Commentary by Sally Brown Bassett
You would have to be living in an ashram not to constantly hear or read about how more and more people are meditating. It may sound New Age to you or like something you wouldn’t have time to do in your busy day. Try it. Meditation could actually change your life. Fact: Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible.
Just a few of the benefits include lower stress, calmness, increased concentration, decreased anxiety, feelings of happiness, better sleep and more.
Simple tips to begin a daily meditation:
1) Set aside 20 minutes a day, preferably in the morning, to be still. Find a quiet place in your home to sit up straight either on the floor or in a chair with your eyes closed.
2) Focus on the breath. We use so little of our lung capacity that not only is focusing on your breath meditation, but it will also bring both calmness and energy. Start with a simple three-part breath: fill the lower part of your lungs, middle part, then all the way to the top of the lungs. Exhale slowly top, middle, bottom – contracting your stomach muscles to get all stale air and toxins out of your body.
3) Take your attention internally to the front part of your brain. With your eyes still closed focus internally right between your eyebrows, also called your third eye. Visualize looking out a porthole in a spaceship like you were looking through a porthole to your spirituality. Stay focused and concentrate.
4) Concentration will lead to meditation where you will be in a place of just being.
“If we’re not trying to hold on to the past, and not jockeying into a position for the future, then we finally belong in the world as it exists in the present moment, the eternal ‘Now,’” Bo Lozoff said.
5) Feel the bliss. With time your meditation practice will lead to a feeling of being connected to a higher source – whatever that is for you – a feeling of bliss and joy.
Our true divine nature is joy. You should settle for nothing less and you can find it again through meditation.
Until next time…
Namaste!