Easy Monday Meditation

The benefits of meditating on a regular basis are well documented.  If you’re interested in learning more about meditation research and what it has shown, take a look at the links below. If you’re interested in learning how to do a simple meditation, read on!

Lots of people are under the impression that meditation is clearing your mind of all thought. Your mind’s job, however, is to think. Asking your mind not to think is like asking your lungs not to breathe or your heart not to beat.

As opposed to clearing your mind, meditation is the practice of focusing your mind on one thing – your breath, a sound, an image, a sensation, a word or phrase.

A Simple Meditation:

1. Find a calm place to sit or lie comfortably – in a chair, or on the floor.
2. Close your eyes and breathe in and out through your nose.
3. Notice the details of your breath: the sound, the sensation, the rise and fall of your belly and chest, the coolness of your breath as you inhale and its warmth as you exhale.
4. Pick one of the details you’ve noticed and focus on it.
5. If as you’re breathing, you notice that your mind is beginning to wander to other thoughts, gently bring your attention back to your breath. (This process of noticing your mind wandering and returning it to what you choose to focus on is the key to meditating.)
6. Continue for 5 – 15 minutes or as long as you feel comfortable.
7. Enjoy the calm. Try to carry it with you through the rest of your day.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200304/the-benefits-meditation

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/HQ01070

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/meditation-0505.html

http://news.yale.edu/2011/11/21/tuning-out-how-brains-benefit-meditation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43006-2005Jan2.html