Meditation – Mindfulness or Emptiness?

Meditation is a process of bringing your mind to stillness or emptiness. After certain level of practice, you start to gain insight. It is this insight which gives you a fresh perspective on life.

Did you know that an average human mind goes through 60,000 thoughts over 24 hours?

Meditation helps you increase the gap between your thoughts. This gap is referred to as the moment of silence. It is during this silence that you experience the deepest level of consciousness and explore the truth. The truth is about the REAL YOU!

Benefits of Meditation

Humans have a tendency to either be stuck in the past or future. Meditation is one of the proven techniques to stay in the present. Some of the benefits of regular meditation practices include:

-         Better Stress Management

-         Enhanced Mental Health

-         Improved Physical Health

-         Breathing Efficiency

-         Lowered Blood Pressure

-         Increased Productivity

-         Better Sleep

-         Controlled Weight

-         Magnified Platonic Qualities: Kindness, Compassion, Joy

-         Experience PEACE!

Did you know that 75% of the insomniacs who started to meditate daily were able to fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed?

Best Practice

It is recommended that you spend at least 20 minutes each day practicing meditation. Chances are, it will be difficult initially but over time you will learn to appreciate this time as the most priceless part of your day. 

??????????????????? ?????????

This means that an uninterrupted practice of discrimination between what is Real and Unreal - is the path to liberation and termination of ignorance.

You can perform meditation at any place and time. All you need is yourself, your intention and a clean place where you can sit and practice. You don’t require any props for this.

Types of Meditation:

More than 60 percent of people have tried meditating at some point in their lives. Only about 15 percent of them succeeded. Rest gave up due to dis-interest, impatience or shortage of time. 

What most people are not aware of is that there are many types of meditation techniques to choose from.  It is vital to be aware of them and choose the one that is right for you. You may switch between different strategies for better result. In the following section we will look at some of these techniques.

-         Concentrative – In this technique you sit still and focus on an object, breath, sound or emptiness.

-         Contemplative – This is a method to understand your soul - who you really are. You start off by removing labels such as “I am not a woman, I am not a mother, I am not a Yoga Teacher” until you finally understand WHO YOU ARE! This technique helps you become aware of every moment and LIVE IN THE PRESENT.

-         Mindful – Answers the question – What am I doing right now?

-         Observant – In this process you observe each and every thought that crosses your mind, without establishing any association to it. In this manner, you learn to accept that YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS.

-         Spirited – This is called the Dynamic type of meditation where you surrender / calm your mind through activities such as Dancing. There are four stages to this technique: Building, Releasing, Letting Go and Resting.

I hope I have helped you understand the significance of meditation. If you have a specific question regarding the same, please leave your query in the comment section below and I will be glad to answer it for you. In the upcoming blogs, I will be covering each Type of Meditation in depth.