Meditation and Mindfulness to calm your Soul

Proven that regular meditation entities are relaxing, it often is recommended as a releasing-technique by medical doctors. The impact of the meditative state is neurologically determined to measurable change brainwaves. The heartbeat gets slower, the breath deeper and the muscle tensions are reducing. Moreover, scientists found out that even a short amount of meditation training displays a significant change in the cognition. After four days of meditation training, participants without any advanced knowledge of meditation shown an improvement of spatial visual processing, memory performance and the ability to maintain attention.

The most commonly known meditation stance is crossed-legged, but you can also do it while kneeling. It is imperative to have an erect back to avoid any spinal column-pain. There are also some meditations which can be done while walking or dancing or which need some special items like drums or any other musical elements. When meditating it is helpful to repeatedly do it at the same place, but not necessarily. The advantage of doing it at the same place is that after a while your spirit will calm down the second you enter the place. The ideal meditation place is beautifully furnished, for example with a little table with flowers and some candles. Another good idea is to have a shelve with an inspiring picture on it. Most importantly the room your meditating in needs to be quiet, meaning without any distraction. Not having a certain place to meditate, you can also use the same mat or pillow every time as long as you have your specific item you connect with meditation.

There are two types of meditation: contemplative and active meditation. The former one is where you do not move and dwell in the same position, which is why it is also called passive meditation. This includes techniques like Vipassana, Zazen, Samatha and the modern mindfulness exercises. The second one is where you perform physical exercises or even are using your voice. This comprised Yoga, Tantra, reciting prayers or mantras and a couple of martial art styles. The essential pivotal of meditation in general is to concentrate and bundle up attention.

5 ways to practice meditation for beginners

If you want to start meditating and enjoy being one with your environment and yourself, here are five great meditation exercises for beginners:

1. Breath meditation: When executing Breath meditation, you only concentrate on your breath and put any other disturbing thoughts aside. Feel how your breath fills up your lungs and is being ejected through your mouth or nose. Breathe consciously and deeply.
2. Visualisation: Use your power of imagination and devise a place where you feel at ease and can refuel your energy. It does not matter if the place really exists or if it is just in your head. Try to contrive as many details as you can to address all senses.
3. Affirmation: Think of words or any phrases which you can say to yourself while meditating. Those affirmations should be short, distinct and foremost they should be formulated in a positive way. Avoid negations.
4. Attention for your body: Step by step, guide your attention to every single part of your body. Start with your toes, your feet, up to your calves and knees and so on. Feel how they move and how they are belonging to you.
5. Grounding: Draw your attention to the ground beneath your feet and imagine how roots grow out of your feet permeating the ground, every single floor of the house till they reach the earth. Feel how the energy flowing in your body comes from there. Before you end this exercise, you need to imagine how the roots come back to you withdrawing in your feet again.

It is important to practice meditation on a regular basis, preferably every day. However, it is also beneficial if you practice 2-3 times a week. The training sessions do not have to be long, for the beginning it is enough doing it for 5-10 minutes. As you improve you can increase your amount of training sessions per week and adjust the length of it. Find your perfect meditation ritual. Be one with nature and yourself. Be happy, be mindfulness.