How long would you like to meditate? Sometimes we only have time for a quick check-in, sometimes we can dip in a little longer. Meditating every day helps build awareness, fosters resilience, and lower stress. Try to make meditation a habit by practicing with these short meditations from our founding editor Barry Boyce. Find time to site once a day for one month and see what you notice.
Once you have explored a basic seated meditation practice, you might want to consider other forms of meditation including walking and lying down. Whereas the previous meditations used the breath as a focal point for practice, these meditations below focus on different parts of the body.
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Begin to focus your attention on different parts of your body. You can spotlight one particular area or go through a sequence like this: toes, feet (sole, heel, top of foot), through the legs, pelvis, abdomen, lower back, upper back, chest shoulders, arms down to the fingers, shoulders, neck, different parts of the face, and head. For each part of the body, linger for a few moments and notice the different sensations as you focus.
You cannot will yourself into particular feelings toward yourself or anyone else. Rather, you can practice reminding yourself that you deserve happiness and ease and that the same goes for your child, your family, your friends, your neighbors, and everyone else in the world.
7) What if I get sexually (and physically) aroused by thoughts in my head?
No big deal. Meditation stokes the imagination. In time, every thought and sensation will pop up (so to speak). And come back. Same old story. Release the thought, bring awareness and receptivity to body sensations, bring attention back to your chosen object (the breath, in this case). Repeat.
A practice for difficult emotions, RAIN is an acronym for Recognition of what is going on; Acceptance of the experience, just as it is; Interest in what is happening; and Nurture with loving presence.
Meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions. The earliest records of meditation (dhyana) are found in the Upanishads, and meditation plays a salient role in the contemplative repertoire of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism.[5] Since the 19th century, Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where they have also found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health.
Meditation may significantly reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and pain,[6] and enhance peace, perception,[7] self-concept, and well-being.[8][9][10] Research is ongoing to better understand the effects of meditation on health (psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular) and other areas.
The English meditation is derived from Old French meditacioun, in turn from Latin meditatio from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder".[11][12] In the Catholic tradition, the use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to at least the 12th-century monk Guigo II,[12][13] before which the Greek word theoria was used for the same purpose.
Apart from its historical usage, the term meditation was introduced as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, referred to as dhyna in Hinduism and Buddhism and which comes from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate or meditate.[14][15][16]
Meditation has proven difficult to define as it covers a wide range of dissimilar practices in different traditions.[note 1] In popular usage, the word "meditation" and the phrase "meditative practice" are often used imprecisely to designate practices found across many cultures.[18][21] These can include almost anything that is claimed to train the attention of mind or to teach calmness or compassion.[22] There remains no definition of necessary and sufficient criteria for meditation that has achieved widespread acceptance within the modern scientific community.
Some of the difficulty in precisely defining meditation has been in recognizing the particularities of the many various traditions;[23] and theories and practice can differ within a tradition.[24] Taylor noted that even within a faith such as "Hindu" or "Buddhist", schools and individual teachers may teach distinct types of meditation.[25]Ornstein noted that "Most techniques of meditation do not exist as solitary practices but are only artificially separable from an entire system of practice and belief."[26] For instance, while monks meditate as part of their everyday lives, they also engage in the codified rules and live together in monasteries in specific cultural settings that go along with their meditative practices.
Dictionaries give both the original Latin meaning of "think[ing] deeply about (something)";[web 2] as well as the popular usage of "focusing one's mind for a period of time",[web 2] "the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religious activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed",[web 3] and "to engage in mental exercise (such as concentrating on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness."[web 1]
In modern psychological research, meditation has been defined and characterized in various ways. Many of these emphasize the role of attention[18][27][28][29] and characterize the practice of meditation as attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "discursive thinking"[note 2] or "logic"[note 3] mind[note 4] to achieve a deeper, more devout, or more relaxed state.
Bond et al. (2009) identified criteria for defining a practice as meditation "for use in a comprehensive systematic review of the therapeutic use of meditation", using "a 5-round Delphi study with a panel of 7 experts in meditation research" who were also trained in diverse but empirically highly studied (Eastern-derived or clinical) forms of meditation[note 5]:
Other criteria deemed important [but not essential] involve a state of psychophysical relaxation, the use of a self-focus skill or anchor, the presence of a state of suspension of logical thought processes, a religious/spiritual/philosophical context, or a state of mental silence.[20]
In the West, meditation techniques have often been classified in two broad categories, which in actual practice are often combined: focused (or concentrative) meditation and open monitoring (or mindfulness) meditation:[34]
Direction of mental attention... A practitioner can focus intensively on one particular object (so-called concentrative meditation), on all mental events that enter the field of awareness (so-called mindfulness meditation), or both specific focal points and the field of awareness.[35]
The Buddhist tradition often divides meditative practice into samatha, or calm abiding,[41][42] and vipassana, insight. Mindfulness of breathing, a form of focused attention, calms down the mind; this calmed mind can then investigate the nature of reality,[43][44][45] by monitoring the fleeting and ever-changing constituents of experience, by reflective investigation, or by "turning back the radiance," focusing awareness on awareness itself and discerning the true nature of mind as awareness itself.
Asanas or body postures such as padmasana (full-lotus, half-lotus), cross-legged sitting, seiza, and kneeling positions are popular meditative postures in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism,[48] although other postures such as sitting, supine (lying), and standing are also used. Meditation is also sometimes done while walking, known as kinhin, while doing a simple task mindfully, known as samu, or while lying down, known as shavasana.[49][50]
The Transcendental Meditation technique recommends practice of 20 minutes twice per day.[51] Some techniques suggest less time,[43] especially when starting meditation,[52] and Richard Davidson has quoted research saying benefits can be achieved with a practice of only 8 minutes per day.[53] Research shows improvement in meditation time with simple oral and video training.[54] Some meditators practice for much longer,[55][56] particularly when on a course or retreat.[57] Some meditators find practice best in the hours before dawn.[58]
Some religions have traditions of using prayer beads as tools in devotional meditation.[59][60][61] Most prayer beads and Christian rosaries consist of pearls or beads linked together by a thread.[59][60] The Roman Catholic rosary is a string of beads containing five sets with ten small beads. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox have traditions of using prayer ropes called Comboschini or Meqetaria as an aid to prayerful meditation. The Hindu japa mala has 108 beads (the figure 108 in itself having spiritual significance), as well as those used in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Hare Krishna tradition, Jainism and Buddhist prayer beads.[62][63] Each bead is counted once as a person recites a mantra until the person has gone all the way around the mala.[63] The Muslim misbaha has 99 beads. There is also quite a variance when it comes to materials used for beads. Beads made from seeds of rudraksha trees are considered sacred by devotees of Shiva, while followers of Vishnu revere the wood that comes from the tulsi plant.[64]
The Buddhist literature has many stories of Enlightenment being attained through disciples being struck by their masters. According to T. Griffith Foulk, the encouragement stick was an integral part of the Zen practice:
In the Rinzai monastery where I trained in the mid-1970s, according to an unspoken etiquette, monks who were sitting earnestly and well were shown respect by being hit vigorously and often; those known as laggards were ignored by the hall monitor or given little taps if they requested to be hit. Nobody asked about the 'meaning' of the stick, nobody explained, and nobody ever complained about its use.[65]
Neuroscientist and long-time meditator Richard Davidson has expressed the view that having a narrative can help the maintenance of daily practice.[53] For instance he himself prostrates to the teachings, and meditates "not primarily for my benefit, but for the benefit of others".[53] 152ee80cbc
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