I have talked in previous posts about meditation and mindfulness. I wanted to go a bit deeper into meditation itself. It has been kind of a hot topic for a few years, and while it has become quite popular, there are many misconceptions surrounding it. That said, let’s start with the basics.
There are many benefits to mediation. Most people are aware of the mental benefits of meditation like helping people have better focus and lengthen their attention span. Along with these basic benefits, it can also help achieve better quality sleep/sleep patterns, support emotional regulation, assist with managing symptoms of depression/anxiety/PTSD (alongside medical care), and even help with lessening carvings for those dealing with alcohol or food addictions.** In addition to providing these mental and emotional benefits, did you know that, physically speaking, studies* have shown that meditation can provide cardiovascular benefits by helping reduce stress and lowering blood pressure, and help improve the quality of life by assisting in pain reduction in people who suffer from chronic pain issues? This list is by no means comprehensive, however these are the ones that are most commonly cited by studies that have been done.
There are two main styles of meditation. Each with its own purpose. The first is the one you are most likely familiar with.
Focused Attention: When you focus your mind onto something. This could be a sound like the rhythmic sound of a bell or drum, something visual like a mandala or a candle flame, a thought like a mantra, a visualization (guided or not), or even just your breathing. The objective is to clear the mind of distractions. This type of meditation would be helpful to achieve any of the benefits listed above.
Open-Monitoring: When you consciously expand your awareness to focus on your environment, your train of thought, or your sense of self. The objective here is to experience these things with intention; fully, and in the moment. This type of mediation can bring up suppressed feelings, thoughts, or impulses. It is not about judgement, only awareness. This type of meditation would be excellent for shadow work, and would also be one I would choose to use to help break bad habits, limiting thoughts/beliefs, or supplement with along side medical treatment for alcohol or food addictions. Both of these types of meditation can be used alone or in conjunction with each other to achieve the above mentioned benefits.
While meditation seems quite common today, there are still some misconceptions about it. Ones that may be preventing people from even trying it. Here are some of the more popular ones I have found.
• It is a religious practice or witchcraft: This is not true. Anyone can practice meditation regardless of their religious beliefs. Cultures all over the world have practiced mediation in one form or another. Even focused/concentrated prayer could be considered a form of meditation, but, as mentioned in a previous post, one can be induced into a meditative state doing even the most innocuous tasks. If you have ever “zoned out” doing something like dishes, colouring/drawing, gardening, etc.. you have entered into a mild meditative state.
• If you don’t clear your mind, and keep it clear, you are doing it wrong: False. If given the space, your mind is likely to bring things up during meditation. The harder you work at thinking about “nothing” the harder it can seem to do so. Even if your objective is to reach that clear mind state, the process to get there is not so clear cut. The idea is to learn to let these thoughts or ideas come up, acknowledge them, and then let them pass; to not dwell on or continue to give them your time and energy. This is a learning process, and will take time. No judgement. This brings us to our next point…
• If I am not good at it right away, I never will be: Just like any other skill, it has to be practiced to be “mastered”. That said, you don’t have to be a “master” to benefit from meditation. It does not have to be an “all or nothing” situation.
• Meditation takes a long time. No. In fact, you can start seeing benefits of meditation just by doing it for 5 minutes a day to start with. The longer you practice, the better you will get at it, and you can increase the time you do it as you go. Starting with only 5 minutes a day is a good place to start.
One thing that can help with your meditation practice is breathing techniques. These have mental and physical benefits all on their own, but can also be a good focal point for you, especially when starting out. Here are a couple of techniques I use.
1. Box Breathing. This technique requires equally counting the duration of your breath during their whole cycle (in and out). It may benefit you to pinch your nose closed during the holds, but blocking your throat with your tongue is just as effective, and does not require you to use your hands. To start, breath in slowly for a count of 4. Then hold your breath for a count of 4. Next, slowly release your breath for a count of 4, and lastly, hold for a count of 4. Then repeat. You can do this as many times as you feel comfortable. 10 times is a good start count. This is a technique commonly given to people to help with anxiety. Another variation uses counts of 8 for in and out breaths and counts of 4 for the holds. Whichever you feel more comfortable with.
2. Alternate Nostril Breathing: This one also requires counting the breath, however you must use your fingers/thumb to cover the nostrils since you will be doing this one at a time. Start by closing your right nostril with your thumb/finger and breath in slowly and deeply for 8 seconds. Next, cover the other nostril (so both are closed) for 4 seconds, then unblock the right nostril and slowly release the breath over 8 seconds. Start your next inhale (through the left nostril) immediately and for 8 seconds, then hold for 4 seconds and repeat on other side. An alternate to this is to disregard the hold in between and start the next breath through the opposite nostril right away. Doing this for minimum of 5 minutes per day will be beneficial; working one’s way up to 10 to 15 minutes for full benefits. Adding a visualization of the breath/energy traveling up and down the body in conjunction with the breath (inhale or exhale) on the corresponding side of the body also provides benefits.
On a side note, our body actually, naturally, dominates with one nostril while breathing, and this alternates between our nostrils approximately every 90 minutes. This “feeds” our bodies and our brains in different ways. Something recently noted by psychologists is that breathing through the right side connects to our “logical” left, while breathing through the left connects with our “creative/intuitive” right side. This means that we can reduce anxiety by breathing through our left nostril only for approximately 3 minutes (this is how long it takes to override the dominance). This is because it affects your hypothalamus, which regulates your autonomic nervous system. It also means that our breathing can be affecting our mood at any given time of the day. If you want to learn more about this you can look up a content creator named Kyle Cox on Facebook. He has many useful videos covering neural reset techniques.
So, my question for today is, do you meditate? Have you done this for a long time, or are you just beginning? If you don’t meditate, would you start after reading this? While style do you practice?
*If you would like to read more about these studies you can go to HTTPS://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation#accessibility for more information and the links to the studies.
**This is not medical advice, and should not be used to replace it. Please seek or continue professional medical treatment for your mental and physical ailments.