What is meditation? And how to do it?

The benefits of meditation for your mental health

We all know that there are numerous benefits of meditation because we hear it all the time but maybe you aren’t even exactly sure what meditation is.

I once went to a meditation retreat when I was younger. It was my first experience with meditating and it involved 48 hours of complete silence. No talking to anyone at all, just listening to the meditation instructor, trying to clear the mind of all thoughts and repeatedly bringing my wandering mind back to the present moment. No talking even at meal times, at meal times, it was just counting to chew your food 30 times. No talking even at wake up call, we were woken up by six drum beats. Did that weekend turn me into a master meditator? No not at all! It actually turned me off the idea of meditating for at least 10 years and made me feel like I had failed because I could not empty my mind of thoughts. It wasn’t until I started to gain an understanding of what meditation actually is, that I tried again. I’m still not a master meditator but I practice regularly and find it easier as time goes on. I recognise now, that even if my mind isn't free from thoughts, focused attention helps to manage my thoughts and improves each day. Some days, I struggle to meditate for 30 seconds and other days I might be able to manage 30 minutes or so but even that small amount of meditation has improved my life.

In my experience, meditation does not have to be a strict experience of having no thoughts and being in absolute silence, as we are often led to believe. Meditation can be as simple as taking a deep breath in when you’re stressed and bringing your focus back to the present for that few seconds. That could be enough to remind yourself of being in the present moment.

Meditation does not have to be complicated or difficult or take a long time but if you can make a commitment to some kind of regular practice of meditation, the benefits far outweigh the perceived inconvenience.

So what are the benefits of meditation?

1. Meditation reduces stress levels, simply by bringing your focus back to the present. The benefits of reduced stress are numerous but include decreased anxiety and/or depression, decreased physical illnesses, increased sense of wellbeing and improved health. As a naturopath, I have seen many clients experience an improvement of physical health conditions, simply by adding some breathing exercises into their day.

2. Meditation reduces anxiety. Most people know the feeling of anxiety, the intense worry, the heart palpitations, the shallow breathing and the stress involved but with a few minutes of meditation, you can bring your thoughts back to the present moment, where anxiety is diminished. We can begin to recognise our triggers and when we have done that, when we are triggered, we are less likely to react.

3. Meditation promotes self-awareness. Through meditation, we are able to learn about ourselves. We are able to begin to recognise triggers for stress and anxiety, we are able to learn about our personalities and who we really are and we are able to generate ideas that have been lying dormant due to our wandering minds.

4. Meditation can help us to improve our attention span. Have you ever sat through a movie or a conference and when it finished, wondered what happened because the whole time your mind was wandering away? Meditation can help us to train our brains to concentrate for longer periods of time.

5. Meditation helps us to develop positive thinking patterns. Meditation can help us to recognise our strengths and our weaknesses. When we are able to recognise what we are truly like as a person, we are able to change our negative thoughts into more positive thoughts. Doing this regular helps us to make positive thinking our default way of thinking and improves every area of our life.

What are some ways to meditate?

I start my day and end my day with breathing exercises. I start by breathing in for the count of 5 and out for the count of 5 and I try to increase the time up to 10. I usually do this for about 2 minutes in the morning and 2 minutes before sleeping. This is something short and effective that we can all add into our daily lives. In my personal experience when doing this, I feel less stressed during the day, my interactions with people are more positive and I feel happier in general.

Another mediation that I do regularly is to lay still in bed for about 10 minutes before sleeping and think about all the things that I am grateful for during that day and in my life. This helps me to sleep better and wake up happier. This another simple technique that you can use everyday and start to watch your life and thoughts change.