How To Meditate: Change Your Brain!

“A blog about Meditation? Okay… Now I know Rachel is off her rocker!”

“Meditation is SO BORING!”

or, my personal favorite..
“I know I should probably try to learn to meditate to relieve stress BUT, I just dont have the time.”

Hey, listen… I GET IT! I do.

You close your eyes, and think happy thoughts and get happy feelings… The skeptical, cynical side of me totally gets it. It does seem a little “weird”. I’m logical person who approaches things based in science.

But, Meditation works.

When I googled “Meditation Techniques” I got 1,220,000 hits.

That being said, I dont think there is a “wrong” way to do it, as long as you do it.

There are so many ways, that if you wanted to know how, you’d be doing it! Its not rocket science to google “meditation techniques”, and i dont think my blog is by any way any more special than any one of theirs. I just know what works FOR ME.

I think that the real issue is that its kind of intimidating so you “feel” like you’re doing it wrong. You kind of “feel” stupid at first.

You close your eyes, and think, “um… nothing is happening…”

I must be a dumb ass!

This is normal.

I think a great analogy for this would be an overweight person walking into the gym and looking at all the body builders and thinking “Oh my god, there is NO WAY, i will EVER look like that!”

In the same way, the first time you meditate, you will be intimidated thinking there is no way you will meditate for hours at a time and not get bored or think you’re doing it wrong. Duh!

Dont shoot for hours! Shoot for five minutes the first couple times. It does take practice because your brain is like a muscle that needs worked out like any other.

How many of you have watched the series LOST?

I am one of those people who watched the whole series on netflix beginning to end.

Bare in mind i am recalling this all from memory (which isnt that good) and its been awhile since I’ve watched it, but you will get the basic grasp of what I am trying to say even if i get the details of the episode wrong.

In the very first episode, the plane crashes on an island and the main character Jack who is a spinal surgeon gets injured slightly. He needs stitched but cannot do it himself. He runs across another plane crash survivor Kate to help him, but sees how obviously scared she is. He decides to tell her this story to help her overcome her fear and focus her on the moment which I have always found helpful in my own meditation practices.

He said that on his first spinal surgery he accidental cut something wrong (I know great doctor language) and spinal fluid started spewing out. He was scared. He started imagining her never walking again, and it being his fault. Then he decided at that moment he was only going to let his fear control him for three seconds. He counted to three…. 1… 2….3… and took a deep breath, and focused on what had to be done. Closed the girl up and she was his first successful spinal cord patient.

I dont think the writers of LOST intended me to steal this as a cleansing exercise, but for me it really does work.

I have done a lot of research on meditation techniques, and do add a few other steps… usually, this is what my meditation looks like:

Quiet room. Sometimes outside. Water, trees, ect.

Deep breath.

I tell myself: I will not let negative energy control me (stress, sadness, relationship problems, work issues, sickness, ect). I give it three seconds.

I count to three slowly.

1…

2…

3….

Then I visualize exhaling the negative energy and inhaling new positive energy. I take several “cleansing” breaths like this.

Just, actually thinking about positive and negative energy going in and out of my body.

Like a vaporizer, I imagine the bad energy leaving, and good energy coming in… Until all thats left is white positive energy… like Im sitting on white happy clouds. (No I’ve never done any drugs, thats just what i visualize when I have no more negative energy left inside my body)

Then, I try to think about a place I’ve been before.

Maybe hiking. Camping. The ocean.

I try to remember the sounds.

The smells.

The way the sunlight bounced on the waves.

or, hit the trees for the for the first time as the sun rose.

I think about slugs I’ve seen when I’ve been on the trail and the moment their little eyes popped up. yes i think slugs are adorable. Dont hate. I think about squirrels, and think about them running up a tree. Finding their food, and where they take it. I imagine what it would be like to be a squirrel. I think about a fish. Swimming such great distances…

If you are not a “nature” person, you dont have to think about nature.

Think about exploring a castle in Scotland? Or exploring a made up world on a sci fi planet you’ve seen on a cool movie. I personally could just meditate imagining I was an avatar. How freaking awesome right?

When I think about people, I try to focus on one person at a time and try to only think about them in the sense to be “free of suffering”.

Just me, I prefer to think of strangers, or people I see every day but dont know that well. Wonder about their life… and wish for them to be free of suffering and for their life to be happier.

Im not sure why, but there is something stress-relieving (for me) about focusing on someone else and just wishing them well. Maybe that is why our culture has reality shows. This could be what makes people watching so satisfying. I honestly believe that there is a certain stress relieving quality humans get in wondering about another persons life that has no impact on our own…. Now I dont watch reality shows, but for me, this form of “compassion meditation” really is beneficial.

For example: The same girl makes your coffee every day. Shes pregnant now. Shes very nice and remembers your coffee and your name every time you go in there. You dont know anything else about her. You honestly dont even remember HER name. You wonder what her life must be like expecting a child. You wonder if it was an expected thing. I smile remembering what it was like being pregnant. An overwhelming sense of emotion floods over me, unexpectedly. I smile as memories cascade. Being pregnant was a good experience for me. It really shouldnt have been, I was so young. I smile. I let the memories linger, because they feel so good. I share this experience with this stranger. I hope she is having a good experience too. I wish for her to have no suffering in her life.

That’s an example of someone you see everyday, someone who impacts your life slightly but who is still a stranger. You have dozens of these people. Your mail carrier. Bus driver. Cashier. Gas station attendant. If you “look” for these people, you will notice them suddenly.

Focus on small thoughts, but let your mind wander on the complexity of them…

Sometimes I like to go “hunting” so to speak for a “complete stranger” to meditate over. At first it was just me people watching but then I decided to add that person to my compassion meditation.

Looks like this: I go to a public place and just sit for a few mins. Starbucks and enjoy coffee. The waterfront and enjoy the water. Sometimes I start to read. More likely than not, someone presents themselves to me.

Yesterday there was a couple in their late 70s that was obviously on a date at Starbucks. It was adorable. They didn’t know each other that well, and were “trying again.” It was beautiful. I didn’t stay long, just about five mins to decide who I wanted to meditate over. Then I went across the street to the nature trail. Thought about the couple and what and odd pairing it was since he looked like a biker guy at one time and she looked like Betty crocker. I wished them well. I wished all their loneliness gone. I hoped no suffering in their life.

I also find it beneficial to think of someone I don’t particularly care for. This is hard for me and takes focus, because I only try to find some positive energy for them or about them.

For example: I don’t get along with my mom. We don’t speak. For good reason. Instead of thinking of those reasons though, or thinking of the negativity that surrounds my mom and my relationship I instead try to focus on something simple. Something positive about her. She cares for her dog. Im thinking, “This exercise is extremely hard”. I wish for her to not suffer anymore. I wish for her to find some happiness and be stronger.

Meditation is not prayer. I am atheist. I know my “wishes” of well-being won’t happen, but wishing someone happiness and not to suffer is a self healing exercise. It is a practice called “compassion meditation” that the Tibetan monks have done for centuries.

Meditation doesnt have to take a long time.

Sometimes five minutes is enough to refocus energy. If five minutes of quiet time is all you can slip away for, then five minutes is enough.

Ill reiterate, dont let these people who meditate for hours make you you feel like well “I dont have time for that!!”

Once you try meditating for five minutes, you will understand. Five minutes will sometimes turn into fifteen. And you’re like “OMG. really?” You’ll get kind of excited that you let yourself go that deep, and you’ll want to do it again. Dont take my word for it though!

The point is to feel less stress and more balance.

Im not a hippie at all but I do believe in the power of meditation. It has a ton of science to back it up.

Instead of just talking about it. Lets watch a couple videos and let the doctors talk about it:

OKay, he’s a little long winded and talks in “doctor talk”, so I understand if you couldnt watch all of that, but he said it better than I could have. We have the power to “ACTUALLY” change our brain.

Am I the only one who finds that fascinating?!

To me knowing how to meditate is just as important as knowing how to eat vegetables!

Even if its just for five minutes, that “I will not let this negative energy control me 1. 2. 3. ” Then deep breathing.

This is like knowing how to eat broccoli when you live next to Mcdonalds.

Everyone should know how to “rescue” your brain from emotional distress, then train your brain to push out those thoughts and be able to generate compassion again. No matter what you’re going through.

I’d love to hear your experiences, if you’ve never tried it and are trying it for the first time… or have meditated for a long time… or, maybe if you just think its a crock of BS…

Please feel free to comment!

I have attached a couple of the googable articles on meditation here if you’re interested….

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/health/research/27budd.html

http://www.meditationsociety.com/108meds.html

http://www.meditation-techniques-made-easy.com/

http://www.meditation-techniques-guide.com/

http://www.how-to-meditate.org/

http://themeditationmind.com/meditation-techniques/

http://www.silvalifesystem.com/articles/meditation-techniques/meditation-techniques-for-beginners/

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Tags: Alternative, Health, meditation, Mind, Religion and Spirituality, Stress, Thought