SUMMARY:
The numerous benefits of meditation and mental training range from stress reduction to increased attention span. There are many different techniques to practice when it comes to meditation. We take inspiration from traditional mindfulness meditation as well as a more directed approach from Tony Robbins and his technique of Mental Priming. We aim to give attention to a few key areas during meditation, however we do it, on subjects like gratitude, compassion and the goals we want to realize. It is important to make meditation a practice and keep at it consistently when starting to incorporate it in your life. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting with just two minutes a day. Just start small but keep doing it consistently.
JOURNAL PROMPT:
Take some time to sit and be still for five minutes. Keep attention on your breathing. Thoughts will come up, it is inevitable. Recognize that the thoughts that arise are natural, and it is best to just return to noticing your breath. Don’t worry about the random thoughts, just allow them to leave your mind just as easily as they came into your mind.
After five minutes, write down what you experienced and what was coming up for you. Jot down some notes and your reflections on them. You might be surprised what you can find through this simple 5-10 minute exercise.
“Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme joy in the end.”
-Swami Sivananda
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation can seem like a hot topic that floats around the health and wellness world. But what are the real benefits of starting this practice? The main draw to meditation and mindfulness is stress reduction. Meditation relieves the stresses from daily life by helping our mind unwind and decompress from the day. This leads to a reduction in anxiety, increased self awareness, decreased depression, increased attention span, and the ability to direct and maintain attention.
How to Begin
One reason many people stop or frankly don’t even start a meditation practice is because they don’t know where or how to begin. There is a plethora of different meditation practices out there. Ultimately some may resonate with you more than other types. You’ll gradually find what works best for you.
We recommend starting with mindful meditation which brings focus and body awareness through breath. When thoughts start to take control, bring attention back to the breath to re-align and re-center.
Another meditation practice that we’ve found immensely helpful is a technique called mental priming. This is a practice of bringing attention to a few key areas, like gratitude, compassion and what goals we want to accomplish in life. Focusing on these key areas during your meditation will launch you into a day filled with gratitude, compassion, and a clear goal oriented mindset.
Frequency is key when starting a meditation practice. You don’t need to be meditating for 30 minutes a day to see positive benefits, but you do need to be consistent. If meditating seems daunting to you, start with 2 minutes a day. Once you begin to feel more comfortable in your practice, we recommend increasing your time to 10-20 minutes per day.
Try to see how many days in a row you can complete your meditation practice. You may notice that as you do it more consistently, you’ll feel more and more motivated to do more. And perhaps invite a friend to start this journey with you. Having a friend at your side helps keep you accountable and encouraged to keep with it.
However, if you miss a day or maybe even a week, just return back to your practice without self judgement. Life happens and we need to be compassionate with ourselves. Remind yourself why you wanted to start this practice in the first place, which is to get more connected with yourself.
Our society has many ways to waste time, like binging on Netflix or scrolling endlessly on social media. Why not do your mind, body, and spirit a favor and instead waste time in the most beneficial way by meditating? You wont regret it!
Find Yours,
Don & the PurePower team
Instagram: @PurePowerLife
Facebook: PurePower Botanicals
