Mindfulness Meditation, a way to minimize stress and strengthen the focus

Daily meditation is essential for a proper peace of mind and general wellness

What is meditation?

Meditation is a way of helping us to become familiar with our mind and make the muscle of attention more flexible, more focused and stable. You could simply say that we develop the ability to be more in the present moment. Mindfulness Meditation been around for a long long time but since the 70´s it is also proven that meditation improves our sleep, results in better relationships, stronger immune system and greater self-awareness. It reduces our feelings of stress at the same time as it makes us more effective.

In other words your quality of life improves, as well as your ability to handle the everyday puzzle and negative thoughts that often want to intrude. You simply become more grounded and steady. When negative thoughts comes it is easier to see through them.

One of the big misconceptions that often arise in the context of meditation is that we shall suppress all our thoughts and to come into a state of ‘no thought’. But actually meditation is a way of helping us navigate through our mind without associating with all thoughts or feelings.

So can anyone learn how to meditate?

The answer is definitely… Yes!  Basically, the learning process of meditation is comparable with other things that we are doing – to train our bodies or to learn an instrument. But anyone who has gone through a learning process knows that it takes time, effort and practice. It´s the same with mindfulness meditation.

How can we then get started:

It’s not complicated to get started with meditation and it does not need to be particularly time consuming. Shorter meditations more often is better than longer meditations more seldom.

Scientific studies have shown that positive effects of meditation are noticable in the body only after a few weeks of meditation for 20 minutes.

It’s important to keep the joy of exercise and not to be too hard on yourself. Consider stopping the exercises as an opportunity and to regenerate your body and mind.

In the beginning it´s easiest to get guided by a voice to know what to do and where to focus. So in this beginner program we´ll refer to a guided meditation from The Mindfulness App that is available for Apple, Google and Windows phones.

Before you start your first Mindfulness Meditation exercise, take an upright yet relaxed seated position. You can close your eyes or leave them slightly open, while your forehead and the facial muscles are relaxed. Take five deep breaths – inhaling through the nose and slowly through your mouth again, meanwhile you get more and more relaxed in your body.

Try to sit as still as possible for the time of the exercise.

Now you are ready to start.

1. Choose one of the meditations in The Mindfulness App, and listen to it during the times that you have dedicated to this. Choose a short meditation if you are a beginner, for example the ”5 minutes guided meditation”.

2. Give it some time, and don´t give up even if it feels difficult in the beginning. Remember that it takes some time and you have to practice regulary to see the results.

3. When you´ve done the shorter meditations for some time you can try the longer ones, like the 15 or 30 minutes guided meditations, or add more meditation sessions over time.

4. Choose a time three or four times a week when it suits you to meditate. For example, on the bus to or from work, at lunch, walking or in bed at night. If you want you can set a reminder in the app to remember when to meditate.

Good Luck!

Go to http://www.mindapps.se