When we think about meditation, maybe one of the first images that comes to our mind is a man (possibly dressed up in an “indian style” dress) seated for hours with his legs crossed, his hands on his knees and his fingers in the ‘mudra’ position.
And if we would be seated by his side, we would probably be listening to an “Oooommm” sound coming from his mouth.
Generally this is the idea of meditation we have. And well, this is maybe because of the origins of the practice: it was actually a practice that Zen monks used to do and still do during their lives to reach inner peace and a deep connection with their spiritual being or with their guides/gods (depending on the beliefs they have).
For people that are not used to meditate, it seems almost impossible that someone could stay seated and still for hours… and moreover, nowadays it seems impossible for the majority to stay with our eyes closed even for few minutes!
It is very difficult for anybody that is new to this practice to imagine to meditate for hours and hours and, maybe, this is neither what one really wants!
When you meditate your brain goes and stays in a specific state of mind where your brainwaves slows down (in a Alpha state) and to stay in this state of mind for a longer period of time, it takes some training.
It is no different to any other physical training: for example, you could not go running for hours without a specific training (assuming you are not a runner trained for a marathon), could you?
The good news about meditation is that you don’t need to meditate for a long time to benefit from it. If you have ever experienced meditation, you probably know that already after just a few minutes you will be in a different state of mind and feel different.
It is well known that meditating have quite a few benefits for the one who choose to introduce it in to his/her daily life: it reduces stress, lowers cortisol and anxiety levels, helps to decrease blood pressure and respiration rates and moreover improves your outlook on life. You can find some interesting studies and researches about it clicking here
So, more then meditating for hours, you would already, with just a few minutes every day, benefit from the effects of the practice. It can be just 5 minutes of sitting and breathing at some point during the day, and you will feel the difference in your system.
Often our guests tell us that it is really easy to meditate here at Cal Reiet, because you are surrounded by the natural beauty of our gardens and wherever you choose to sit down it is a special place to connect straightaway with the power of nature, letting go of all the stress and tensions of our daily life. Also our shala is a perfect place not only to practice yoga in the morning but also to meditate and cut out all the outer world rushing sounds.
We would warmly recommend you to take a few minutes every day, find a nice place and start your meditation practice.
And if you cannot go and find yourself a place in the nature, you can always use some music and/or sounds with your Mp3 device or your smartphone.
There is a nice website (with an app available as well) that can help you: it is called calm.com and it is really easy to use (we do not sell anything here, it is just a suggestion we are giving).
As usual, we look forward to you visiting us at Cal Reiet and in the meanwhile… see you on our next post.
Namasté.
