A Peaceful Mind

Meditation is a practice used by many different cultures to quieten the mind. Despite some misconceptions, it’s now easier than ever to implement the practice into your daily life with a host of new apps and guides that promise to deliver stillness and a

Meditate. We have all probably been told to do this at one point in our lives, but where do you begin? With lockdown and working from home, looking after the health of our minds has come to the forefront like never before. Here we look at how, with a little discipline and effort, we can train our mind to focus, tune out negative thoughts, become more productive and learn more about ourselves.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is a simple practice which can help reduce our stress levels, increase calmness and clarity and promote happiness in our lives. It’s not about stopping our thinking or emptying our mind. Rather, it’s more about paying close attention to our physical sensations, thoughts and emotions, or as Oprah Winfrey, who is a huge fan of meditation, says: “The outside world is constantly trying to convince you you’re not enough. But you don’t have to take the bait. Meditation helps you resist. What I know for sure, and have had to learn through much trial and error is that the voice that truly matters is the silent voice of awareness, consciousness and aliveness.” There are different effective types of meditation, and the degree of success differs from person to person. There are many popular types of meditation to get you started. Headspace

is one of the most downloaded mediation-based apps currently. The guided format is particularly useful to beginners as it uses illustrations and visuals to talk you through how the mind behaves during meditation. It gradually leads you through the techniques and suggests ways you can integrate them into your everyday life. It’s ideal for those who struggle with unguided meditation (or silent meditation) where you simply sit in silence and pay attention to your body and thoughts.

As Jacquie Sadek, the spiritual guru of Body Tree Wellness Studio, says, meditation is not the cessation of thoughts but rather watching your thoughts like a silent witness who reveals itself to you within the spaces of your

thoughts. She explains that meditation allows our minds to experience stillness, peace and clarity. It also opens up intuition, insight, spiritual vision and foresight.

The first step, she says, is deciding how you will sit and being able to sit in a comfortable position as well as creating an environment that induces relaxation. It’s important to consider a quiet space without a fussy background, lighting a candle, burning essential oils, wearing comfortable clothing, playing soothing music and choosing a specific time in your day that you know you will be able to commit to the meditation. As a beginner start with five minutes and use a timer. Each week add an extra minute or two. Interestingly, Sadek taught meditation to herself by focusing on tying her shoelaces. Each time her mind wandered off she would untie the shoelace and then tie it again until she reached a state of pure focus or mindfulness. It’s possible to do this through many simple tasks like washing the dishes, cooking, walking, sweeping, vacuuming, fixing your bed and more. The idea is to be mindful and focused, she says. That is meditation.

Also an avid practitioner and meditator is Seva (which means selfless service for the betterment of the community), co-founder Shadi Enbashi. For her meditation is a practice of going beyond the analytical mind to clear the subconscious mind from limiting beliefs that play a big role in the way our reality is shaped. She says that one of the common misconceptions is associating meditation with relaxation. Feelings of relaxation can be experienced at certain stages of meditation, but it isn’t the ultimate goal of meditation.

Meanwhile, alternative medicine pioneer, doctor, selfhelp guru and New York Times bestselling author, Deepak Chopra, says: “Meditation is a progressive quieting of the mind until you get to the source of the mind, which is pure consciousness.” He has dedicated his life to helping human beings unlock their true potential and discover how to reach a heightened awareness and higher consciousness. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, Deepak has written a total of 90 books. He has also starred in The Mindfulness Movement documentary, sharing his personal story about how mindfulness has transformed his life. Recently in an interview to EuroNews, he explained how people can reach a daily state of enlightened awareness with four simple steps: “Press the pause button for a moment in your life. Observe yourself and your reaction to react all the time. And then, use the S.T.O.P. formula. S – stands for stop, T – take three deep breaths and smile, O – observe what’s happening around you and inside you and P – proceed with compassion and awareness.”

He is also in the process of creating a digital AI version of himself, called Digital Deepak. If you want to hold a conversation, join the waitlist on digitaldeepak.ai.

Simple meditation steps for beginners

Sit or lie comfortably. Don’t slouch – but your back doesn’t need to be ramrodstraight either. Use extra pillows under your knees or anywhere else to make yourself comfortable.

Close your eyes. It helps to bring into focus our body experiences.

Make no effort to control your breath. Simply breathe naturally. Focus your attention on your breath and how your body moves with each inhalation and exhalation. Don’t try to control the pace or intensity of your breathing and if your mind wanders bring it back to focusing on your breathing again.

Begin with this practice for two or three minutes each day and then lengthen your timing. It may take days, weeks or months to extend your timings.

Other types of meditations

Body scan: This technique is designed to sync your body and mind by performing a mental scan, from the top of your head to your toes.

Transcendental meditation: This is a simple, natural and easily learned technique that’s done twice a day sitting comfortably in a chair for about 15-20 minutes. It is about allowing your active agitated thinking mind to just settle down and access the sense of calm that lies deep within every one of us.

Float therapy: This is one trend that is catching on fast. It’s all about matching the water temperature to your skin temperature and letting yourself float. You can also add some Epsom salts to the water in the tub and play some soft music to enhance your experience.

Zen meditation: The goal is to find a comfortable position, focus on breathing and observe your thoughts without being judgmental.

Breathing: Proper breathing is essential in mediation. Often, unwanted thoughts may emerge in our minds, and we tend to engage in them. This disturbs our peace of mind and, in turn, our breathing. Without breathing we cannot go into withdrawal of the senses and it ultimately stops the meditation process.