Meditation

By Nitya Of Aurora Yoga Studio

Our body is indeed an exceptional work of art. It is designed to automatically respond to critically life-threatening situations in which our survival is crucial. This response is known as the stress-response. Its purpose is to enable us to act quickly and survive intense, short-term challenges, especially those requiring lots of physical effort and little thinking or reasoning.

Unfortunately with the current environment and lifestyles, it doesn't take truly life threatening situations for the stress response to kick-in. Imagine you're stuck in traffic, bumper to bumper, no alternate route to use and you need to pick you child up from school or it just so happened that one of your co-workers managed to get total credit for that report that you did by yourself - your mind and body perceives this as a threatening situation and we tend to get stressed.

With people increasingly being bombarded with deadlines, uncertain economic conditions and other incidents where we have less or no control over the circumstances, it is easy for the brain to perceive them as life-threatening situations. And the more we worry about these circumstances, the longer the stress response remains. Needless to say, the body is designed for the stress response to only kick-in for a few minutes, thus when the stress response lasts for more than a few minutes it creates more harm than good. With the stress response kicking in there are major changes in the body, these include increases in the blood supply, blood pressure rises, and blood flow is directed away from the internal organs and the skin so that it can flow to the muscles. Additionally, the brain also directs the release of chemicals designed to help the body cope with injury - which when there is no injury can cause harm, this truly does sound scary, it is easier to now understand how harmful long term effects of stress can be. In the short term these effects can be life saving, however in the long term they can cause diseases such as heart disease and even accelerate and intensify the effects of ageing.

So how do we help ourselves? What is important to remember is that even if you were on top of a mountain by yourself you would have something to worry about, what we need to focus is not eliminating problematic circumstances but learn to deal and respond to these situations. How you respond to situations depend on your ability to control and focus your attention and this indeed is Meditation. It is difficult to define what meditation is, to truly understand meditation you need to practice it and feel it. Remember, practicing five minutes of meditation is worth much more than reading hundreds of texts!!

The methodology that I shall introduce is a very simple technique that does not involve any specific religion. Instead I encourage you to use certain tools that I will introduce later in this article to bring you closer to your faith. As you practice meditation you will find yourself having greater awareness and a oneness with our creation and its beings. It will aid you with the confidence and the ability to make better judgements when faced with stressful situations.

How to Meditate -

The Do's and Don't's

1. Identify and use a specific place in your household that you could continue for your meditation practice. I suggest a corner of a room that is calm, even your bedroom. Of course if you should have a place of worship this would be ideal. Never try to meditate on your bed, your mind and body associates the bed with sleeping and the results would be appalling!

2. Try to make sure that you meditate every day at the same time - the time that you choose should not be one where you are too sleepy, after a meal, or after drinking tea or coffee. Needless to say alcohol is a big no no!

3. If you feel that you would be disturbed by insects or mosquitoes, use a shawl over your shoulders and cover your body, the less likely you are to get disturbed the more likely you are to able to concentrate and focus.

4. When you start your meditation practice make sure you don't practice for more than 10-15 minutes. You can gradually increase the duration. Never, never force yourself to meditate, your mind and body should ease into it.

5. Find a comfortable position to meditate in - unless you an elderly person I suggest that you should not use a chair, instead find a pillow and sit in a cross legged position. Always make sure that your spine is straight. If you are terribly uncomfortable as you start your practice, you could sit against a wall. Again the wall is to help you at the start, as you practice move away from the wall.

6. Different people have different levels of concentration, you could use a 'tool" to help you with focusing your attention.

7. Don't ever "force" yourself to meditate, if you feel that on a particular day you are unable to meditate, come out of it gently and try using a different "tool".

8. Avoid using buzzers or alarms to time your meditation practice.

Tools for Meditation -

Japa - Chanting a sacred verse for a certain number of times helps focus your attention. You could use any verse that you have an affinity to. The hindu scriptures define repetition of mantras in multiple of three are auspicious, the most auspicious number being 108.

Japa Mala, Rosary - When repeating a sacred verse you could use a japa mala or a rosary to help keep count of the number of times you repeat the verse.

How you respond to situations depend on your ability to control and focus your attention and this indeed is Meditation

Likita - This involves writing a certain mantra / sacred text over and over again in a book that you would set aside for this purpose. This method is especially helpful to people who find that they have problems focusing their attention.

A Focus - You can use something to focus you attention on - this could be an image of a God / Goddess, soothing music such as the sounds of nature or you could use the tip of flame of a candle as a point of focus.

Technique -

1. Sit comfortably in a cross legged position. Make sure that your spine is erect and that your body not tensed, keep your shoulders relaxed.

2. Inhale deeply and exhale, if you are using a tool direct your attention towards it. As you focus your attention on a picture or as you recite a sacred verse maintain awareness on your inhalations and exhalations. If you are not using a tool, close your eyes.

3. Continue to take in deep and long inhalations and exhalations.

4. As you inhale slowly move your awareness on to you body movements, as the air moves into your lungs and as it expels from the body be conscious of your body movements.

5. Maintain awareness, if at any point your mind starts wandering, gently push those thoughts away and bring your attention to your breath and your tool.

6. As you come out of your meditation, take in deep inhalations and exhalations. Take some time to reflect on the peacefulness you have achieved and the new self-awareness that you have experienced. Feel yourself connecting with nature.

7. Very gently stand up.
