Three tips to deepen your meditation

Are you feeling stuck with your meditation practice? Or would you like to start or deepen it??

I have been meditating regularly for the last 15 years, and I’ve experienced various phases of the practice. Meditation has become an important part of my life that keeps nourishing my being. It adds tremendous value to my everyday life and self-discovery. I highly recommend having a regular practice. In this article, I will share:?

? Guidance for beginners?

• Posture?
• Frequency?
• Resources?

? Benefits of meditation?

• Stress reduction??
• Grounding?
• Inspiration?

? Three tips about the mindset?

• Let go of your desire to have a good practice?
• Come back to your center without judgment?
• Practice outside of practice?

Feel free to skip to the tips if you are already familiar with the practice.?

Guidance for beginners?

Posture?

The important thing is to have the spine straight so that the energy can flow smoothly along your spine. Imagine that you are a pillar that connects heaven and earth by allowing the energy to run through. You can either sit on the floor or on the chair. The height of the chair should allow you to have your feet on the ground. It is important that your body is relaxed. So if you have hip or knee injuries, I recommend you use a chair. Meditation doesn’t have to be hard. The purpose is to experience the flow with ease and relaxed focus.?

Frequency?

Meditation is like any sport. You will only get better at sports with regular practice. I recommend regular practice, especially when you are starting. The regularity may look different depending on who you are and your lifestyle. It may be twenty minutes everyday, or one hour every two weeks. It is important that you find the rhythm that is sustainable for you. Take a look at your schedule and think about what works for you. Adjust if it doesn’t work. What counts is every practice that you do, and not the ones you miss. Don’t be too hard on yourself even if you miss a couple practices here and there. Being imperfect is a natural part of being human.?

Resources?

You can either have guided or non-guided practice. In the beginning, it may be useful to have some guidance. There are many guided meditations available on YouTube, for example. Find the one that resonates with you. Have fun exploring different guidances. You will discover your preference as well as different aspects of yourself. Over time, you will feel more comfortable to sit by yourself.?

Benefits of meditation?

There are many articles and researches available online about the benefits of meditation. In this section, I will share some personal benefits that I experience.?

Stress reduction?

Meditation helps me let go of stress. How much stress one feels in everyday life is subjective and can be influenced. However it is impossible to eliminate the stress factors completely because not everything in life is under our control. Meditation is like an oasis that I can come back to at the end of the day to calm down, reconnect with my inner peace, and let go of negative energy that I may have accumulated during the day.?

Grounding?

Meditation also helps me come back to my center and ground. When we are not grounded, we have excessive thoughts or emotions running through our system. Meditation helps me to drop such excessive baggage and focus on what really matters, or what I can influence. Feeling grounded amidst uncertainty is an empowering experience in and of itself. It positively changes the way I interact with other people and the world.?

Inspiration?

Sometimes I get significant inspiration thanks to meditation. The practice creates an empty space in my consciousness which allows for new energy or ideas to flow in. The inspiration doesn’t necessarily occur during or right after the practice. It often arises much later during the day, but I have a clear inner knowing that it is facilitated through my practice.?

Three tips about the mindset?

Let go of your desire to have a good practice?

This is the first milestone that I passed while I was practicing meditation and yoga in India for two months, and I still consider this to be the most important aspect of the practice.?

It is natural to want to have a good, better, or deeper practice everyday. This desire is precious, but it gets in the way. Meditation is about dropping the judgment. When you are scoring your practice, you are making a judgment. It’s also an immersive experience of being one with yourself. However rating your own practice splits you into two - a part of you is meditating, while the other part is assessing. You also never know what is a good practice. For example, I’ve had many inspirations or insights after practices that I thought were not so good.?

There is a learning and liberation that can be had by accepting that day’s practice just the way it is. It’s like the weather. Sun shines on some days, it rains on other days. Accepting wherever you are on that day cultivates the path to true self-appreciation.?

Come back to your center without judgment?

It is natural to have a monkey mind - for our mind to be restless and think about something else during the meditation practice. It takes years of practice to eliminate this tendency. You can have a monkey mind and still enjoy the fruits of your meditation. What is more important is how you react to your thoughts.?

What works for me is to be okay with any thought that arises during the meditation, notice I had a thought, and simply bring back my attention to the breath. If you resist your thoughts or judge yourself for having them, it goes even more against being immersed and relaxed within yourself.?

This stance has a real life application. Things happen in life that tip us off balance. It’s natural to be angry, for example, when a promise is broken. The important thing is not to make yourself wrong for being angry, and to swiftly come back to your balance so that you can respond more effectively.?

Practice outside of practice?

My yoga teacher used to say “practice outside of your mat.” I find it is the same with meditation. The practice doesn’t end with your meditation timer. It continues throughout the day because meditation is really about your way of being. Your life is where you get to test the stance you cultivate through your meditation. Events in life nourish your practice. The lotus flower needs mud to grow. Challenges you encounter in life may be the seeds for growth and self-discovery in meditation.?

What meditation as well as healing or coaching modalities aim is to empower someone to be more and more whole in various aspects of their life. The wholeness of your being brings integrity across different areas of life. Coming to and fro fluidly between your meditation and daily life can bring you more authenticity, alignment, and healing. Last but not least, this is a journey of a lifetime. Witnessing your own growth through meditation or any other activity that you enjoy is a wonderful way to deepen self awareness.?

Personal guidance?

I’m here for you when you would like to:

• Receive guidance about your meditation
• Address a topic, thought, or memories that surfaced in meditation?
• Share your thoughts or questions.?

I would love to hear from you. Reach out to me from this page.?

https://www.ayatransformation.com/contact

Visit my website for more information and articles, too!?

https://www.ayatransformation.com/