Mediation! Why and How :)

Meditation is a practice that has been around for thousands of years and anybody can do it regardless of your age or whether you consider yourself spiritual or not. Although mediation has many spiritual benefits, there are also measurable physical benefits as well including decreased stress/anxiety and increased alpha waves, making negative moods less frequent.

Meditation can be different for everyone. Personally, I think your practice will grow and the way you do it may change over time. For example, when I first started having quality meditation sessions, I realized I needed it to be a guided meditation. After doing that for about a year, the talking in the videos started to be a bit distracting and I switched to just listening to music to get in the right headspace. I have done that for about two years now but most recently I enjoy just lying down and breathing in silence. I have also attended group mediations which are also very powerful and effective. It is different for everybody and there is no right or wrong way.

One commonality I have found that is necessary for everybody is breathing. Deep breathing is key. I tend to have short breaths in my day to day life because naturally I have a bit of anxiety and tend to always feel like I need to rush. A good practice to calm down your body and prepare for a good mediation session is called pranayama breathing, or "alternate nostril breathing".

Here I have linked a video on how to perform this breathing exercise and a couple of really good guided mediations that I used to use and still frequently return back to for quick "reset".

While you have your goals in mind, it is important to take care of your mind and body along your way to success. Enjoy!!