Meditation for Beginners: Wake Up Your Dragon and Feel The Inner Power

In the changing scenarios, you and how you deal with the events is one constant. If you feel weak inside, you will be blown with the storm. But, if you cultivate inner power, you can battle any storm with ease and can emerge triumphant. You don’t have to be a zen expert to achieve that. In fact you can be in a total chaos and in the lowest point of your life to experience the benefits of meditation for beginners.

How To Feel The Inner Power

Another constant in this busy world is a monkey mind. A state where your mind is a home to unsettling and confusing thoughts that rips your soul from the absolute joys of life. It’s a part of you that stifles with your creativity, passion, and self-control. Also, a monkey mind is the easiest to distract and hardest to shut down. When the mind is constantly assaulted by negative feelings, thoughts, fears, doubts, you feel mental fatigue due to the constant pendulum of thoughts. Controlling the monkey mind, even to a certain extent i the first step in our meditation for beginners.

Tips for Controlling A Monkey Mind

1. Understand that it’s in your control

Firstly, you need to understand that you can tame your overly active and anxious mind. Studies reveal that within 90 seconds, you can return to normal brain activity after neurochemical triggers excite your brain. When you experience this, take deep breaths and focus.

2. Make an action plan to conquer the monkey mind

Try to identify your triggers and concentrate on avoiding them. If you feel that overworking or not be able to meet the deadlines make you anxious, then deal with the trigger. Set boundaries for yourself. Address the thoughts that come into your mind and move on with a clear head. Don’t reject them or try to stop them. Just observe them and let them fly away without inviting them to take over your mental space. Try to eventually liberate yourself with thoughts, at least for some time. Being able to choose your thoughts is the most important but also the most challenging part of not only meditation for beginners, but also in the advanced practitioners. Basically it’s all what meditation and life are about…

3. Meditate

It is a primary and effective way to calm the monkey mind. During meditation practices, your monkey mind will go wild. Keep your focus on the breath or an object, and fleeting thoughts in the background will be of no use to you.

4. Live in the present

We hardly live in the moment. Either we are dwelling in the past or thinking about the future. We are unable to live in the present because of a monkey mind. Take out time to observe your surroundings, spend moments in nature, and become mindful. With mindfulness, you can embrace the present.

5. Observe Your Thoughts

While enjoying the current moment, be aware of your thoughts. Do not judge them but analyze why you feel a certain way. Observe and control your thoughts to have a calm brain.

How to Meditate?

Sit Comfortably Easy Pose (Sukhasana), Lotus Pose (Padmasana) Firelog Pose (Agnistambhasana) are the positions best suited for meditation. Adhere to the postural alignment and make yourself comfortable in the pose. Focus on your breath throughout the meditation, do not let go off the breathing. Focus on your breath. Feel how the breath moves, where you feel the breath most. Keep your breath steady and deep. Relax Your Body In meditation, relax the tensed muscles of your body. Hold your breath and release it with a long exhalation. As you do, throw the tensions out. Do not Judge As you meditate, myriad thoughts will cross your mind. Do not judge. Be patient. Focus on the breath and let there be peace within. Chant A Mantra Chant sacred words (mantra) for focus and concentration. Mantras carry positive, cleansing, and healing energy.

Where to Meditate?

Place It’s recommended to honor your practice at the same place. As it’s meditation for beginners, means you are not that familiar with the practice so it’s better to do it WHEREVER than not doing it all. Preferably your chosen place is spacious, ventilated, illuminated, and scented. Your meditative corner should be peaceful so that you are not distracted. Time and Duration The time of meditation and duration depends on the availability of time, circumstances, and preferences. You can meditate either in the morning or in the evening as convenient. When you are first starting with your meditation for beginners, start slow as it can be difficult for you to sit for longer periods. Begin with 5 minutes and slowly increase the duration. There are multiple apps such as Insight Timer which can put you to meditate and wake you up from your meditative state with a pleasant selected sound of a gong or meditation bowl.

What to Wear?

Clothes Whatever you want. Applies to life as well. Wear anything that is comfortable, light, and airy. You can do away with the shoes. Try colourful yoga pants and a solid coloured t-shirt.  Add some fun to your clothing for it will make you feel vibrant. Props Keep your yoga mat rolled out in a room. Keep yoga props like cushion, yoga block handy. These props will provide you comfort so that you hold your meditative pose for a longer period of time.

Meditation for Inner Strength, Power and Endurance

The focus of meditation is to help you find positive energy within, to help you sail through the obstacles, or to start your day with a rejuvenated feeling and ready to take on everything that lives pushes on you. Long term it will give you the strength to stay untouched by daily obstacles. They will happen, as long as you are alive, but through regular meditation, you are going to distant yourself from them.

Let’s make a simple meditation exercise:

Come into a comfortable seated position on a floor with knees crossed at your feet and arms on the knees. Hand positioned in Gyan Mudra. As you find your spot, close your eyes and bring all of your attention to your breath. Bring your attention to the space between your eyebrows, to the third eye chakra. Breathe through your nose and exhale deeply from your mouth. As you breathe, allow yourself to sink deeper into the meditative state. Inhale deeply and long exhale. Become aware of the sensations. Let go of any worries and thoughts and dedicate this time to yourself. Inhale, bring in strength. Exhale, let go of your fears. Inhale, bring in power; Exhale, let go of your worries. Inhale, bring in confidence and exhale. Become present. Now, repeat a mantra that you resonates with. Hold on to the mantra for focus.

Can we meditate without sitting still?

Of course, we can! Whatever you do, with your utmost attention, calmness, and mindful use of all your senses can be considered as meditation in a larger sense. In case, you feel that sitting meditation is challenging, commit to these meditative alternatives:

Take A Walk

Meditation can be in motion. Take a walk in an open space. Breathe as you put forward your steps and watch them. Take slow and small steps. Walking meditation is a meditation in action.

Animal Time

Playing with furry animals like dogs and cats can be relaxing and calming in a way meditation is. Don’t have a pet? Watching fish swim in an aquarium or pond has a similar effect. Mindful animal time results in the increase of good hormones and decrease of negativity.

Music

Listen to meditative songs, calming tunes to help focus your mind. Sound waves rejuvenate the nerves.

Art

Making art is sort of a meditation experience where you channel your mind into the artwork you create. You can check Marzena Bielecka art for intuitive, meditation inspired creation.

Maintain a Journal

Meditation allows you to de-clutter. A great way to do this is to pen down your thoughts and feelings on a piece of paper. Vent it out. Get some space. Feel light.

Meditation Fosters Inner Peace

Imagine days when a hurricane of thoughts, feelings, clutter spirals in your soul resulting in the development of anxiety and depression. Physically, mentally, and emotionally devastated days are those. Meditation helps you to remain peaceful, positive, and tranquil within yourself.

Focus on Postive Emotions and Gratitude

We spend a lot of time reacting to the negativity around that make us feel overwhelmed. Meditation teaches you to observe the world around you. It encourages you to release the negative energy and to find positivity in everything you think and do. It is the art that makes you find perfect moments in everyday hustle. One reason for your fear can be a lack of concentration. Improve concentration with meditation. Meditation clears distractions and worries. After meditation, you are able to focus better on good things, on what is right rather than being caught in past fears and future thoughts. Anger is your greatest enemy. Another greatest benefit of meditation is that it enkindles the power of forgiveness within you. When you learn to forgive and forget, you naturally become peaceful. Only with a calm mind, you can take on the world.

Do your daily activities with mindful attention

Mindfulness meditation is a practice that provides mental clarity, headspace, and a change of perspective. In a meditative stance, the distractions melt and worries fade away. It is when awareness arises, and shift in perspective takes place. It also allows creativity to flow. Feel alive with meditation. The silence of meditation awakens all the senses. You become more self-aware, and then you know how to give your best in every endeavour.

7 Things You Need to Know about Transcendental Meditation and Why This May Be Exactly What You Need

What’s a young, cool dude like you doing at a web page that discusses TM? Isn’t this a movement that belongs back in the ‘60s? The Beatles didn’t invent it, and the movement started in the 1950s. An Indian guru known as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi presented the technique. And no; it’s not outdated. No; the fact that you’re young and cool doesn’t prevent you from being interested in it. No; meditation is not for Instagram girls who like taking photos of themselves meditating by the sea. They don’t even meditate; they are focused on looking sexy and snapping the perfect picture. Well if they are focused enough, could we call that meditation? Never mind. The point is that transcendental meditation is a pretty good interest for you to have. It makes you a better person. Being a better person never goes out of style. Oh look; we already mentioned a few facts about TM that you didn’t know. Want some more? Here are 7 impressive things you need to know about transcendental meditation:

1. Oprah Likes It

Whatever Oprah promotes goes mainstream. Hey; the woman has a huge audience that respects her, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Oprah Winfrey promotes a movement known as Transcendental Meditation for Women. Anyone interested in writing a comment about women discriminating men? Be my guest; the comment section is open. But no; this technique is not discriminatory. Male celebrities practice it, too. Who? Dr. Oz himself. You may like or dislike Dr. Oz, but one thing is for sure: the things he says about transcendental meditation are absolutely valid. The practice had a huge (positive) influence in his life. Do you want a cooler celebrity as an example? How about David Lynch? He even wrote a book called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. It’s a good read to check out if you want the first-hand experience shared in an easy-to-read way. David Lynch is known as one of the most creative directors the world of cinema has ever seen. Do you know what helped him stay insanely creative over the years? You guessed it: TM.

2. Some People Oppose Meditation Without Knowing What They Are Talking About

When you start practicing TM, you’ll be so excited about the changes you experience that you’ll want to inspire everyone you know to try it. It’s that beginner enthusiasm that most of us are going through. You’ll feel like you could change the world if you could convince everyone to meditate. You’re right; the world would be a better place if everyone meditated. But the problem is that you can’t convince everyone to try. Don’t worry; you’ll learn your lesson. You’ll realize that it’s smarter just to practice. You’ll talk about meditation only when it’s relevant in a conversation. That’s because people have silly prejudices towards meditation. These are only a few of the comments you’ll encounter:

• “Meditation is not for me. I couldn’t possibly sit still without doing anything.”

This is a common comment you’ll hear from people who never bothered trying. These are the hyperactive personalities you’ll see shaking their legs all the time even when they are sitting down, trying to stay still. Here’s a paradox: those are the ones who need meditation the most. With commitment, even they can achieve stillness.

3. “It’s silly.”

This is the category of people you can’t really convince, so this is the only answer you could give to such a comment:

• Uhm, no it’s not!
• “OMG, you meditate? Did you know that you’re opening your mind for demons to enter? That’s dangerous, and it’s not spirituality. It’s demonology if you will.”

This is the most difficult category of opponents to deal with. They are so stuck in their prejudices that you can’t decide if they are serious or they are trolling you. But to clarify this – no; demons won’t enter when you meditate and calm your mind down (I had a good laugh while writing that sentence because it’s just so obvious). This is a mental technique that puts you in direct connection with yourself. It helps you find peace behind the chaos of your mind. When you isolate it from Hinduism, it’s completely unreligious. It’s nothing but a mental technique that even psychiatrists often recommend to their patients. No; they don’t recommend it because they want demons to enter the patient’s mind so they would come back for another session. LOL! They suggest it because it’s effective and they are professional enough to accept the things that are effective.

4. Transcendental Meditation Has Benefits Proven by Scientific Research

If you search Google Scholar for the keywords “transcendental meditation,” you’ll find several studies to explore. You know how academics are with their big words and all, but some of these studies are clear enough to read. Here’s what one study found: “As predicted, experienced meditators were significantly less anxious and more internally controlled than beginning meditators.” This tells us an important thing: with regular practice, TM can help you put anxiety under control. It helps you control your thoughts and emotions. It just makes you more stable. Is there a man among us who doesn’t want that? Also, this study found that experienced meditators were significantly more self-actualized.

5. It’s Not Recommended to Learn It Online

Transcendental meditation is based on a mantra. The mantra is a one- or two-syllable word that you silently repeat while meditating. You don’t know its meaning, and you don’t focus on discovering it. Its purpose is to consume your complete attention, leaving you in a state of inner silence. This video, featuring Maharishi himself, clarifies that: Video. Source Where do you find that mantra? Well that’s a question that many people have to their minds. Google will surely lead you to some mantras. But the TM method is based on individual mantras, which are being assigned by a teacher during instructions. Plus, learning meditation under proper guidance is much more effective than trying to meditate through a YouTube video. You get to connect with the teacher, and they are there to direct you if you get anxious or you can’t stay still. So trying to find a teacher and attending a TM course is the best thing to do if you’re trying to learn the technique.

6. You Can Meditate Anywhere

At first, you’ll get used to meditating in a quiet space, which allows you to focus on your inner world. But with time and practice, you’ll realize that meditation is something you can carry with you. If you’re stuck in public transport, you can close your eyes and meditate. If you’re stuck in an airport jam, you can sit and meditate. When your mind becomes strong enough, it can isolate itself from all distractions coming from the outside. But please don’t do it for Instagram photos. Just meditate for yourself. Showing off doesn’t make you cool.

7. You Don’t Have to Change Your Beliefs

You’re a believer, but not of Hinduism? It’s okay; meditation is not a religious practice. It’s a mental technique, and you can practice it. Do you eat meat? It’s okay. It’s your choice, and the teacher won’t ask you to become a vegan to get instructions. Students, workers, bosses, older adults, men, and women – anyone can meditate as long as they choose to do so.

There’s Some Controversy Around It

Money is the biggest controversy. TM can get expensive. Don’t worry about Oprah; she can afford it. But what about us ordinary people? Is meditation reserved for the rich? The price of an introductory course can reach over $1,000. When you go through the program, you’ll be able to meditate on your own. It’s no wonder why they are not teaching it on YouTube, huh? They want the money. So are you willing to pay so much to learn transcendental meditation? Some people are, and they don’t regret the decision. This is an incredibly useful technique that changes their lives. But you should know that it’s not the only type of meditation that exists. If you can’t afford a certified course and you still want to meditate, you can simply try other techniques. There are several types of meditations you can try, and it’s pretty possible to find a decent local yoga teacher who won’t charge a crazy price for a course. Speaking of controversy, the TM community gets a bit weird. Most people stay normal – they meditate. But some are outside the normal pattern. Tony Nader, the current leader of the TM movement, was named Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam. It means he’s a great king and he wears a golden crown around. And he’s not the only one in the organization wearing a crown. Go figure.

Practice Like a Normal Person

Did you notice how we started this article with bragging about meditation but ended on a slightly different note? Practicing TM is great. Yes; the technique has the power to change your life. But it can also drag you into a cult if you give away too much of yourself. When you choose to practice, it’s important to preserve your sanity. Meditation can make you a better person. It can make you a more relaxed person. And no; wearing a crown is not cool. Standing your ground is!