Let’s talk about meditation, a practice that is thousands of years old and is common worldwide. Many people today have a meditation practice of some kind but often even people engaged in a regular practice can’t truly define what meditation is. Among people who not yet explored a meditation practice, there can often be a set of limiting beliefs that you must sit for hours in an uncomfortable position while trying not to think a single thought, perhaps while burning incense and wearing special robes! Today, the practice of meditation is as diverse as it has ever been, and people are adapting their practice to their own lifestyle and needs, including the use of technology.
And that’s a good thing, because meditation has different uses and benefits for different people. At its core I think of meditation as a practice to clear or focus your mind with resulting mental, physical, emotional and spiritual benefits. Meditation can offer us a brief respite from our cares and concerns, give us a moment of pause in an otherwise busy life, offer us an avenue to get in touch with our emotions or feelings around an issue, and for many provide a gateway to receiving communication from whatever is transcendent for them. The sense of both relief and renewal that daily meditation offers keeps me coming back to my meditation chair each day, a place where I know I can fully decompress even in only 10 or 20 minutes.
Modern science, especially in the past several decades, has engaged in many studies about the substantial benefits of a regular meditation practice: relaxation, stress relief, brain health, and even as a tool for overcoming addiction, and more. The benefits of meditation are very individual and often change the longer an individual engages in the practice.
How Do I Begin?
For many years I held a meditation group in my home where members would come once a week to meditate together. I found those groups to powerfully expand my meditation practice, perhaps because of the shared energy in the room, and also because we found that meditating as a group, we received very similar messages or information, which we would offer and discuss afterward.
But you don’t need a group to meditate or even a teacher. You only need your own breath. I often tell people wanting to meditate for the first time to simply follow your breath in and out for 30 cycles, trying to continuously lengthen your exhale to be longer than your inhale. This slows your heart rate and calms your nervous system. Some use a counting system, such as breathing in to the count of four, sometimes holding your breath for the count of five, and then breathing out to the count of six. If you find yourself thinking about something else other than following your breath, just acknowledge it gently as ‘thinking’ and move back to focusing on your breath. In a nutshell, that is the core of the practice. And it truly is a practice, and one at which you will get better and better over time, with longer expanses of focusing on your breath without intruding thoughts.
Use of Sound in Meditation Practice
But there are many ways to meditate, and no right or wrong way, no set of rules or requirements and each practitioner can find their own methodology or path. Today, technology, the internet and a considerable number of tech-based tools often attract meditators who want to incorporate modern technology with a centuries-old practice. For example, you can engage in meditation in full silence, which many find the least distracting. But others like to use sound to draw them deeper into a meditative space. Hemi-Sync music, short for hemispheric synchronization, is a patented audio technology developed by the Monroe Institute. It helps the listener to safely alter his or her brain waves with multi-layered patterns of sound frequencies. When you hear these through stereo headphones or speakers, your brain responds by producing a third sound (called a binaural beat) that encourages the desired brain wave activity.
The Monroe Institute offers a large library of hemi-sync recordings for both inexperienced and highly experienced meditators. There is also a large volume of available meditation recordings, varying from music to sounds that can help you to relax, to realign your chakras, or to engage various parts of the brain. A simple Google search to find ‘recordings or sound for meditation’ will yield a wealth of resources, many of them free. Some will offer singing bowl or crystal bowl recordings, the sound of which can change your physical frequency, helping you to move to a higher vibration or frequency with considerable and very positive results. Often by beginning your meditation using music of some type, meditators find that once the music ends, the resulting silence is a deeper and more meaningful experience for them.
Guided Meditations
Another use of sound in meditation is through employing guided meditation recordings, where a meditation guide talks you through a meditative experience. Simply relax and breathe deeply and then turn on the guided meditation. Often people who have not used guided meditations find them surprisingly beneficial, especially when they are feeling especially anxious or turbulent and need some extra help to find their focus. Guided meditations are very useful especially for new meditators, as the meditation guide’s voice provides a focal point, and is meant to replace your own thinking with the sound of their voice. Satiama Publishing (www.satiamapublishing.com) offers a free virtual meditation hall of guided meditation recordings by some of today’s top spiritual leaders on their website so you can find and use a different one daily according to your purpose or need. Many meditators also find that recordings of chanting, affirmations and/or mantras to be equally useful and work in largely the same way as guided meditation recordings.
Toning as a Meditation Tool
And then there is vocal toning and humming – using your own voice to create sound which often is in harmony with and creates a stabilizing force within your own body. Many use toning as a prelude to silent meditation. Simply choose a vowel sound – ah, eh, uh, oh or aum – and repeatedly tone that vowel sound using the same note. The vagus nerve runs through your next and close to your vocal cords and helps to regulate your nervous system. But toning and humming can also increase the nitrous oxide levels in your body, which can slow your body down – your brain, your heart rate, and some say even your blood pressure. Toning or humming requires no recordings or special equipment and can even help you to relax yourself into sleep. It is again a prelude to finding your way to silence in your meditation practice.
How Should I Sit to Meditate?
Although beginning meditators find they prefer to practice meditating in a quiet place, experienced meditators often say that following a dedicated practice of months or years they can meditate anywhere and in any position. And there truly is no “right” position in sit with on those for any length of time now that I have a pair of arthritic knees. I have purchased a comfy overstuffed chair for my meditation room. Still others believe they can meditate best lying down, finding that to be a position of complete relaxtion and surrender.
Walking Meditation
Many meditators also enjoy walking meditation, where your focal point is simply picking up your foot and putting it down, bringing the meditator into the fully present moment and eventually blocking out all thoughts other than lifting one foot, placing it down, and then repeating with the other foot. It is a form of mindfulness meditation practiced all over the world, as it involves doing something that we do automatically and without thought. In meditation, slowly and deliberately bringing your attention to your feet and the ground below, similar to following your breath, blocks out other distracting thoughts as it requires your full attention to simply taking another step.
Other Tools for Meditation
Many beginning meditators find the use of noise-blocking headphones or ear buds aids them considerably in reducing external stimuli. There are also meditation timers, headbands to help train your brain for mindfulness by giving you sound cues of the electrical activity (EEG) of your brain while you meditate, devices to plug into your computer to monitor your brain activity, phone apps with a wide menu of recordings and other offerings, and even meditation videos to change or enhance brain wave activity. Today’s technology provides meditators at every level with new and interesting tools which can shape or expand your meditation practice.
If you don’t already engage in a meditation practice, I encourage those readers to give it a try. Meditation is a truly an ongoing practice, and one that can span a lifetime. As you become more proficient you might find that it has become essential to your daily life the same as food, water, and air.
