7 Ways to Achieve Mindfulness: Meditation Tips

Mindfulness is a skill of achieving a peaceful mental state by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, by using various a therapeutic technique.

Meditation is a practice that helps us to achieve a calm and stable mind. It helps improve our emotional awareness and achieve a healthy body. Practicing meditation daily can reduce stress and other psychological issues in our everyday life. In the early days, yogis and various monks used meditation techniques to achieve mindfulness and high spirituality. Ongoing experiments show that including these techniques in our lifestyle leads to a gradual change in mind and body. Despite the effects, sometimes it will be difficult for some people to start meditation activities. So, starting with a simple routine may help you to catch up easily. So, lets know more about 7 Ways to Achieve Mindfulness by Meditation.

How to get ready for a basic meditation posture?

• Having a proper posture is the first step for starting any type of meditation.
• Then try to find out which type of meditation technique suits the best for you.
• Take some deep breaths for the first sessions and start with the basic sitting posture.
• Find a silent environment to focus on yourself and set a time interval.
• Increase the time as you continue the routine practice.

As a beginner, we could have various doubts regarding meditation practices and their effects on our bodies. So, to achieve mindfulness, there are several meditation practices that we could use in our routine which are further explained. So, below are 7 Ways to Achieve Mindfulness through daily practicing.

1. Finding out a suitable meditation technique.

      There are various types and techniques of meditation that we could implement in our routine with ease. When we meditate, our attention is mainly focused on our breath and mind. It makes us aware of our emotions and helps us to understand them more constructively. Meditation improves cognitive function and plays a vital role in changing the structure of the grey matter of our brain. 

Meditation can be done anytime and achieving mindfulness is the motive. All we need to do is to find a comfortable space to practice the techniques.  So finding out which technique is most suitable for us plays a vital role. Some of them are as follows:

• Body Scan Meditation:

        One needs to focus completely on the body for body scan meditation. Sit on a chair and notice the leg movements on the floor, check out your hands and fingers and experiment with your various sensations and note them down. One should check every sensation and movement of your body to attain good results.

• Walking Meditation:

             It is also known as motion meditation in motion. It is one of the best practices for those who want to start meditation as a beginner. Our body is in constant movement and our eyes are wide awake which provides better clarity of things and connectivity with soil and nature. It helps to stay rooted in our ecosystem and so with our neighborhood.

• Loving Kindness Meditation:

             It is the practice that implies the ultimate form of self-love and kindness to you and others. It motivates people to cultivate four qualities of life – friendship, joy, compassion, and equity. Love is a bound-free feeling that has zero expectations. So our goal is to love ourselves and others. It also provokes a sentimental feeling of welfare and goodwill in society.

• Transcendental Meditation:

            Transcendental meditation dates further back to historic times. It was a practice taught by Lord Buddha to achieve mindfulness. It focuses mainly on good insights, concentration, and wisdom of life through calmness. The practice should be done for around 15-20 minutes daily. Various Vedic mantras is be chanted during the session which gives a relaxed state of mind beyond thinking.    

• Spiritual Meditation:

              In spiritual meditation, one must strip off worldly thoughts and try to achieve spirituality to meet the real self by entering various depths of the mind. One can achieve spirituality through prayer, religious activities, mantras, thoughts, and useful rituals. It helps us to achieve peace beyond the chaotic world.

Opting for any one of these techniques may help us to achieve mindfulness

and reduce anxiety at deeper levels. Take down a small test that could

make you aware of your weak areas and select a mediation technique that

suits you to improve your concentration.

2. Mindful Breathing

       It is the idea of concentrating or simply paying more attention to your breathing patterns, that is inhale and exhale. When you are stressed out various breathing exercises help to attain calmness and improve concentration. Mindful breathing helps us to focus on certain things and reduce the amount of time we are focused on stress and anxiety triggers. It also helps to reduce negative emotions and increases our attention to positive things. If one has better nasal breathing attained, it improves internal neural networks, better blood circulation, and better flow of energy in the body.

Below are few mindful breathing exercises must perform everyday:

• Counting your breaths.
• 2-4 Breathing.
• Deep Breathing for 1 minute.
• Fully energized breathing.
• Pranayama is a breathing exercise that means “Control your Breath” in Sanskrit.
• After taking control over deep breaths, try to do the practice 3 to 4 times a day.

3. Progressive Relaxation 

    Progressive Relaxation aims to provide better behavior and a calm state of mind. It aims to reduce tension and stress induced within the body. A lack of relaxation may affect our sleeping patterns and may also lead to insomnia and triggers emotional health negatively. It can be done by mostly focusing on an object or breath. The idea of Progressive relaxation is tense a group of muscles at a time while holding your body and then release the tension to produce calming effects and induce stress relief within the body. As a result, we seem to feel waves of wind or flow of energy through our bodies.

 The benefits of Progressive Relaxation are:

• Decreases TMJ disorder that stiffens and locking of the jaw and joint sockets.
• Improves Hypertension
• Reduces chances of Heart attack and stroke.
• Decreases the migraine frequency.
• Better sleep schedule.
• Reduces high blood pressure.
• Reduces body pains.
• Helps to improve concentration and IQ.
• Low Depression levels.
• Better grey matter structure.

4. Guided Meditation

    In Guided meditation, we train our minds to think in a certain way. In this process, there can be a group of people who meditate together to achieve the same cause. The procedure is really simple but acquiring a stable space for the same is not always easy. Our thoughts are always very wide and training them to think in a certain way is very hard. Guided meditation is often done concerning the combination of one or more techniques. Most of the time, there will be a practitioner who would guide us through this process.

   The procedure to be follow while doing Meditation

• Take your time first and get yourself comfortable.
• The guide will give various instructions at the beginning.
• Concentration is focused on a single point of thought or discussion.
• Engage in various imaginative thoughts after thought processing.
• Sets the participants into an insightful experience and helps to improve their views on various topics.
• Ask thought-provoking questions.
• Allow reflecting on your decisions and thoughts.
• Finally move forward to waking consciousness.

 5. Meditation using Visualization.

               Meditation is all about thoughts and their surrounding effects. Here, we are applying a technique of visualizing things to meditate. It can anything from a simple object to a goal one wants to achieve. Holding that thought in mind with an outcome and imagining it to be your reality is the key idea. Adding visualization to meditation can provide a better sense of creativity and improves emotional intelligence.

Benefits of positive visualization

• Turning your long-term and short-term goals into reality.
• Improved self-confidence.
• A better arrangement in life.
• Good athletic performance.
• Showing better sensory recognition.
• Improved immune system.
• Efficient creative cognitive skills.

There are various types of visualization that we could implement in our meditation routine and those are:

• Color Breathing

          It is also known as color focusing. It is done by focusing on a particular color or shade that brings positive effects when you think about it. Consider choosing your favorite color or a color that soothes your mind to focus better. Continue with focusing on color and think that the whole color is filling the body creating a positive impact. Then inhale thinking positive things and exhale out your negative emotions.

• Imaginary visualization

            In this technique, visualize being in a good place or doing things that make you happy. For example, “I am eating my favorite food.” or “Sitting on a couch and reading books.”  Imagining happy scenes could provide a positive impact on your body and mind. Visualizing happy thoughts or memories could lead to increased Serotonin and Dopamine levels in your body. So, visualize happy thoughts as you inhale and imagine further scenes as you exhale.

• Goal Visualization

       Our brain has a habit of planning for various goals and wishes as we process our thoughts. So here, we are going to take advantage of our brain’s this little habit. One can imagine their goals and then further imagine the steps involved in achieving the goals very clearly with very details that can be involved. Then finally think about successfully achieving that dream or goal into reality.

Studies have shown that people with better visualization of their goals have reached to achieve them faster. Also, telling affirmations about the fruition of goals may help to make yourself keener to achieve that goal.

6. Movements and Addiction

     Not every meditation technique is to stay still. Some of them involve movement. Addiction has become comparatively a part of our life. Many have failed and are deemed to live with addictions that have played a crucial role in the destruction of our careers. Experiments have shown that practicing meditation can impact positively when it comes to addiction. It has no withdrawal systems and improves a person’s mood very quickly.

When it comes to movement, Yoga is a great meditation practice that could substantially improve health, better breathing, and posture. Walking and other exercises can be included to attain better body movement. This may reduce jumping into unwanted thoughts and habits that could lead to drastic addiction activities.

Activities like Yoga, breathing exercises, morning walks, and playing indoor and outdoor games can increase brain power, improves concentration, and has therapeutic effects on the brain. These practices reduce substance addiction by indulging in various mind-calming activities. It reduces jumping into unwanted emotions and turns us into emotionally available individuals.  Also, helps to reduce depression and provides a better mood.

7. Usage of Sound baths for meditation

        A sound bath is usually listening to resonant sounds, vibrations, etc while sitting or lying down. It usually practices while immersing yourself in water or a bathtub as per your requirements which is not always a necessity. It soothes the body and the vibrations of the sound wave help to enhance our senses. The sounds are produced using a ringing bowl, bells, etc to produce resonant sound vibrations when someone strikes it. Tuning forks, crystal pyramids, and chimes are also used for the same.

A sound bath is a Tibetan technique that was practiced widely by monks to achieve spirituality and better peace of mind from the standard human realms. If a person is comfortable listening to soothing sounds and water, this practice is very helpful to reduce anxiety levels and connects with your intuition better.

But for some people, sound baths can be pretty intense. For people with migraine headaches and hearing aids, sound baths can be pretty stressful.  It can also trigger intense experiences, so it is advised that people refer to their before practicing sound baths. It is also advised to focus on what kind of sound bath therapy is suitable for your consciousness.

Benefits of Sound bath in Meditation:

• It has shown a comparative change in brainwave activity that creates a ripple effect through the body.
• Releases tension and stress while creating a relaxed state that engages with a calm meditative state wave, the theta wave.
• It also reduces physical pain, and blood pressure and improves immunity.
• Reduces Insomnia, sleepwalks, and sleep paralysis.
• Various kinds of chime music can cleanse your aura and body energy.
• Helps to find your inner peace and patterns of relaxation.
• Sound bath also enables better decision-making capacity and promotes multiple dimensions of your view of the world.

Conclusion:

          This article mostly talks about how meditation can help us to achieve stability in our daily life. It is an effective way to boost our energy and immune system. It improves our sleeping habits and is likely to improve our mood swings. Meditation helps us to concentrate on our present rather than our past negative emotions. Better adaptability and credibility in our life can be attained by practicing daily.

      Various meditation techniques like walking meditation, breathing meditation, etc. help to attain a common ground of natural stability and mindfulness increase. People with panic attacks and anxiety have attained better breathing patterns which have led to a substantial reduction in allergies caused due to pollution and industrial smoke. Chakra meditation produced an impact on energy flows and substance addiction has reduced to 70% percent of users. Thus, meditation promotes a better livelihood for people while achieving mindfulness.

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