"ALL is WELL" - Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: To help you Clearing Your Mind and Improving Your Work-Life Success.
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Introduction.
The History of Meditation
• Ancient practice started in India thousands of years ago • First recorded in the Vedas • Survived over the centuries as word spread about the benefits of meditation
Benefits of Meditation
• Reduces depression • Reduces anxiety • Changes the brain • Promotes a state of calm • Prevents reactive behavior
Mindfulness Meditation and How it Can Work for You
• Focus on the here and now • Consider your senses, what you hear, smell, feel, etc. • Remaps neural pathways and bad thought habits • Helps with symptoms of PTSD • Helps recovering addicts
Benefits of Loving Kindness Meditation
• Promotes a sense of compassion • Encourages forgiveness • Encourages self-love
• Beneficial for sufferers of abuse or trauma • Helps recovering addicts • Interrupts bad thought patterns and replaces them with better ones
Active Meditation with Kundalini Yoga
• Even people who don’t think they can meditate can meditate • Yoga is an active way of synching body and spirit • The mind can grow calmer after physical activity • Good for people who don’t like to sit still
The Benefits of Transcendental Meditation
• Utilize mantras to focus your thoughts and energy • Helps practitioner to be more productive • Hones focus on things that are most important to practitioner • Guided meditations may apply • Often associated with introspection and deeper spiritual understanding • Beneficial and effective for those with ADHD
The Practice of Zen Meditation
• More traditional style of meditation • Can use a mala (Buddhist prayer beads) to focus on a specific mantra or thought 108 times • Acknowledge your thoughts rather than dismiss them, but don’t get too caught up in them either • Mudras (specific Buddhist hand gestures used in meditation) may also benefit the practitioner
Tips and Tricks for Beginners
• Stay comfortable • Relax, don’t focus too much on breathing unless you are having a hard time letting go of your thoughts • Start small, don’t begin with twenty minute sessions and overwhelm yourself
• Meditate in the morning to set the tone for your day • Don’t force it