Lighten Up Meditation: The Benefits

Meditation styles abound today, from guided visualizations to deep-breathing relaxation exercises to chanting. While any of these can be interesting to explore, the most powerful methods of meditation involve a focused concentration, whether on an external object like a candle flame or a flower, on the breath or a repeated sound like a mantra, or on the chakras, which are energy centers in the body. This type of intense concentration strengthens the mind and, with practice, results in a stillness where the thoughts quiet down and you experience Truth (basically that just means you feel really good!).

What’s important is to find a meditation style that works for you, and stick with it. Usually it helps to to learn the basics from a qualified teacher. (It’s sort of hard to learn meditation from a book.) Then, it takes about three weeks of daily practice to begin seeing some results in your life.

To get started, do a search on Craig’s List for meditation classes, or check out the bulletin board at your local bookstore – there are often flyers posted for free lectures. Check out Meetup for groups. Learning Annex sometimes has workshops on meditation, as do some community colleges. Or you can look into any of the vast array of Buddhist temples, Zen centers, yoga studios, or other religious or non-denominational organizations that offer classes in your city.

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Of course, if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, we'd love to have you attend one of our free Intro to Meditation classes, where we teach the essentials and provide everything you need to get started with one of the most effective meditation techniques around. (If you're in another part of the country, drop us an email at info@lightenupmeditation.com and we might be able to refer you to a qualified teacher in your area.)

When evaluating a meditation technique, it’s good to evaluate the teacher. Does this person seem happy? Excited about life? Enthusiastic about meditation? That's a good place to begin. Then, determine if the meditation technique is based on concentration, with an emphasis on stilling the mind or stopping thought. Other methods of relaxation or guided visualization can also be enjoyable, but to gain the most benefits from the practice, you have to be working during your meditation, and exerting effort to focus, focus, focus! Then, over time, you will start to see results in your daily life as you become a different person through the evolution of your practice.

Here's a fun video we found - yes, in many ways, meditation is really like this!
But you don't have to have six pack abs to be good at it.