Modern life is frenetic and fast paced, and stress and over exhaustion are commonplace. But daily meditation can be beneficial in taking the edge off. One of the principles of yoga, meditation is the art of silencing the mind. The ultimate goal is to have a mind completely free of thoughts. Meditation does not discriminate. It is not religious in any way. It is about consciousness and being fully aware of ourselves and our thought process. As little as ten or fifteen minute spent in this state a day will help you find inner peace and balance and ultimately make you productive at all your other endeavors. In our introduction to meditation, we focused on the importance of meditation in yoga and our lives. Read on for how to meditate and why you should.

Some of the many benefits of meditation

- Meditation can make you more patient and tolerant and less bothered by little things.

- Meditation can make you detached from your thoughts, as if you and your thoughts are separate entities. This gives you a sense of control over your thoughts.

- It stops you being a slave to your thoughts. Control over your thoughts will help you block out negative thoughts as well as declutter your mind of unnecessary, distracting thoughts.

- Having a sense of control over your thoughts will also help you cultivate constructive and positive thinking, and be more creative.

- Meditation leads to better health. Stress can cause and aggravate disease. Meditation alleviates stress.

How to meditate

Allocate a time in which you feel ready to quiet your mind. It could be at sunrise before you face the morning, mid afternoon on a hectic day or late evening after a workout.

Choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a position you find comfortable. Traditional cross legged is popular but it doesn’t really matter, just try to keep a straight back as it will assist proper breathing. You can even sit in a chair or lie down, but don’t fall asleep. Meditation requires you to be alert, even if it is a peaceful time.

Close your eyes if this will help you focus.

Some people use repetitive activities such as deep breathing, humming or chanting of mantra to help induce a meditative state. There are many mantras you can try. Find one that feels right to you or use the simple and powerful Om.

If not an incantation, use a word that reflects how you’d like to feel like ‘relax’, ‘calm’, ‘clarity’ and repeat that.

Mental quiet can be difficult to achieve at first so try concentrating on only one thing, such as a candleflame, a water feature or your heartbeat.

Once you can focus on a single thought with ease, trying throwing out any thought that pops into your head until you can achieve complete mental nothingness.

Aspire towards the inner silence. Meditate with intensity. Most importantly, be patient with yourself and don’t give up. Meditation should make you feel rejuvenated even if it seems tiresome at first.

Once you’ve learned to meditate, you don’t have to keep being seated in the lotus position in a private sanctuary. You can use any time you deem fit from during a busy commute to a boring movie to shut out the world and find your inner silence.

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Photo credits: connerdowney, HckySo on flickr

Odds, are you already know about the calming and relaxing effects of meditation, but there’s so much more to yoga meditation than just sitting in silence. Meditation or Dhyana is one of The 8 Steps/Limbs of Yoga. In fact most of the other steps including Asanas (Yoga postures and exercises), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses) and Dharana (concentration) assist in strengthening and preparing the body & mind for meditation which in turn brings harmony to the mind, the body and the spirit leading to Samadhi or Enlightenment. The true practice of Yoga as a path to enlightenment puts a lot of importance to Meditation.

What Is Meditation?
The mention of meditation even in this modern day and age conjures up images of white bearded men, sitting upon a rock high up in the mountains, humming “om”/ “aum”. This misconception of meditation is only for spiritual folk is what has kept us from reaping it’s umpteen benefits.

Meditation is anything that brings us to the present and keeps us there. It is a deep connection with time and a heightened awareness of yourself in conjunction with everything around you. In the rush of things it’s easy to get overloaded and miss out on the most important part of life – the joy it can bring. We need to slow down and dig deep to find those sweet moments of inner calm and clarity. Meditation is just that. Through slowing down and controlling the mind, Meditation increases consciousness of not just our surroundings and what’s happening around us but more importantly it creates an awareness of our inner selves.

‘You do not need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait, be quiet, still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.’
~ Franz Kafka

The Principles of Meditation

• Focus – In order to focus on the present, it’s important to learn how to concentrate. This can be achieved by focusing on an object or a word or even your breathing.
• Quieting the mind- Remaining focused on a single object or thought can be hard.  The mind will wonder and you’ll be distracted from your object of concentration with other thoughts. Meditation however, teaches you  not to suppress these but let them pass returning your attention to the object of focus. With time and practice the mind learns to tune out these distractions and the sole focus remains on the object.
• Control- In meditation you can tap into the flow of Prana (life force) through breathing to increase, decrease or focus your energy.
• Senses- Meditation involves control of all your senses of sight, sound, smell and feel to bring you to  the NOW.

While simple practice of meditation may not be the answer to all life’s questions, it is efficient and effective technique that helps us control our mind and relax our bodies. It provides the simplicity like stopping to smell and appreciate the flowers in an otherwise crowded and busy place called life. If practiced regularly and adopted as a lifestyle meditation can lead to deeper self-knowledge, heightened consciousness of people and creatures around us and Spiritual fulfillment.

*Photo credits: Photos by h.koppdelaney, Gurumustuk Singh, myyogaonline, richardmasoner on flickr