Meditation 101 — Why it works and why you should do it

We’ve talked a lot lately about the value of yoga and meditation to improve your life, health and ability to connect with the world around you.

We’ve talked a lot lately about the value of yoga and meditation to improve your life, health and ability to connect with the world around you. Starting a yoga practice seems pretty straightforward — find a class, rent a DVD, buy a mat and get on with it. Learning to meditate — not so much. There are dozens of ways to meditate from chanting, breath-awareness and mindfulness practices to staring into a crackling fire or knitting. So how do you get started? With a few simple techniques.

First of all, why meditate?

• A growing body of scientific research supports meditation’s health and medical benefits. In addition to providing vital stress relief, which makes you feel better, meditation reduces prolonged exposure to stress hormones, which have been linked to a laundry list of serious diseases.
• Meditation can also improve your brain function. Recent studies show that regular meditation changes gray-matter density in regions of your brain associated with memory. It improves mood, concentration and productivity. Think of it as mental dust busting. By cleaning out the mental clutter, meditation frees up space to think great thoughts.
• Meditation improves your mood. As the Dalai Lama explains: When you’re in a state of irritation, concentrate fully on breathing for 5, 10, 20 breaths. When you start breathing, you feel irritated, but when you reach 20, 25 breaths, you feel calm. He said, “Don’t meditate for your next life or heaven. Meditate for your day-to-day life.”

Perhaps the best reason is because it plugs you into a source of energy, unity and harmony that will impact all areas of your life. Swami Prakashananda leads meditation classes and groups at The Movement Center in Portland, Oregon. He says, “Besides the physical, mental and emotional benefits, meditation gives you the ability to gain insight into your own programming and experiences. It’s the best way we know to improve your ability to grow as a person. That’s why we’re all here in this life. We’re here to grow.”

What do you need to get started?

Swami Prakashananda says you need three things to start your meditation practice.

1) A teacher — Books are fine, but a real person trained in meditation, who inspires you, whom you have chemistry with and who is accessible to answer questions is probably better at teaching the techniques of meditation. Not only can a teacher guide you through the basics, but as time goes by and you reach plateaus, your teacher can guide you in deepening your practice.

2) A practice — Once you commit to making meditation part of your life, you need to pick a time of day and length of time that will work for you. It’s better to meditate daily for a short period of time than to meditate for an hour-and-a-half once in a while. Regularity is more important than length of time.

3) Service — Meditation helps us tap into the nature and quality of our highest experience of ourselves, which ultimately is infinite compassion. The nature of fire is to be hot. The nature of growth and inner peace is compassion for all beings. You need an outlet of service to reflect and express that.

How do you do it?

Once you’ve found your teacher through word of mouth, online resources or via books and magazines on meditation, what exactly will you be doing? One of the simplest yet most powerful ways to meditate is called breath awareness.

• Find a quiet time and space where you won’t be distracted. Close your door, turn off your phone and ask not to be interrupted.
• Choose a period of time that you know is achievable. We recommend starting with 20 minutes, once a day and building from there. Aim to meditate at the same time of day every day. Set a quiet timer to go off when time is up so you challenge yourself to stick with it.
• Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight. If you can sit on the floor, great; if not, a chair is fine. If sitting isn’t possible, lying down is perfectly OK.
• Close your eyes and place your hands palms up on your lap. Form a circle with your first finger and thumb together or cup one hand with the other.
• Take a few slow, deep breaths and focus just on those breaths. Follow its path and rhythm. Inhale and imagine your breath flowing through your nose, up to your forehead and down to your throat, heart, abdomen, genitals and down to the base of your spine. Then slowly let your breath out and imagine it flowing up your spine and out the top of your head.
• Pay attention to the four phases of each breath — inhale, pause, exhale, pause.
• When a thought enters your mind, just label it “thinking” and let it go. Then return your focus to your breath.
• If it helps, visualize your breath as a white light, a flower, a candle flame or any other image that represents your breath to you.

When your time is up, try to keep some of your inner peace on tap as you enter your outer world. As Swami Prakashananda says, “Ultimately, with time and practice, your inner experience will permeate your outer experience to weave your existence with all that is one.” That’s how meditation makes life richer and increases your ability to be more compassionate, productive, empathetic and sensitive to all that’s around you. That’s how meditation makes you a better person