just be aware of them
but do not participate in them (i.e. don't start day-dreaming or
following a chain of thoughts). On the contrary, try to go back to
the origin, the source of these thoughts. If, on the other hand,
your mind is clear, just maintain the awareness (do not fall
asleep!).
This procedure may be
difficult for some individuals. If so, there are several other
techniques that can be used to help achieve the same goal of
reaching a constant awareness. For instance, you can repeat sounds (mantra),
visualise images (through visualisation exercises), regulate your
breathing (through breathing exercises) or listen to internal sounds
(nada), or many more...
Whatever technique you
choose, just remember to:
1) Be relaxed. This
is the most important thing. You have to be relaxed and avoid the
tension that has become so present in our daily life.
2) Don't have any
goals other than 'being aware'. Awareness is
everything. In our daily life we always do things with a purpose; in
the case of meditation, the greatest progress is achieved if you can
'just be'. If you have a purpose, meditation will certainly give you
the strength and energy to achieve your goal, but by simply 'being',
you can actually make progress more easily. Just be calm and aware,
and the rest will be given to you.
Benefits of meditation
Amongst the many benefits
that you can get from meditation are enhanced tranquillity,
determination, concentration, clarity of mind, creativity,
confidence, self-esteem, and decreased anxiety, insomnia and
feelings of stress. In addition, meditation is great for reducing
tension headaches, chronic back-pain and panic attacks.
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