Did you know that mediation is an ancient practice?
Evidence suggestions that meditation is as old as humanity itself, and has been used throughout time to transform the mind.
Meditation as we know it today originated in India approx. 1500 BC, however all forms of religions show forms of mediation in one way or another. Therefore we can say that forever we humans have been using our minds on purpose to transform ourselves.
What is happening when we meditate?
As humans living in the 21st century, due to the way our societies operate (outcome driven, career building, ambitions), we are (unfortunately) spending a lot of our lives either living in the past or in the future, but very rarely in the present.
When we live in the past we are depressed, and when we live in the future we are anxious. For us to reach clarity and connect with ourselves and our true potential and brilliance, we must operate from the present.
Our thoughts can often throw us into the past (dragging us down), or into the future (raising anxiety), whereas where we really want to focus our attention is on the here and now. This is a huge challenge for us all as
Mediation is a practice, and in that practice we PRACTICE raising our awareness and focus.
Raising our awareness of our own thoughts, and changing our perspective, moving away from judgement and towards observing. “Ah, I am having this thought”, notice it, and let it go. Rather than go into the thought and enter into our own personal time travel machine that takes us to the past or into the future.
Usually, for both guided and unguided mediations we are asked to focus on something in the here and now to anchor us, most often our breath. It is natural that while we focus on for example our breath thoughts will come. Within mediation we practice observing our thoughts, not becoming them. We notice when we are having a thought about something, recognise it as a thought, let it go, and come back to our breath (the present).
So what’s actually happening?
Let’s use an example, let’s say we are really good at overthinking. We are really good at practicing overthinking. Gold medal levels of overthinking abilities!
Let’s assume you are a mediation newbie and are therefore probably following a guided meditation (which I would recommend), you will likely choose to practice a mediation designed specifically for overthinking.
Within that mediation, the guide will ask you to focus on your breath, and just notice your thoughts, all of them, as they come in, and to just observe them, as they are not you, let that thought go, and come back to your breath. This will happen again and again for the length of the mediation (which can be as short as 3 minutes).
Notice the thought, observe it, let it go, back to the breath.
Notice the thought, observe it, let it go, back to the breath.
Notice the thought, observe it, let it go, back to the breath.
Notice the thought, observe it, let it go, back to the breath.
Notice the thought, observe it, let it go, back to the breath.
If we look at the neuroscience, when you perform the act of noticing the thought, and choosing to observe it rather than go into it, and then let it go you are creating a new neural pathway.
If you are an overthinker, up until this point, you’ve got an old neural pathway working pretty strongly: your brain receives the stimulus (thought) the practised response is to go INTO the thought and stay there, ending up in the future and likely anxious.
Within mediation, when we practice experiencing the same stimulus (thoughts) and on purpose practice a different response (observe and let go) we create a new path in our brains. What this now means is that when we experience the stimulus, our brains now have a choice, or two different pathways, that it could choose to go down: go down the old path in which the response is to go into the thought, or choose the new path, which is to observe and let go.
Our brains LOVE choice. We as humans LOVE choice. Without choice we feel trapped and will usually lead to emotional pain of some kind. Think of something that you are not feeling great about right now in your life. Got it? Do you feel like you have no choice? Thought so 🙂
The old path (become aware of thought and go into it) is really strong, we’ve been doing it since we learned how to! The new path (become aware of thought, observe, and let go) is new, so it’s like a tiny baby muscle. The more we repeat choosing to take the second path, both in and out of mediation, the more the new path grows until suddenly we notice ourselves automatically taking the new path without thinking about it.
In mediation we are essentially rewiring our brain so that it works better for us.
How will meditation benefit you?
There are so, so many benefits to meditation. And as I mentioned above, there are mediations available for all types of experiences.
The most common positive benefits experienced with regular mediation are:
- Feeling more present
- Reduced stress
- Increased attention and focus
- Reduced mind wandering
- Increased self awareness
- Increased emotional well being
- Increased working memory and fluid intelligence*
- Increased immunity
*Fluid Intelligence is the ability to think flexibly, learn, think abstractly, solve problems
Is there only one way to meditate?
Nope!
Not all people get excited about the idea of still mediation.
Remember the goal of mediation is to increase awareness and focus and connect to the present.
Yoga is a really good physically active way to meditate. Within a yoga one of the key goals is to remain present and connect to your body throughout the various poses. In fact as you transition between yoga positions you will be guided to use your breath to support the movement, breathing in as you take certain movements and breathing out as you move into other positions, forever bringing yourself back to the present. The Shavasana pose at the end of a yoga class, where the students lie in meditative stillness, most often thought of as the most difficult pose, requires the student to relax their body while remaining present.
Sound Baths are another easily accessible option if neither pure meditation or Yoga float your boat right now. Bowls, gongs and other instruments are used to create sounds that help focus your mind and bring you to a relaxed state. Using sound for healing has been around since the Ancient Egyptian times, and was often used to treat mind and body ailments. If you can’t find a sound bath in your local area there are multiple free sound baths available on YouTube for you to try!