Meditation: A Habit Worth Adopting
It’s not as difficult as you think when you take away the strain
“Am I doing it yet?”
This a question from my future husband many years ago as I attempted to teach him meditation.
Me: “Just relax. Follow your breath.”
Him: “How long will this last?”
Me: “Let your thoughts float away.”
I noticed him puffing with frustration as his eyes searched the room for something more interesting.
I wasn’t a proficient meditator back then, so I was unlikely to teach anyone else how to meditate well. Nonetheless, I had a rudimentary understanding that worked for me, and I wanted to share it.
After many years of studying and practicing (although I note children often pick it up in an instant), I am proficient and benefit on a scale I can’t put into words.
Even if you’re like my husband in the early years and find it hard to sit still and stop your busy mind wandering, or myself all that time ago, and know just a little about meditation, you can make meditating a lifelong practice that boosts your well-being.
Why plenty of people don’t meditate
People may like the idea of meditation but not meditate. Some decide they aren’t capable. The truth, though, is everybody can meditate. It might take time, though, and we’re all different. A few people take to it with ease. Others learn gradually, while plenty struggle and give up before seeing results.
Those who find meditating the most difficult, however, are the folks who can derive the most benefit. Their difficulty suggests they live with a mind that likes to roam and hasn’t learned how to switch off or focus, and they encounter stress.
For various reasons, beginners often find the initial stages of learning how to meditate tough. Perhaps they have high expectations and low patience. Maybe they can’t imagine themselves sitting still and turning down rushing thoughts.
If you have a similar response to meditation, it’s okay. You’re normal. Even the most proficient meditators might have encountered the same experiences when they began.
Why many people meditate
Did you know meditation can make you more compassionate? It can also reduce stress, aid sleep, boost immunity, and increase focus.
Compassion
Compassion, love, and empathy go hand-in-hand and escalate people’s value in their community, aid social skills, and improve intimate relationships. At the same time, when your compassion for others increases, it also grows for yourself.
With self-compassion, you forgive yourself so you may move on and grow after mistakes and setbacks. Your anxiety level drops, too, and you communicate better because your interest in people helps you be a terrific listener and choose words carefully.
Stress reduction
Stress drops when you meditate, not only because self-compassion rises but also because of your increasing ability to regulate your moods under any circumstances. Your journey to self-mastery happens in increments, and you benefit every step of the way. The more you understand your emotions and how to change or accept them, the easier it is to be yourself and accept contrast.
Quality sleep
Some people say you must sleep a certain amount of hours to benefit, seven or eight, but quality counts. You might lie in bed for 12 hours and hardly sleep or go to bed at 11 p.m. and awaken refreshed after six hours of solid shuteye. The latter, of course, is best.
Meditation helps you sleep because you learn to quieten your mind and induce the initial stages required for rest when your head hits the pillow, which makes it easy to nod off. You may also enjoy mental refreshment from meditation during the day and need less sleep at night.
Meditation can’t exactly replace sleep — you need to encounter all the sleep stages during actual kip — but it can go some way toward maintaining mental health and reducing stress, which means there’s less clean-up maintenance required by your system when you sleep.
Healthy immunity
Meditation is a terrific boost for health because when you learn to manage your emotions, you can stay balanced. Good mental well-being leads to increased immunity that helps you fend off viruses and heal from more prominent illnesses if you get them.
Stress is a known protagonist for illness since it makes immunity plummet, so you are open to catching bugs and have a low threshold against all other diseases.
Meditate, though, and although you may still become ill occasionally, the frequency of catching bugs will likely decrease. You will have a great defense system against potential germ invasions.
Superior focus
One of the first difficulties people encounter as beginners is a lack of concentration. Taming their minds is like trying to capture a herd of wild gazelles. Thoughts rush around, collide, and stampede.
Regular meditation teaches you to calm your thoughts, slow them down, and focus on those you want to look at rather than the entire herd. It shows you how to change your point of attention when you want to re-tune to a different mental station.
Like most worthwhile pursuits, meditation doesn’t always come easy. There’s no need to strain. Rather than imagine you must reach specific targets other people adhere to and follow their rules, consider yourself the only person you need to measure yourself against.
If meditating for three minutes is enough for you at first, that’s fine. And if you can’t sit still, meditate as you walk or carry out a task. If you don’t want to sit cross-legged on a cushion as you meditate, sit in your favorite chair.
Also, know true meditation isn’t about striking certain poses, sitting for hours, following your breath, or donning colorful robes and shaving your head like a monk. It’s a lifestyle, a way of being. It’s about developing a calm, resourceful mindset and managing your emotions so your emotional intelligence increases. So, don’t worry about getting it right or wrong. Work a little each day at a pace that suits you and in a way you enjoy, and you’ll find meditation a pleasure rather than a chore.
