Going with the natural flow of life is cool. Your clients and bosses love your spontaneity and you accomplish and experience a lot of things without inhibitions. Despite that, this attitude also makes you susceptible to diverse forms of negativity, including disappointment, stress, pressure, and more.
There are no surprises there because the unhappy emotions tend to build up as you get more tasks done. If you can reduce the causes, that’s perfect. But in case that’s out of your hands at the moment, you may relieve the negativities through meditation.
Psychologist and Buddhist meditation instructor Tara Brach, PhD, emphasized the importance of combined therapy and meditation. She pointed out, “Therapy helps us to recognize and accept our patterns and imperfections, while meditation gradually opens us to the confidence that we have an inner refuge, a way to hold our lives in our own caring and healing presence.”
How To Meditate
Assuming you’re just about to try it for the first time in forever, below are the simplified steps on how the meditation process usually goes.
- Find a quiet and relaxing spot.
Meditating is a pleasurable activity that you can afford to give yourself, regardless of the time and setting. It is effortless if the house doesn’t have inhabitants other than you. However, you may do it in a soundproof room in the office as well.
- Close your eyes; listen to your heart beating.
While sitting comfortably, try to listen to the way your heart beats inside your chest. You can succeed in this step by performing breathing exercises with your eyes shut.
Inhale through the nose and hold that air in your lungs for as long as possible. When you exhale, slowly expel the breath through your mouth. Perform the routine in sequence until you feel your heartbeat.
- Let go of your thoughts.
Distractions, either external or internal, can take your concentration away in an instant. That’s normal – you sense many things since you’re human. But never let noises, voices, images or existing thoughts pull you out of the zen mode. You may mind them later after meditation.
- Utilize your imagination.
For the fourth step, as you’re still aware of each breath you inhale and exhale, imagine all the negativities – anger, jealousy, shame, etc. – as black smoke. Do you have a localized pain? See that as gray smoke or any dull color. Then, once you breathe out, blow these gases off your system. Keep on doing that until the last hint of darkness leaves.
- Fill the void with light.
With the same imaginative skills again, seal any gap where the negative thoughts have been in bright light. Allow it to run from the top of your head down to your fingertips, hips, knee joints, and bottom of your feet. Savor that feeling before moving on to #6.
Alternatively, you may think of a rainbow rather than a white light filling your body. Either of the two has a similar effect since you see both sets of colors as positive forces that will replace the negativities.
Dr. Michele Hauser, a psychiatrist and an advocate of mindfulness meditation said that during meditation, “Using a visual example like clouds in a sky or leaves in a stream can help patients with the process of letting their thoughts go.” Also, according to Dr. Hauser, “Mindfulness meditation also teaches people how to purposefully respond to stressful situations, not simply react to them.”
- Stay grateful even in your head.
It also doesn’t hurt to thank the heavens or any deity you believe in at this moment. Appreciate everything and everyone you love and care for, and utter a silent ‘thank you’ to them as you feel your heartbeats.
- Open your eyes again.
Open your eyes and look at the real world with a brand-new state of mind. Don’t things just seem better in general after the meditation? You know you got focused enough when you no longer have displeasure, rage, envy, and all those negative feelings consuming your entire system.
Renowned professor of psychology Bernardo Ferdman, PhD, claimed, “There is more and more evidence about the benefits of mindfulness practices for many work- and life-related outcomes, including managing stress.” He said, “Mindfulness can help us pay closer attention to our experience and to what is happening around us, and so prepare us to be more effective in interacting with others and in achieving our goals.”
Meditate to seek your inner peace and stability every day. Good luck!