Around 5,000-3,500 BCE, meditation was used by many individuals and religious groups throughout India. It was a practice that connected the mind with the body in order to create a stronger awareness of our actions, emotions, feelings, and behavior. It was used for enlightenment and to go beyond the mind in order to find peace, happiness, and bliss. Our minds are extremely complex, and multidimensional. It requires focus, concentration, and the proper tools in order to silence the mind and gain mental clarity. Mindfulness takes practice and patience but can be done with the right tools and guidance.
When you first begin meditating, you may find it hard to turn your mind completely off. In order to do this successfully, it is recommended that you sit on the floor with a straight back (or lie down) and try focusing on your breath. Pay attention to how the air feels as it enters your nose, travels through your windpipe, fills/expands your stomach, and how it feels leaving your body. Every time you notice your mind wandering, return to your breath. By doing this, it trains your minds to remain in the present moment and become self-aware. If you begin to feel antsy or feel that you cannot sit still, tense an individual muscle, relax it, and then direct your breath into that portion of your body by focusing on that area as you breathe in and out. Usually this technique is the most effective when you start from the head/facial muscles and work your way down your body — tensing and relaxing your shoulders next, then chest, then arms, then hands, then abdomen, then hips, until you reach your feet. It is suggested that you should try to aim for a quick five-minute meditation to start and work your way up as you feel that you have mastered the ability to turn the “inner chatter” off.
Meditation is not only great to improve mindfulness, mental clarity, and focus, but it also great for stress reduction, emotional health, energy levels, building intuition, decreasing inflammation, producing more serotonin, improving metabolism, immune function, reducing blood pressure, improving sleeping habits, reducing aging and much more. Just five minutes of mindful meditations each day can improve your overall health and reconnect your mind with your body. Daily meditations can also help to release old stored emotions, thoughts, memories, and feelings that no longer serve. One may experience emotional releases during their meditation sessions and that is ok! This is completely normal and means that your body is healing on a deep subconscious level. Things from the past may surface and when this happens, it is important to acknowledge it, address it, and release whatever you do not wish to hold on to.
Our minds are extremely powerful and can truly shape us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is considered to be the “hub” of our health, governing everything aspect of the body. Everything we do, how we act, how we feel internally, externally, and mentally is all controlled by the mind. When the mind is aligned with the body, and spirit through meditation, optimal health can then be achieved.
Hello Health 