Out of all the things known to men that are meant to calm you down and help you free your soul, meditation is probably the most useful and popular one.
For many modern humans, meditation is something that is not very well-known, but the truth is, it has been practiced thousands of years ago by the ancient civilizations.
For those of you that are not very familiar with the process, it is worthy of knowing that meditating is quite similar to what you’ve seen in movies unless you’ve been watching ultra-exaggerated films where people are flying while they’re performing the process and using all kinds of superpowers.
The “cliché” sitting with your legs crossed and with your arms placed on each of your legs is a standard meditating position, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll have to do it the same as that.
Since there are way too many benefits of meditating, we would like to help you learn some more about the entire process, including how to do it and what is the philosophy behind it. Feel free to stay with us until the end of this article if you are eager to learn some more, and let’s jump straight into the content.
Source: Center for Holistic Medicine
Contents
What does it mean to “meditate”?
First of all, it is worthy to know that everyone can do this, and you don’t have to be some kind of a Shaolin monk or live in a temple to be allowed to meditate. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s learn some more about the process itself.
To meditate means to relax your body in a comfortable position, for a start, you can also do it while lying down, but it is preferred that you use some of the popular sitting positions, they exist for a reason. While you are relaxing your body, you need to do the same with your mind. Try not to think of anything and just feel the energy flowing through your system.
At first, it will be very difficult for you to completely relax, and you might even feel weird thinking “what am I doing?”, but as you keep practicing, you’ll slowly start realizing that you can enter the meditation state for a few seconds, and this period will increase with time.
Source: Reader’s Digest
So, what’s the point of doing this?
The point of doing this is to completely let go of all stress and relax both your body and mind at the same time, getting the kind of rest that is much required in these stressful modern times.
According to some researches, ancient civilizations were doing this daily, and their life was far less stressful than what we are experiencing today.
At first, you won’t notice some incredible benefits, which is one of the main reasons why people quit after just a couple of attempts, but if you decide to stick to it and practice, it will be much clearer to you why you’ve been doing it all this time.
Source: Yoga Journal
Why neutral positions?
All those famous meditating positions exist for a reason, and no, it’s not because they look all “mystical” and fancy. The reason why you’re sitting with the legs crossed and your hands placed on them, with the fingers touching themselves forming a circle, is because in this position, you are allowing the energy in your body to flow without any interruptions or obstacles.
There are many other positions that you can see on pictures of people meditating on the internet, and there isn’t exactly a rule about which one you should choose for your sessions. Just make sure that the one you chose is comfortable enough to be in. Feel free to find out more about this.
Source: wired
“Practical” benefits of Meditation
Since people these days don’t care about being “Zen” or have peaceful thoughts, let’s take a look at some of the most common issues in these modern days that meditation can solve.
Anxiety
Source: Reader’s Digest
If you are an anxious person, and you often find that you’re worrying and stressing about things that are either not going to happen or they happened way before, a couple of sessions per week can help you clear your mind and re-arrange your thoughts for the better. Anxiety can be a huge problem in certain situations, and unfortunately, it is something that becomes even more common these days.
Depression
Source: Dr Elias Stambulie
Every day on the news, we see an advertisement that promotes some type of anti-depressants, and this only points out that being depressed is becoming a lot more common due to the modern lifestyles that people tend to live these days. No matter what the reason for this condition in a person might be, it is important to get rid of it in the most natural way possible, and this is where meditating comes as the best option.
Improving your mood
Source: The Independent
You don’t have to suffer from any of the previously mentioned states to be eager to improve your mood. Maybe you just want to become a brighter person or happier in general, and that is perfectly normal.
By meditating a couple of times per week, you will be able to improve your mood by improving your thoughts, which is where everything comes from. If you can think positively about many situations that you are facing each day, you will have much better outcomes.
Becoming more motivated
Source: brazenwoman
If you are someone who struggles with the lack of motivation, whether that’s for going to work or making progress in the gym, meditation can help you overcome this and find the beauty in the things you do. You’ll realize that what you are doing, or you should do, is beneficial to your existence, and instead of procrastinating the entire day, you’ll have the will to stand up and get things done. This will make you a better worker, leader, and a better person in general.
As a conclusion, meditating can have tons of benefits, but you can’t read about them all day without trying to reach that state yourself. It might seem hard in the beginning, but if you stick to it, you will be able to reach a Zen state, finally making peace with yourself and allowing your energy to flow through your body as it should.
