Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

Why you should read this book

In today's world, the workload is so high that even 10 year old children remain stressed about their exams. Everyone is troubled in today's world and many people resort to alcohol or drugs to get rid of it. But what if we had a safe way to relieve stress that even children could adopt? What if we adopt a habit that can keep us happy in every situation?

This book tells us about one such habit. This book tells us how meditation can help you understand and control your emotions better than ever before. This book tells us different ways of meditating and also tells us about the changing attitude of the society regarding meditation.

- What are the benefits of meditation?

-How is meditation done?

-Why is the world adopting meditation now?

In today's stressful life, meditation can prove to be very beneficial for you.

Many people believe that meditation is old fashioned. People consider it old fashion. Dan Harris, the author of this book, was one of those people a few years ago. But time took such turns that he had to accept the truth that meditation can do things which no medicine in the world can do.

Dan was working as an anchor for ABC News in 2004. He used to bring news of wars happening from all over the world to his channel. The devastation caused by the war was not going well for them and their stress was increasing every day. One day when he was speaking in front of 50 lakh people, his voice started getting stuck in the middle. His stress had increased so much that he was unable to speak. This was the time when Dan thought it was time to do something new.

Initially, Dan felt that because he was a very busy person, it was common for him to be stressed. But this problem was bigger than that. Every morning he could not get up from his bed and always felt that he had fever. He tried cocaine to cure himself, but it did not work.

After this, Dan came to know about meditation and started doing some research on it, he was surprised to know that meditation really reduces stress and this has also been proved by science. This can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and also reduce the symptoms of depression. Not only this, it strengthens our immune system and re-arranges the neurons of our brain, which enables us to understand ourselves better than before and show empathy towards others.

 

Meditating means stopping thinking about right and wrong and focusing on one thing.

Now we know what are the benefits of meditation. Let's see how to do it.

First of all, sit at a place where you feel comfortable. It does not matter whether you are sitting on your chair or on the floor, the only condition should be that you feel comfortable there. You sit straight and not bent over.

Before doing this, first of all stop thinking whether there is something good or bad here. So if someone comes and disturbs you while you are meditating, do not get angry at him, because there is nothing good or bad here. After this, remove from yourself every emotion that causes you trouble, whether it is hatred towards someone, anger over something or a feeling of competition with someone because all these emotions snatch our peace from us.

In the beginning you can meditate for just 5 or 10 minutes and with time you can increase it if you want. Now that you have left behind all the good and bad emotions, choose one thing to concentrate on. If you want, you can concentrate on your breath and how it is going inside you and spreading into your lungs and stomach or you can concentrate on the candle kept in front of you. You see how the flame is moving when the wind blows or how bright its color is. You can concentrate on anything if you want, but once you have concentrated on it, do not move it.

It is possible that in the meantime some things may come to your mind which may distract your attention. It is common for this to happen. You remove your attention from this and again focus your attention on whatever you were focusing on.

In the beginning you just meditate for a few minutes.

Many people say that they are very busy and do not get time to meditate. But these are all excuses for not meditating. You must be having a time when you are not doing anything. Maybe you use your mobile after brushing your teeth in the morning or you watch TV after coming from work in the evening. Save that time and use it for meditation.

It is not necessary that you need an environment to meditate. If you want, you can also meditate while sitting in your office. Whenever you feel that you are getting stressed, take your mind off your work for a while and concentrate on your breathing. Even by doing just one minute, you will find that your stress has reduced to a great extent.

Many people meditate for just 10 breaths. If you are really very busy and do not get even a single minute of time from the time you wake up in the morning till the night, then just meditate for 10 breaths. You close your eyes and take 10 breaths in and out and then go back to your work.

Your aim should be to make meditation a habit. It is very important that you do this every day, otherwise you will not get the benefits. In the beginning you may feel that you have to meditate, but later you should find that you like meditating. When you really start to feel like you are enjoying it, it won't feel like a burden.

In the beginning you may find it boring to sit for 10 minutes. Therefore, you should do it for only 5 minutes or only 1 minute. After one month you will be able to meditate easily for 10 minutes.

Society has now started adopting meditation and you should also adopt it.

Many people think that meditation is very old fashioned. They wonder what their family or friends will say about them if they start meditating. But perhaps you may not know, society is now adopting meditation. Not only the society, but also the government is now laying emphasis on meditation.

If we talk about India, Baba Ramdev has been advising people to do meditation and yoga since long. Recently, there was a wave called Fitness Secret on social media in which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Virat Kohli, Hrithik Roshan and many other people shared their health secrets on social media. Many people say that they are so fit because they do meditation and yoga.

Not only in India, many people in foreign countries too have now started believing that meditation has benefits. Washington Capitol Hill Congressman Tim Ryan wrote a book – A Mindful Nation. This book tells us how meditation can be a good thing not only for the people but also for the country. He said that if everyone meditates, we can make good rules regarding education, health and military.

Ryan has made meditation a subject in a school in Ohio. Although many people opposed him, he had all the data on how many people had meditated and benefited from it.

Meditating does not mean that you are associating yourself with any religion. This means that you are taking steps towards a healthy life. This is one way we can reduce our stress. Great people of the world like Steve Jobs also used to meditate and there is no need to tell about their success.

By meditating with a partner, you can strengthen your relationship with him/her.

Till now we have seen how you can get many benefits even by meditating for just a few minutes. In this lesson we will learn how to meditate for long periods of time. This type of meditation can last for about 2 hours, but if you want, you can make it shorter or longer as per your convenience.

Because you have to do this for 2 hours, this meditation is not done sitting, but lying down. There is only one rule to do this, put yourself under pressure in any way possible. Feel whatever emotion comes up and return your attention to whatever you were focusing on.

You can play the song if you want. Lie down on your bed or your couch and take deep breaths. Imagine that you are sinking somewhere and going deeper. Imagine that you are leaving all kinds of worries on the surface and going inside. Even if any emotion comes to you, remove it and concentrate again.

If you do this meditation with your partner, you can improve his and your relationship. You lie down holding your partner's hand and try to feel every movement happening in his/her body. Feel the movement of his/her breathing or the movement of his/her heartbeats.

By meditating in this way, you can increase sympathy for him. If you have any feelings about your partner, tell yourself how you feel and then put them aside and focus on yourself. Although you should do it for 2 hours, but as we said, there is only one rule for doing it that you should not put pressure on yourself. If you feel good then do it for longer time, otherwise do it for less time only.

By meditating you can control your emotions.

Do you sometimes have such feelings that you are unable to control them even if you try? Sometimes when we have a fight with someone, we remain upset the whole night. Sometimes when we get angry, we do things even without wanting to, which we regret later.

Meditating means embracing your feelings, not running away from them. By meditating, you can understand your emotions better and learn to control them. While meditating, if any negative emotion comes to you, then do not suppress it nor run away from it. Rather adopt it. You can do this in the following four steps

First of all, if any emotion comes to you while meditating, then identify it. Notice what actions happen inside you when that feeling comes. Does your breathing become faster? Does your forehead shrink? Recognize every action that arose within you because of that emotion.

After this you adopt that feeling. See how you feel when he comes.

In the third step, try to find out why that feeling is coming inside you. Is it regretting not doing something? Is it the sadness of losing? Find the reason that caused this feeling in you. In this way you will be able to eliminate him easily.

In the end you should accept that that feeling is inside you. Just think about it, everyone has some good and bad feelings inside them. What matters is how you handle that feeling. Don't let that feeling overwhelm you.

It may be difficult to do all these tasks in the beginning but with time you will have no problem in doing them.

By meditating you can improve yourself in your work.

Some people have a lot of pressure in their work. So we can't expect those people to make mistakes. Therefore, those people have to work very carefully and properly and that too within the given time. Doctors, police and firemen for example. A doctor is considered equal to God and if he makes a mistake then who knows what will happen. People doing this kind of work can reduce their stress by adopting meditation and can improve themselves in their work.

Sylvia Moir, mayor of El Cerrito, California, asked her entire police team to meditate. He told them how through intense meditation they could reduce the impact of terrible events on their brains. Some policemen were refusing in the beginning but when the benefits started appearing, they also adopted it.

If data is to be believed then it has come to light that people who meditate in police or military, their short term memory remains sharp, they get themselves out of difficult times quickly and they are able to work for longer hours. And less stress hormones are found in them.

The policemen of El Cerrito use a special method to reduce their stress, which has four steps. By using this, policemen reduce their stress and anger so that they do not do anything which they will regret later.

Wait for this first. If someone is yelling at you, take a deep breath and stop before yelling at him. After this try to understand. See what kind of emotion is arising inside you and what it is asking you to do. If you are angry and feel like killing the person in front of you, then control this feeling.

At last you feel that you are free. Your mind is not controlling you and you are the one who can do whatever you want to do.

Make meditation a habit and recognize its benefits.

If you have read this book till now, you might be thinking that meditation can be a really good habit and it will make my life much better than before. Although this is true, but here you should understand one thing that it is easy to be successful, but difficult to remain successful. Adopting a habit is easy but maintaining it is difficult.

So if you start meditating today, do it every day, even if you are on vacation or sick. Because if you leave it for one day, you will leave it the next day also and with time this habit will go out of your hands.

To do this, first understand the benefits of it. You see how your life was before meditation and how your life is now. Once you start feeling that you have really benefited from it, then you will do it every day to get that benefit and this habit will never go away.

If you have been meditating for a long time, then you can try to do some higher level meditation which has more benefits. Till now you have been concentrating on your breathing or on something, but now you try not to concentrate on anything.

It may be difficult to do this in the beginning but with time when you get used to it, you will see that you are getting more benefits than before. Although not thinking anything and doing nothing at the same time can be a bit boring and it is also possible that different types of thoughts start coming inside you, but you should divert your attention from there and focus it on nothing again.

Again, there is nothing good or bad in meditation. You just embrace every feeling within you because it is a part of you. By adopting it you will be able to control it better.

overall

By meditating you can reduce your stress and live a happy life. Today the society is recognizing its benefits and adopting it. You can choose any place to do this and you can do it for any length of time as per your convenience. By doing this you can control your emotions well and understand the feelings of others.

Increase your empathy by meditating on a special person.

Meditating can not only make you happier, but you can also increase your empathy. Think about a person who needs love or support right now, and then think about your feelings toward that person. If you do this every day, you will find that you are more empathetic than before.

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