Kathryn Hodgson

Meditation - it's not what you think

It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don't we think about training our mind? (Sakyong Mipham)

Plant the seed of meditation and reap the fruit of peace of mind. (Remez Sasson)

The one thing I do each day that makes the most difference is meditation, in fact without it my days are much, much harder. Not only does it start my day off calmly, it balances me and helps me learn to choose my own thoughts instead of feeling they are in control. As I’ve said in most of my articles it is our thoughts that cause us suffering and not what happens to us, so choosing them carefully will transform our lives. It certainly has mine. Just meditating for a few minutes a day can transform how you feel, your stress levels, your whole life in fact, but before I extol the benefits further I think I might just need to explain what meditation is as a lot of people seem to have the wrong idea.

Meditation is basically just choosing where your attention goes. That’s it. Some people choose to put their attention on breathing, or chanting, or visualizing or many different things - but they are all just alternative ways of focusing your attention. Most people are not even aware of where there attention is a lot of the time, it just wanders where it wanders. Or we have only partial attention to something at any one time. Meditation is traditionally thought of as sitting for hours in silence simply because this is a way to practice focusing your attention, and when you are good at that it is easier to do when you are surrounded by distractions - a bit like practising a sport before a competition. You don’t have to sit for hours to get a benefit though – just a few minutes a day will work.

Another myth is that it involves not thinking – what it actually is is not getting involved in your thinking – thoughts still arise you just let them go. It’s the difference between thinking ‘I must remember to buy some cat food’ and then returning your focus to what you want, and thinking ‘I must remember to buy some cat food, and what else do I need – oh yes, some milk and while I’m there I’ll….’ etc. You can choose whether to think of something or to let it go – but it takes practise. Think of your attention as like a muscle, if you don’t practise it gets weak and then you have little control.

Here is a quick list of the benefits (proven psychologically, medically and scientifically)

• It is relaxing

• Health improves – it both prevents and cures illnesses, and reduces pain. (It is used in many US hospitals as part of treatment for major illnesses. Sadly we are a little slow over here! Stress is also a proven factor of most major illnesses too)

• Significantly eases anxiety and depression

• Sleep improves

• Feels good – it is our natural state to be relaxed

• Stress reduction – you start day off more relaxed, and you can also relax quicker when you feel stressed

• Restores energy levels – 20mins meditation is as restorative as 2 hours sleep

• Retrains your mind to be stable at a calm state, and increases your ability to feel positive emotions whilst reducing ability to feel negative emotions (they did brain scans of people who were learning meditation)

• If you do get negative emotions you are able to deal with them without adding in thoughts about what happened in the past/ future, which means they are less intense and go quicker.

• It gives you time to pause before you continue. Sometimes our thinking can become so manic that it is difficult to think straight.

• It trains the mind so you have control over it and the thoughts you have, meaning:

• You are able to read people and situations better, and quicker

• You perform better at anything

• You get more done, ironic as it sounds – taking time out to meditate helps you achieve more

• You let go of negative thinking, and worry less

• You respond as you choose to external triggers - which helps with impulse control and out of control reactions/ habits

• Improves your memory and allows you to concentrate for longer

• You are more creative - ideas and solutions are easier to find without all the mental chatter in your head.

• You learn how to notice the flow of emotions so you can manage them instead of avoiding them. This frees you from the stress and destructive behaviour of avoidance.

• Access the ‘real you’ underneath the noise in your head so you can clearly hear your intuition and inner guidance

• All of the above means others will find you easier to be around.

Wow. Now I know if I advertised all those benefits in a pill everyone would want it, so surely it is worth a few minutes each day to do?

Here are some tips:

• At first you will become more aware of how out of control your thinking is, just like at the gym you might first notice just how unfit you are. This is normal, keep practising. Becoming aware of your thoughts is the first step.

• It might even feel a bit uncomfortable simply because you are used to being stressed, again keep practising. If it is uncomfortable see this as a sign of how badly you need to meditate!! Stress is accumulative, so if you don’t release it now it will build up until it causes big problems.

• An easy way to start is to sit somewhere quiet and focus on your breathe going in and out. See if you can do 10 without getting distracted. If you can only do 2 then that is a bench mark to build on. Doing 10 deep slow breathes in and out will change how you feel in any situation so the more you practise this the quicker it works.

• Another way to start is to listen to a guided meditation – William Bloom does a great 7 minute one.  Again if your mind wanders just bring it back when you notice and continue. Once this becomes easy you can then move on to sitting in silence but this is like an in between step. Build up slowly – just as you would in a gym.

• Another way is to listen to the sounds around you, and see if you can hear the furthest away sound. Most of us think in pictures so this makes it harder for you to think! If you are auditory you may want to focus looking at an object instead. Or focus on the feelings inside of you – can you feel your heart beat? Or imagine heavy sand inside your feet?

• You can also meditate at any time of the day by being fully aware of what you are doing in that moment, rather than thinking of something else.

• Another way to flex those attention muscles is to do what I call focused daydreams – where you decide what you are thinking of.

• When your mind wanders (and it will) just return your focus without getting mad at yourself. When you get mad you get caught up in your thoughts again – let them go. There is no right or wrong with meditation – whatever you are doing is right as long as you are aware of what you are doing!

This has only been a very, very brief introduction as there is so much more that can be learnt. Give yourself a gift and practise meditating daily for a few weeks as a trial and see what happens.