Meditation Healing for Beginners

breathing

INTRODUCTION

Start to meditate is one the smartest things we can do in our life, as this is power, whatever we do, meditation helps us do it better, as it is the practice of paying attention and focusing on our own awareness.

When we meditate, we can experience pleasant things, from simplest to more radical, as:

Increase of power, as we focus on our own awareness

Wider use of our senses

Increase inner sense of peace, calming our mind down

Experience the transcendent interconnection with things and God or the universal Self, whatever the name you want to give to this experience.

Meditation is a very simple concept, and very difficult to practice perfectly, but fortunately, you don't have to practice it perfectly to derive a benefit: you just have to practice it. Nobody really practices it perfectly, but even just starting it can make a huge difference. It is the process of meditation that makes it so useful, not how you perform it.

Before starting spending time and energy on any activity, you want to know what you will get.

It's a bit like going to the gym, or taking a cooking class: If you don't expect to become leaner and stronger, or learn to cook, doing these activities is completely useless. The same also applies to meditation.

Why should you spend 10, 15, or even 20 minutes of your precious free time every day following your breath or repeating the same sentence instead of, for example, playing a video game, taking a walk, or surfing the web? Simple: for the countless benefits that meditation offers in managing the very high emotional and spiritual price and side effects of life in the postmodern era, as anxiety, stress, alienation, loneliness, depression, etc.

When you think about meditation, maybe you imagine an Asian monk or a yogi who is sitting with his legs crossed and immersed in a very deep concentration. It is true, indeed, that meditation has become in the temples and monasteries of the Far and Middle East, but fortunately, it has come to the West in the past hundred years and has become an integral part of the yoga practice classes, of the most popular fitness centers and glossy magazines.

Meditation requires a transition from thinking and doing, to simply being and therefore our ancestors started ahead of us: in fact, they lived a simpler existence, they had a thought more rudimentary but they enjoyed a much stronger connection with nature and the sacred. Obviously, you can practice meditation, even without knowing where it comes from; however, tracing its development allows us to place it in a historical and spiritual context.

For thousands of years, people have meditated, driven by the desire for spiritual enlightenment, to experience higher moods and to change behaviors, fascinated by the health and longevity often shown by those who meditate and, for those who are more adventurous, also by the charm of what can be discovered.

As far as we know, our ancestors never objectively measured the effects of meditation: they were sufficiently satisfied with what teachers and practitioners claimed. In addition, there has never been the problem of quantifying the practice, but of experiencing its effects directly from within.

But when meditation reached the West, the researchers came up with the desire to try (or refute) the many benefits it was said to have. As the methods of investigation have become increasingly sophisticated, the research has become fascinating, revealing new and surprising aspects: did you know, for example, that meditation can change the shape of the brain?

As an effective practice for reprogramming the mind and opening the heart, meditation is unrivaled. But meditation, traditionally, is never alone: it is always accompanied by the importance of motivation and attitude that are qualities of the mind that feed the will to practice it, and that pushes you to move forward when things get difficult.

Some meditation teachers may ask you to donate your meditation for the well-being of others, instead of reserving all the benefits that derive only for yourself; others may ask you to consider your deepest desires—what a Zen master would call your innermost instances.

Whatever the terms used to talk about it, you must clearly observe in the depths of your mind and heart the reasons that lead you to meditate, and only later can you appeal to this motivation when the practice starts to seem flat and sterilized, and that always happens.

Perhaps meditation has seduced you in the hope that it will alleviate pain, suffering, despair of some kind, or perhaps it is only the quality of your life that does not satisfy you: the level of stress, the lack of joy, too frantic rhythms.

Whatever your story, you must be sufficiently motivated if you want to make a change in your daily routine, slow down the pace and turn your attention inward for 15 to 20 minutes a day, and this book will help you first to identify what type of dissatisfaction torments you and how to keep alive the motivation that will allow you to meditate week after week.

For thousands of years, wise and experts from East and West, have repeated that problems originate in the mind. They are right: The mind can make heaven hell, and hell heaven. But how is it possible to exploit this knowledge if we don't even know what to do with it?

You have probably already noticed that inside you can find a lot of thoughts, ideas, mental representations, impulses, preferences, and emotions. Without a diagram, it may be difficult to get out of it, as it is difficult to understand something amid the chaos of cables and pipes of the car engine. You can then find out how meditation can modify these automatisms, helping you to focus and calm the mind, penetrating deeply and freeing it from the consolidated patterns that cause you stress and suffering. In the end, you may not even need a lobotomy!

Most people, when they start practicing meditation, have to ask themselves some important questions; when they start, others arise. If you have questions to ask, you are in the right place, as this book will try to answer to some of the main questions new practicing typically raise at the beginning, such as Will meditation relax me too much? or Can you meditate sitting on a chair or lying down? or also Am I meditating the right way?

We are sure this book will cover all these questions and even more, introducing you to this fantastic world, fascinating human being over the centuries.

All these main concepts on meditation will be covered in this book, together with a large number of basic exercises to start practicing and improving your understanding thanks to real practice.

Enjoy your journey to the Enlightenment!

Chapter 1 — Let’s Start the Journey

Start to meditate is one of the smartest things we can do in our life, as this is power, whatever we do, meditation helps us do it better. Many think that meditation has brought, difficult, useless… while in this book you will discover it is interesting, simple, and productive. Meditation is the practice of paying attention and focusing on your own awareness.

When you meditate, several pleasant things start to happen—first small things, then more and more radical:

First of all, when you focus on your own awareness, you have more power. When you concentrate on any form of energy, including mental energy, you have more power. When you focus the mind, you focus better; when you concentrate better, you act better. You can do more, in the study, in the office, in sports. Whatever activity you undertake, if you meditate you can do it better. Precisely for this reason, spiritual teachers and texts often suggest practicing meditation only in the context of other spiritual practices and disciplines, which help to develop compassion and wisdom, in a way that this power can be used correctly.

Secondly, your senses are used more completely. Although some consider meditation to be an ascetic practice that serves to keep the senses in check, meditation can also sharpen the senses in very sensual ways. Whatever you like—food, sex, music, art, massage, and so on—can be made even more enjoyable through meditation. When you really pay attention to something, you make it much more pleasant; and you don't need to increase your dose to enjoy it, so you can enjoy it without excess. When you have a wall around your heart that protects you from pain, you also reduce your ability to experience pleasure. When life is a continuous race, you risk losing the pleasures that are presented to you moment by moment, the attention curve is reduced, and the need for stimuli increases even just to be able to try light sensations. Meditation increases awareness and sensitivity and is, therefore, an excellent antidote to lightheadedness and distraction.

Third, the mind calms down and you can experience an inner sense of peace, joy, and well-being. When I learned to meditate and started having brief visions of inner peace, this experience changed my life: I had to redefine and reconsider the meaning of the experience. Before I thought that peace of mind came from owning and doing; now I know it comes from being. It is in our true nature to be at peace until we intervene to upset it. It is a radically different concept of the source of happiness and well-being. One of the paradoxes of existence is that if we do not know this truth, we often end up disturbing our inner peace by trying to do or obtain what we believe should bring us precisely that peace.

Fourth, you can directly experience the transcendent interconnection that already exists and become more aware of it. You can have a direct experience of God or of the universal Self, whatever the name you want to give to this experience.

Meditation is a very simple concept, and very difficult to practice perfectly, but fortunately, you don't have to practice it perfectly to derive a benefit: you just have to practice it. Nobody really practices it perfectly, but even just starting it can make a huge difference. It is the process of meditation that makes it so useful, not how you perform it.

In many researches, most of the participants showed that they found it more difficult to practice meditation than to follow a diet. Why?

Eating is mandatory; the point is what you eat. Meditation, on the other hand, is not part of the daily routine of most people. Exercise is more within people's reach, and it also brings with it a feeling of machismo, as if you were really doing something, while meditation was considered, by the participants of our research, to be something softened. Seen from the outside, a person who meditates seems to be doing nothing; instead, it is a powerful and active activity.

There are several types of meditation and, even if in different ways and forms, is found in all cultures and religions of the world because it works. Although the shapes are different, some principles are common to all shapes, and paying constant attention can transform anything we do into a form of meditation; any activity we undertake with concentration and awareness becomes meditation.

One of the nice things about meditation is that it is a very simple activity. All you need to do is sit in silence, turn your attention inward, and concentrate. Really, this is enough. So why, you wonder, are there so many books and articles about meditation that are around, including what you have in your hands? Why not simply give the few instructions you need and leave out the rest? Let's take an example.

Let's say you have to prepare yourself for a long drive to a wonderful place. You can simply put down the directions and follow them one after the other. After a few days, you will find yourself exactly in the place you wanted. But if during the trip there is a person who shows you all the beauties you meet, you will enjoy much more your travel. Also, if you bring a manual with all the instructions on what to do if you experience problems with the car's engine, you will feel much more relaxed. Maybe, while traveling, you will decide to make detours to some particularly interesting places, or you could even completely change the itinerary and follow a completely new road, or use a means of transport different from the one you thought of leaving!

Meditation is a bit like a journey and the book you are reading is your tour guide. In this chapter, we will introduce you to the highlights of the route, the alternative routes, what you need to know to get to your destination, and some detours that may come in handy, even if they are not part of the more direct route.

If you are approaching the world of meditation means you are looking for something more from life: more peace, more energy, more well-being, more meaning, more happiness, and more joy. You have heard of meditation and you are wondering if this is the right answer.

Climb the mountain of the meditation

The journey of meditation has many points in common with climbing a mountain. You can go straight to the top, or stop in a grassy clearing or choose a lower peak, halfway along the path. Whatever the destination you choose, reaching it will be a pleasant journey and you will be able to enjoy its fruits just by taking deep breaths and exercising muscles that you didn't even think you had.

The mountain of meditation has been climbed for thousands of years in many regions of the world. There are therefore a number of topographic maps and tourist guides, each of which contains their respective tips on how to reach the top, on how best to equip and what things bring with you.

Tradition has it that the books dealing with meditation describe a spiritual path that implies a series of beliefs and practices, often secret, handed down from generation to generation. In recent decades, however, Western researchers have extrapolated the practice of meditation from its spiritual origins, thus offering relief to various diseases typical of the twenty-first century.

Here are some of the techniques that have been developed over the centuries:

Repetition of a significant word or phrase, known as a mantra.

Full awareness of the present moment.

Concentration on the breath.

Attention to the sensations that flow in the body.

Loving-kindness, compassion, the ability to forgive and other emotions that make us feel good.

Concentration on a geometric shape or on another simple-shaped object.

The visualization of a place of peace, an energy or a healing entity.

Reading and reflection on sacred or inspirational writings.

The observation of the image of a saint or a sacred being.

The contemplation of nature.

The song of praise to the Divinity.

Throughout the book, you will have the opportunity to experiment with many of these techniques and be guided in the practice of one, in particular, the mindfulness technique (which we could roughly translate as awareness)—starting with breathing and, slowly, extending meditation to every single moment of your life.

EXERCISE — Meditation is easier than you think

Meditation is the practice of focusing on a particular object, generally something simple, such as a word or phrase, the flame of a candle or a geometric figure, or on the inspiration and expiration. In everyday life, the mind continues to process a huge quantity of sensations, visual impressions, emotions, and thoughts. In general, when you meditate, you focus, trying to limit the stimuli that bombard your nervous system,