Meditation

Directions on How to Meditate

First, meditation is not just about going to a quiet place and trying to turn off your thoughts. This type of 'cold turkey' meditation will only lead to frustration and failure. It is important to understand that mediation is a practice that is learned over time and requires the knowledge of correct breathing techniques.

Taking small steps for 5 minutes at a time and building up to 15 minutes is a good goal to begin with. Guided meditations are a great way to train your mind. Turning off all of the outside chatter and disruptive thoughts is part of the learning process; many people believe that they have failed when they simply tried to sit and not think of anything resulting in their mind becoming more active and agitated than ever. It takes time to train your mind to be quiet; be patient with yourself, and view the process as you would in learning any difficult skill that takes time.

Acupressure and Essential Oils for Mediation

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Points to Deepen Your Meditation:

How Can I Begin Meditating?

Turning off the phone ringer and removing any other distractions is a good start.
Relax with your arms and legs uncrossed and allow your eyes to close.
Focus on your breathing and attempt to breathe in to your belly allowing your stomach muscles to relax with exhalation and expand with inhalation.
As distracting thoughts appear, simply acknowledge the thought and let it go. Avoid chastising yourself for being distracted away from your breathing.
Scan your body beginning with your head and neck for tenseness. Focus on each area of your body allowing it to relax from head to toe.

On the first few meditation sessions, just go for 5 minutes or so. As you continue practicing different meditation techniques you will find that falling in to meditation gets easier and your meditation becomes timeless as you enter 'the zone'. Allow yourself 6 months of daily meditation before expecting to easily fall in to a meditative state. Some days you just won't be able to relax and let go of all distractions; in these cases you should be very forgiving of yourself.

At first, meditation will seem like an annoying task, but as you master the art of meditation and 'doing nothing', you will begin to look forward to your meditations. In addition to the endless health benefits of meditation, you will notice that your whole nervous system will be rewired so that you no longer react to small stresses in your life.

Making Decisions Meditation

Concentrate on your breathing for a couple of minutes as mentioned above
Create a unique symbol or image of each of two courses of action you might take
Imaging holding your unique symbols one in each hand

Take time to fully explore each course of action. Does one symbol feel heavier than the other? Is one symbol easier to visualize than the other?

Bring your hands together and clasp your finger imagining that the two symbols are joined. Does this create a new symbol or possible course of action?

End your meditation by visualizing an ideal outcome as a result of your decision.

Meditation to Release Negative Emotions

Light a candle and concentrate on your deep belly breathing as described above for a few minutes.
Visualize your breath carrying your negative emotions to the flame of the candle to be consumed as fuel for the fire. Continue in this manner until you cannot think of any negative thoughts.
Allow your eyes to open and begin to focus on the flame. Notice the height of the flame, the colors in the flame, the way the flame jumps around. Continue focusing on the flame for a couple of minutes.
While blowing the flame out, reaffirm that your negativity is also being extinguished.

References

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Wielgosz J, Goldberg SB, Kral TRA, Dunne JD, Davidson RJ. Mindfulness Meditation and Psychopathology. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2019;15:285–316.

Zollars I, Poirier TI, Pailden J. Effects of mindfulness meditation on mindfulness, mental well-being, and perceived stress. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2019;11(10):1022–1028.

Zhang Q, Wang Z, Wang X, Liu L, Zhang J, Zhou R. The Effects of Different Stages of Mindfulness Meditation Training on Emotion Regulation. Front Hum Neurosci. 2019;13:208. Published 2019 Jun 27.

Zeidan F, Baumgartner JN, Coghill RC. The neural mechanisms of mindfulness-based pain relief: a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based review and primer. Pain Rep. 2019;4(4):e759. Published 2019 Aug 7

Black DS, Slavich GM. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jun;1373(1):13-24. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12998. Epub 2016 Jan 21. PMID: 26799456; PMCID: PMC4940234.

Banth S, Ardebil MD. Effectiveness of mindfulness meditation on pain and quality of life of patients with chronic low back pain. Int J Yoga. 2015;8:128–133. doi: 10.4103/0973-6131.158476.

Bakhshani NM, Amirani A, Amirifard H, Shahrakipoor M. The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction on perceived pain intensity and quality of life in patients with chronic headache. Glob J Health Sci. 2016;8:47326.

Chételat G, Lutz A, Arenaza-Urquijo E, Collette F, Klimecki O, Marchant N. Why could meditation practice help promote mental health and well-being in aging? Alzheimers Res Ther. 2018 Jun 22;10(1):57. doi: 10.1186/s13195-018-0388-5. PMID: 29933746; PMCID: PMC6015474.

Schutte NS, Malouff JM. A meta-analytic review of the effects of mindfulness meditation on telomerase activity. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014;42:45–48. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.12.017.

Fox KCR, Nijeboer S, Dixon ML, Floman JL, Ellamil M, Rumak SP, Sedlmeier P, Christoff K. Is meditation associated with altered brain structure? A systematic review and meta-analysis of morphometric neuroimaging in meditation practitioners. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2014;43:48–73. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.03.016.

This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.