Awakening on the Inside. The Benefits of Meditation.

The art of meditation isn't hard to master. This ancient relaxation technique aims to increase concentration and spiritual awareness. The regular practice of meditation helps to focus all attention on something concrete; A goal, our breath, a thought that you wish to attract ... And the experts on the subject affirm that it opens the door to both the growth and spiritual progress of our being.

Meditation is a method, which allows us to improve our lives, and like the oriental masters, we can discipline our minds, solve problems and begin to create our own reality.

The only thing necessary is the desire and the effort to achieve it.

One of the ways to dominate the mind is by silencing it. Meditation quietens the mind, helps you control your thoughts and revitalises your body.

Those facts are not just backed-up by spiritual individuals. It is also been proved that meditation reduces stress, anxiety and depression, as it raises the levels of serotonin, a powerful neurotransmitter, whose deficiency is linked to depression.

In addition, it activates brain areas related to positive emotions, relieves chronic pain and reduces the risk of suffering heart disease.

After several days practising meditation, without the need to have a great experience, the levels of antibodies raise.

Whenever I meditate I feel a rising peace coming from within, and expanding towards the outside expressed in a subtle happiness. I feel like the ancient Oak upon a cliff, like the serene lake with deep blue waters and like the birds swaying with the wind.  And yet I feel more awake, more centred, more present.   

Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Meditation technique;

For starters it is important to find a quiet place. As meditation has to be comfortable and secure, your posture should also be comfortable and firm. In fact you can choose any position as long as you keep the column straight, and if we wish; We can put relaxing music on.

We will close our eyes and concentrate on what we have chosen as the support of our attention.

Sit comfortably, relaxing your body as much as possible without collapsing or bending your spine. You can relax your tense muscles with these exercises:

1. Drop your head on your chest, Inhale and exhale deeply three times. Returns to the correct position.
2. Tilt the head back, inhale and exhale deeply three times. Returns to the correct position.
3. Tilt your head to the left. Then turn to the right and inhale and exhale deeply three times.
4. Then turn the head in a circle, three times to one side and three times in the other direction.
5. Breathe in rapidly through your nose until your lungs fill-up. Hold the air for a moment, after which and with a sound of ... Hah ... you will exhale through the mouth. Repeat three times.
6. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nostrils. Feeling swelling in the middle of the stomach, do it three times (this serves to remove all the air spent from the lungs).

Now with your body relaxed and breathing in a normal, though deep way, focus until you imagine your body wrapped in water, air or light.

Turn your attention to your toes. Make them relax, making the tension and tiredness disappear from them.

Repeat this with the whole body. Bit by bit. With every single part of your body. 

Finishing with the forehead to be able to focus directly into the third eye. Deepen your concentration more and more in the third eye, transcends the material self, because only then can you meet your inner self.

Just relax, and let flow up, toward the energies. Let yourself be carried by the magnetic impulses if you feel them. You can then pray, conjure, or visualise whatever you'd like. 

Before finishing your meditation session. Take a last deep breath and open you eyes very slowly. Do not rush, incorporate yourself slowly and stretch your muscles.

I find it very funny how time perception changes when you meditate. Sometimes what it feels like a minute turns out to be fifteen and what felt like an hour is just five minutes. Does that happen to you as well?