Meditation. When we hear the word we often think of the image of a Buddhist monk sitting in a garden cross legged with his eyes closed while he chants “OMMMMM”. Is this what meditation looks like? Is this all that we do to meditate? What does meditation even do? This week we’re going to get comfy, relax our minds, and focus on mediation in the Deeper Thoughts post. We’re going to get into the basics of meditation and some of the things it can do for you, and how you can use it.
Meditation is used for multiple things, the most well known of which is emptying our mind of thoughts. Many struggle with this, so how do we do it? It’s simple, but like all skills it takes practice. To start, you can take that classical position we all think of when we hear meditation, but you can also sit in a chair and get comfortable. Keep your spine as straight as you can without it being uncomfortable because that will take away from your focus.
Now that you’re in position, the first step when we meditate is to pull our mind and our energy back to our center. The best way to do this, in my experiences, is to find something to focus on. This can be anything from your breathing, to the flame of a candle, or a point on the wall. For some people it can help to count the beads on a rosary or mala to help maintain a focus.
This is where much of the struggle comes in. As we focus on the point of our choosing our minds are often bombarded with thoughts. Where most people go wrong is they try to force these thoughts out of their mind. Instead what needs to be done when we catch our mind wandering is to acknowledge it, then go back to focusing. You don’t have to do a long stretch right off the bat. Start with 5 or 10 minutes and over time work your way up. Many so-called spiritual “gurus” will brag about how they can meditate for hours on end, and while this is possible, most true experts will tell you that 20-30 minutes a day is plenty.
Why do some people chant and others don’t? The answer to this varies. For some people it’s something to focus on. Often though it’s to activate certain energy centers in the body. It can often be used to connect with certain energies outside the body as well.
So going back to clearing your mind, what’s the benefits? It helps with your focus. It also helps you to destress. Focusing and clearing your mind pulls your energy back into you. When you keep letting your mind wander all over the place you can become stressed easier. You think about all the issues you have with work, your family, that new story that made you mad, etc. Meditation and pulling your energy back to you helps you to regulate your thoughts and emotions. It brings you back into the current moment in a space of calmness, grounding and centering yourself. (For more on grounding read our post titled “Touching Grass with the Element of Earth). Lowering our stress levels with meditation can help the metaphysical body in countless ways.
So how else can we use meditation? Getting in that meditative state makes it easier for other kinds of energy work. Take visualization for example. When your mind is clear it becomes easier to focus on picturing the events, desires, and future you want. In the meditative state it’s easier to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the vision. The more of those senses you can incorporate the more real it is in your subconscious mind, the more complete that vision is put into the Universe to be returned to you. This is especially important for those of you who currently, or want to start practicing magick. Charging magickal items such as candles or sigils require visualization and the more detailed you can make those visualizations the greater your outcomes and manifestations can be.
When you’ve been working on self awareness and become accustomed to your own energy you can work expanding your energetic field. You can feel out to other energies in your surrounding area. If you let go of the rigidity in your body you can even feel the flow of energy in the room you’re in!
Another perk of frequent meditation is it helps bridge the gap between your conscious and subconscious. This helps strengthen your intuition and connection to your inner self. The more you can connect with yourself the more you’re aware of yourself and this self awareness makes it easier to heal.
There’s a lot you can do with mediation beyond what I’ve listed here. However before you can jump into things you need to practice the basics and get into that meditative state. From there you can expand your energy and your consciousness. I hope this article helped any who read it today. Thank you for reading, take care, and always have an enlightening day!
Comments