Meditation is a practice based on reducing anxiety and stress by modifying a person's emotions. Its origin comes from Asian religions and spiritual traditions, even today many cultures meditate, regardless of the origin of their religion. The word "meditation" comes from the Latin verb "meditari", translated into English as "to think, to contemplate, to devise and to reflect". Primarily it is the state of mind that is achieved by practising yoga. The primary exercise is to train the mind to gain a greater perspective on life and oneself. It is not known exactly when meditation began on the chronological axis, but it is believed to have started around 5000 years ago, between 500 and 600 BC, and developed in Taoism in China and Buddhist India. In the Bhagavad Gita, the philosophy of meditation, yoga and the method of spiritual life was written about. The practice came to the West in 20 BC when Philo of Alexandria wrote about spiritual exercises that helped mental concentration.
There are different stages of meditation:
1: Establish a practice: Focus on developing a disciplined practice, that is, overcoming lack of motivation, doubt, boredom and fatigue. It is mastered when one does not lose that daily practice.
2: Interrupted attention and overcoming the wandering mind: Its main objective is to observe the breath and its process in the present, avoiding past reality and trying not to let the mind wander. If it wanders, it is not bad, as it is common, but over time, full attention to the process is achieved.
3: Extended attention to the object of meditation: If a guided meditation is practised, we can listen to that person talking about the process of breathing to do the same, the description of the environment and its importance in the present. For this, it is necessary to overcome obstacles such as wandering of the mind.
4: Continuous uninterrupted attention: Once you have full attention to the object of meditation, it will be difficult to be distracted, unless it is a serious distraction that affects your surroundings.
5: Overcoming subtle boredom and maintaining full awareness: There is an exercise at this stage that focuses on experiencing the whole body with the breath, that is, to maintain full awareness, it is necessary to let the breath flow and even count your breaths. In this way, it is impossible to feel boredom.
6: Subduing subtle distraction: This is based on 0 distractions and full awareness and attention to the breathing process and the environment around you. You may even notice distractions but they are no longer obstacles to your mind.
7: Punctual attention and unification of the mind: Attention will be automatic, I mean, you don't need anything to be able to get to the object of meditation, even with distractions you are in the environment you want to be in.
8: Mental flexibility and pacification of the senses: There will be peace in your surroundings, you will have great self-confidence, you will ignore physical and mental pain and meditate without needing to worry about anything.
9: Physical flexibility and meditative joy: Perhaps there is so much joy with yourself that you may feel distractions, but not those outside your environment, but within your mind. Those distractions are totally healthy when meditating, because you feel full of confidence and joy in the process.
10: Stability of attention and awareness that persists beyond the sitting practice: This is the final stage, in which negative thoughts and anger will disappear and there will be only thoughts filled with eudaimonia.
From my experience, meditation has been a great help and continues to be a great help today, especially in resolving my past problems and for offering me the opportunity to forgive others as well as forgiveness towards oneself. I look at life in a different way, I enjoy every moment until the end as if my life will end tomorrow, I take deep breaths of gratitude for the power of being human and I appreciate the nostalgia of experiences as another feeling in my life. Within 5 days of starting meditation, I became aware of the changes in the brain anatomy, I mean, even if it is all changes in some areas of the brain, you mainly realise that relaxation and breathing go together, and the only way to divert the negative is to meditate and breathe. Feeling the present is a gift that few value, as we focus on forgetting things from the past and worrying about the future. Nostalgia, as I have talked about before, is a universal but ambiguous feeling, that is, it is a bittersweet emotion that is present in varying degrees depending on personality, mood or culture. It can also be found in loneliness, as we often miss happy moments, but it is a substitute for negative thoughts. However, nostalgia is fleeting, while melancholy is long-lasting, as if we are trapped in the past. Even if the pain persists, the memories are enough to give pleasure and to forget a little of the negative process of the experience.
There are a number of myths about meditation, including misconceptions. Many people think it is religious, although we know that it has its origins in other cultures, it does not mean that you have to believe in a God to carry out the process of meditation. It is also often said that it is an escape from emotions, but this is a misconception. Mainly, when meditating, we get in touch with our ego, and perceive the emotions of the moment in order to understand your emotional situation. It is said that meditation is selfish, on the contrary, even when one meditates, apart from self-assessing one's emotions, one wants to understand the emotions of the other, recommending the great importance of the practice. There is one fact that is 100% wrong, and that is the one that says that it takes years of practice to receive any benefit. In my experience, after 3 weeks of meditating, I have had benefits that today have helped me to overcome difficult and serious obstacles to my mental health.
They also think that meditation takes time out of your life, but if you are really aware of your mental health and its value, you will never judge meditation as an activity that takes time out of your life, it even helps your mood without realising it, and that is the beauty of the process. If you have never tried this practice, it is totally recommended and healthy, you don't need any kind of thinking to do it, even if you feel good about yourself. Meditation never detracts from your positive thoughts, you may feel that you are not making any progress but you don't see that two days after you start, everyone has their own distractions with their mind, but the word "judging" is the enemy of meditation, as the mind should never be judged.
"Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone else to bring you flowers". - Veronica A. Shoffstall.
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