What exactly is Meditation?
Meditation is the natural state of being because it gives peace. Stress is not a natural state of being. Stress is learned. We have only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears are learned. Religion, gurus, and teachers have nothing to do with meditation.
Meditation does not belong to any one culture or area, and no one can claim it as their own. Meditation is the natural way we connect with ourselves—our true self. Meditation is, in its essence, extremely simple, easy to understand and apply. But today we have a huge amount of information on how to meditate. Think about how in just the last ten years, the market has been flooded with a variety of healing techniques, meditations, and all sorts of self-help tools. It’s easy to get lost in that forest of everything.
In addition to not knowing how to choose a meditation technique, once we do, meditating might be a challenge for us.
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We can’t sit still, can’t stop thinking, can’t stop analyzing, and we question if we’re doing everything right. Or during meditation, we have thoughts like, “My back hurts. This is pointless. I need to grab some milk from the grocery. They’ll take out the trash the next day. I’m running late for work. When is this going to be over?
I’m not doing it well. You are not alone in experiencing this, but it is the polar opposite of what we hope to achieve with meditation. It is very normal to have thoughts while meditating. It is impossible for our minds to quit thinking.
However, the goal of meditation isn’t to clear our minds of all thoughts. Instead of resisting thoughts, they should be recognized and then let go. But more on that later. For the time being, it is sufficient to understand that the goal of meditation is not to clear the mind of thoughts.So, what exactly is it? So, what is meditation, exactly?
The first image that comes to mind when we hear the word meditation is of a person sitting cross-legged in a robe or priestly outfit, possibly on a Tibetan mountain.
There are many different types of meditation, and much has been written about them.Meditation, on the other hand, is fundamentally getting to know yourself.
It’s also a fully natural procedure that everyone understands instinctively. The problem is that no one has taught us the two most fundamental lessons: self-love and meditation. In fact, no one had to teach us to meditate because it’s all built in our DNA, but no one has ever told us that we should start cultivating meditation as part of our daily hygiene from the time we were children.
Through meditation and self-love, more conscious parents are teaching their children how to be true today.
Self-love (acceptance of one’s authenticity) and meditation are two tools that such children are given as they grow up. What exactly is the purpose of meditation? The goal of meditation is to slow down the brain waves and get us out of the beta brain waves that govern our conscious, reasoning, and analytical minds.
The goal of meditation is to slow down the brain waves and get us out of the beta brain waves that get us out of conscious, reasoning, and analytical minds.
Beta brain waves are associated with a high level of mental activity in which the outer world of our senses is more real to us than the inner world. They are the waves in which we spend the majority of our waking time and are associated with a high level of mental activity in which the outer world of our senses is more real to us than the inner world. In other words, the analytical mind is behind the wheel. There is no place for rest, daydreaming, and creative slowing down.
We move from a state of mental rush to a state of considerably greater relaxation and more balanced brain waves by slowing down our brain waves from beta to alpha and theta. In other words, we go from a state of stress to a state of relaxation. What’s significant right now is to understand that slowing down brain waves, or meditation, is something we all know how to do because we do it every day as we prepare to sleep; we just don’t call it that. Our brain waves slow down from beta to alpha before finally falling asleep by flipping from alpha to theta.
Just before going to sleep, you meditate.
It’s the same thing when you get up in the morning: you were in the theta then alpha stage just before becoming aware, before switching to the awake, beta state when you can easily recall who your boss is and when you have to go to the dentist. The alpha stage of brain waves is associated with mild meditation, while theta brain waves are associated with deep meditation.
As soon as you close your eyes, you are in an alpha state since you have removed one external sensory stimulus from the world and relaxed.
With a little practice, deliberate deeper relaxation can quickly lead to a theta state of deep meditation. All we do in meditation is actually relax our bodies, just like when we are getting ready to fall asleep, while at the same time keeping our conscious minds awake. Let’s call it that. The body is asleep and the mind is awake. We descend completely from the chatter of the mental mind that jumps from the past into the future (and thus “jumps” out of the body) into the body, now and here.
Through meditation, we put ourselves in the present moment. Is the present moment a mystical place or a place where all your power is? We can anchor in the present moment using a variety of techniques, but the main goal of all of them is to achieve a state of awake, focused relaxation in the present moment by consciously and intentionally directing our attention to everything that is happening in the present moment and accepting it without judgment, evaluation, or condemnation. This kind of focused and relaxed, invaluable attention is also called the “silent observer.” We just are. We allow the present moment to be as it is. We observe without evaluation. All the techniques we deliberately and consciously put into the present moment have in common that they are actually different forms of meditation.
The consistency of meditation
Mindfulness meditation as a formal way of entering the present moment is the beginning of a healthy, conscious life, and we only need a few minutes a day. It sounds too good, doesn’t it? Life is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The same goes for meditation: the technique itself is simple; what is not easy is to be consistent. You read about consistency and resistance to change during the first week. The success of personal change depends on being consistent and committing to the practice of this process every day. You will see for yourself that the techniques are simple. They may seem simple at first. Your ego might say: if it’s that simple, then why aren’t we all already happy? We don’t do them consistently. What is the best tool worth to us if we do not use it? What good is it to us to be an infinite being with infinite possibilities when we don’t want to bother to learn to use our innate powers? Our lives are transformed through meditation.
It is a requirement for life transformation since you can never consciously connect with yourself, that is, with the Field of Universal Consciousness, unless you have it.
Because transformation can only happen from within, there can be no transformation unless we connect with ourselves from within—through meditation. It’s like wanting to read a book you’ve never read before. Or as if you’d like to have the experience of flying a plane without actually flying one. To connect with oneself, you must first have had the experience of connecting with others.
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Enlightenment is similar to orgasm, and it is something we must feel for ourselves. No one can explain it to us or feel it for us. It’s the same with meditation.We must reflect in order to fully appreciate her gifts, which are truly rich and generous. Do not simply believe that we should meditate.Even talking to someone about our intention to begin meditating is ineffective.Every day, you must sit down, dedicated and diligent.We go to the place where we meditate every day, sit down, and meditate.The gifts of meditation. We all believe we are totally involved in our bodies, although this is rarely the case.Thinking about the past and future is a cerebral activity that is limited only by our minds’ ability to go where they want to go, not by our bodies. We use the body as a way station on our trips into the past and future while we are in mind everywhere but now and here. Our bodies, on the other hand, are always here and now. That’s why we say our bodies always know the truth; it’s the body’s wisdom, which is always present in the current moment.
However, we can only fully feel being in our body if we focus our attention on the present moment. Through meditation, we anchor our attention to the body and the sensations in the body and in our senses. In the words of Eckhart Tolle: “Body awareness not only anchors us in the present moment, but represents a door leading out of the prison of the ego. It also strengthens our immune system and our body’s ability to heal itself.
When we focus our attention on breathing and simply observe our breath without interfering with the natural flow of breathing, and observe what is happening in and around our body with all our senses, without judgment, then we are fully present in the present moment. Then our body has the ability to access self-healing and integration of emotions without our interfering and bothering. We just allow and observe what is. When we feel our body in the present moment, we allow the metabolic system to integrate past non-integrated experiences and establish balance and equilibrium. When we practice the direct consciousness of our body, we have the experience of our body on a much deeper level than before. We experience that our body is much more than the body itself. Being present in the present moment entails being present in your body and accepting it completely.
We open the door to ourselves through meditation, possibly for the first time in our life, to experience the wholeness of our existence in the body. Simultaneously, we allow the body’s (autonomic nervous system) to achieve health and balance.
To put it another way, we connect with the field, which is always present in the here and now, and then we let the flow of life, creative, healing energy from the field, to freely flow through us.
We allow ourselves to be influenced by that energy and to participate in the unlimited flow of knowledge, love, and wisdom available in the present moment from the field. We may accept ourselves and the current time through meditating. Resisting one’s own life, current circumstances, and ego is a form of resistance to existence itself.
We say YES to life and release ourselves from the negativity we hold in our minds and bodies by accepting the present moment.This is the only time there is. Meditation helps us to cultivate acceptance. We suffer as a result of our resistance.
Acceptance of all that comes in our consciousness at any given time is a key component of mindfulness meditation, as is compassion and forgiveness for ourselves. By practicing mindfulness meditation, we accept our experience during the meditation itself, and in this way, it becomes easier for us to accept everything that comes into our lives during the rest of our day. In order to be able to stop automatically reacting emotionally to other people and circumstances and shifting guilt, we need to be aware enough of our thoughts and feelings to stop the moment we are emotionally triggered.
Meditation allows us to practice the focus of our thoughts so that we are able to notice that we are triggered by external circumstances and take the opportunity to integrate emotions that are aroused by a person or situation. Mindfulness meditation exercises focus on being aware of upcoming thoughts, emotions, and sessions and accepting them instead of automatically resorting to running away from them, numbing them, or projecting them onto others. The Silent Observer is extremely powerful because his perception is maximal. Thus, training the focus of the conscious mind is another gift of meditation.
Mindfulness meditation is a strategy that we can observe in contrast to the strategy of avoiding emotions, over-engaging, or drowning in our own emotions, which is actually nurturing the victim’s mentality or personal drama. Meditation teaches us to recognize our automatic mental processes and emotional reactions that we can become aware of and accept. Mindfulness meditation techniques (breathing, observation) allow us, in the moments when we recognize the emotional block that is activated in us (another person or situation), to apply non-judgmental acceptance of unpleasant and traumatic emotions as they occur in the present moment. By now, we have learned that feeling that blocked emotion is the way it integrates.
Changing the structure of the brain
Meditation changes the biology of our brains; that is, it makes structural changes in the brain. Brain neuroplasticity means that the structure of our brain can change. We can literally strengthen our brain through meditation. The brain has two hemispheres that we call left and right. The left hemisphere is the rational, logical, yang-side of the brain, which deals with the planning, analysis, mathematics, evaluation, and evaluation of the world around us. It connects us to the past and the future. The right side of the brain is yin, the emotional side, creative and intuitive. It processes visual and spatial information and is tied to the experience of the self here and now.
Meditation activates both hemispheres of the brain, allowing communication between the left and right hemispheres, which results in greater cognition and the ability to process. When the logical, left hemisphere communicates with the creative, right, problem solving becomes easy and concentration increases many times over. Also, the meditator feels more like being instead of doing, as the right hemisphere is activated. In addition, meditation gives a sense of connectedness and oneness, and this significantly affects our health as we are designed to have a need for connectedness and a sense of belonging.
Meditation connects us to the field by merging both hemispheres of the brain. Namely, by connecting the conscious mind (left hemisphere) with the subconscious mind (right hemisphere), we automatically connect with the field because we experience the coherence of the whole brain. This means that we allow the healing and integration that the field does for us. As we have already said, we are moving out of the way. Meditators have increased levels of neuronal synchronization, which means that brain cells work together and information transfer is more efficient, which means improved focus and concentration for the meditator. Meditation increases self-awareness, personal power, authenticity, compassion, oneness, and a more complete and healthy sense of self, identity, and place in the larger scheme of things.
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Meditation boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, and reduces stress. Meditation expands our consciousness and allows us to connect with the source of life energy within us (the field) and find our full potential and true purpose. It helps us to truly enjoy and absorb every moment of our lives as they unfold, moment by moment, in the sweet now. Meditation is a prerequisite for a healthy life. Meditation is the only practice we should not drop from our daily schedule, ever. Meditation is our spiritual hygiene that needs to be maintained just like the hygiene of our body. Our body is energy, not matter, and through meditation we draw from the life field of energy directly from the source.
