Meditation - How to Meditate

Many people start out the year with resolutions. Unfortunately many of these resolutions fail to materialize into success. Rather than fall victim to this cycle, why not plan to employ the aid of meditation and break through your limiting belief system in order to help you succeed this year?

There has been much scientific study on the benefits of meditation on the mind. This is not just nonsense but actual testing of your brain waves and measuring the different levels that you brain enters in different phases of calm. The good news is that there are several types of meditation to choose from so you have an opportunity to find one that best suits your lifestyle and personality.

You may wonder why you should even meditate to begin with. If your goal is to lose weight, you can simply go on a diet; if your goal is to stop smoking, you can buy a patch; if your goal is to achieve greater wealth, you can pay off debt and work to earn more income. But, consider how many times you or someone that you know has used these same methods with similar goals…and failed. What happened to block them from success? Often it has nothing to do with their will power or even the methods they used, but instead has much to do with their underlying belief system that operates on a subconscious level and stops them from success.

Studies have shown that the best way to break through this barrier, clear your mind of limiting beliefs, and replace them with empowering beliefs is through meditation. Napoleon Hill, the famous author is noted as saying, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”.

So the challenge then becomes to reprogram your mind so that you will succeed.

There are thousands of types of meditation and an unlimited amount of resources available to learn the techniques. The key is to find a type of meditation that is comfortable to you and one that you can participate in on a regular basis. By finding that method and actually doing it, you have a greater chance of achieving your goals.

One example is known as Breathing Meditation which as the name suggests, involves sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing pattern. You don’t need any special clothing for this, and you don’t need to sit in any special position, so you can even do this in the middle of the day at the office when you just need a “mental break”…but don’t fall asleep if you are at work!

The idea is to concentrate on your breath, often with your eyes closed, and just allow your brain to rest. When a thought comes into your mind, you simply let that thought go as you exhale. This exercise may sound like this: As you inhale, you may be thinking “I really want to eat that donut in the break room”; as you exhale you may think “I deserve to feed my body foods that will give me optimal health”. Replace “I’ll always be struggling to make ends meet” with “I am intelligent and making money will be easy”. This way you are combining meditation with positive affirmations.

Some people prefer to be guided through their meditation with the aid of a CD or Mp3 recording. In this method, you will listen and be able to reach a level of calm by following the facilitator of the session. For many that are new to meditation, this method is a good introduction since they may be uncertain if they are “doing it right”.

Because you may not really “feel” anything while you are meditating, you may wonder if you are meditating the correct way. There is really no right or wrong way to feel while you meditate but some have said they feel lighter, or feel a little numb. What you are doing for your mind and your body while you meditate is giving your brain an opportunity to slow down and your chemicals to re-balance.

For example, we often operate at a constant level of stimulation. Driving in traffic, confrontation with a colleague or children, worry over money issues, and worry over health, can cause stress which is a result of stimulation of the hypothalamus in the brain. When we are stressed, our survival instincts kick in. Now, when we were cave men and women, this was helpful; but in our modern age it is often unnecessary and unhealthy.

In a stressed state, your heart beats faster, your blood pressure rises and blood flow is diverted from your internal organs to the parts of your brain that control muscle movement - getting ready to make that fight of flight decision. Operating at this level for extended periods leads to mental fatigue. When you are mentally fatigued, it is difficult to focus and difficult to achieve the goals that you really want to achieve.

The best way to counter this is through some form of meditation. By pulling your focus away from all the “noise”, you allow your brain to regenerate and counter that fight or flight mechanism by inducing a relaxation response.

So how does all this help you to achieve your goal for the New Year? Well, in a word “Focus”.

By taking just a little bit of time each day to just breathe or meditate, you can clear your mind of all the clutter and all the self-defeating thoughts, allowing you to emerge with a very clear picture of the way things should be in your life. With this focus and clarity combined with that feeling of being refreshed, you will be able to reach within yourself and find the resolve that you need to achieve any goal that you have set out for yourself.