Meditation is all about connecting “The Four Quadrants of Life” in which the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. As are all one with each other.
This is what meditation is all about.
Meditation is the mode of connecting with the source of all life.
It is when a state of awareness has been attained and at one with pure consciousness, known as; I AM.
Now depending on your internal or religious beliefs, the I AM goes by many names.
There are many names that have been used; The Great Spirit, the Creator, the Universal Source, The Divinity of Oneness, Divine Love, The light, many would know this as God.
This is the true form and meaning of what meditation is, however, for some who are at a higher level of awareness of oneself this will be the aim or intention of their meditation.
For others who are learning about their own pathway in life, this is yet to take form.
You have to start somewhere
We now know the ultimate aim of meditation and its purpose of being one with all that is.
However, when first starting, there are many other reasons and stages to go through during your meditation process.
The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life - Sogyal Rinpoche Click To Tweet
Why Meditate?
Aside from the above explanation, the reasons for meditation can vary.
For some, it is not always a case of being spiritual, well not initially anyway.
For instance, you may have a stressful job, or going through some stressful times at present.
Meditation in this instance can become vital not only for helping you to reduce the stressors of life but can also quite possibly save your life as well.
One of the main issues with being in constant stress is situations and issues such as work, home, relational, or financial worries.
Yet the deeper issue is normally something entirely different from what you feel is the problem as just mentioned.
The real issue is that you forgot one important aspect regarding life.
YOU
Yes, that right you forgot about yourself, the most important piece of this puzzle of life.
In doing so, you will find your eating habits may not be at the optimal level to maintain a healthy lifestyle balance.
Along with other habits picked up along the way thinking this will sort out the problems being faced.
General scenario
Take for instance, when you sleep you most likely have difficulty sleeping and may average 5-6 hours’ sleep or less.
Quite often you are interrupted by a few waking moments during the night, later you finally get to sleep only for the alarm bell to say enough is enough but you somehow manage to get an extra 5 min and then some more.
You then go through all your morning rituals in preparing for the day before you leave for work.
Instead of sitting down to have a good hearty breakfast, you feel that time is against you so instead, off you go and stop usually at the drive-through in a fast food outlet to get that so-called quick meal fix of breakfast and maybe some coffee.
You then drive to work eating on the way, I have seen many women applying their makeup between traffic lights as well (a recipe for disaster).
The traffic always seems to be slow when you are in a rush, (funny about that) eventually you arrive to work.
Stress
Therefore, by the time you are ready to work, stress is already taking its toll on your body.
Now do this every day for many years and here you are now feeling the effects of tiredness, perhaps anger, frustration, and many more emotional roller coaster effects.
You take your stress out of your family, friends, and even yourself.
Add to the effect that there is most likely too much sugar in your intake, too much caffeine, perhaps you smoke as well (which just escalates your health and not the positive way).
The fast foods you are eating in the morning, most likely lunch as well and perhaps in the evening as you are too tired or lazy to cook your own meals.
All this takes its toll.
It would probably be fair to assume you don’t exercise enough so your body is not metabolizing properly which in turn builds up more issues you may not be aware.
This also can take a drastic toll not only on your body and health but also ultimately on your life.
That is just one aspect of the results of living a life of stress.
There may be other reasons but stress and poor lifestyle generally are the root causes of many issues.
What can I do then?
So looking at that, there are a few options to take in finding ways to meditate.
This can help you to reduce the stress level down, and ultimately your health level can go up as much as possible.
The inner self. Your true source of life of which you are.
This has nothing to do with finding and being at one with all life.
However, this is the starting point of being aware and connecting back to your roots of oneness with yourself.
Remember at one point in your life you forgot about yourself this is your moment to take back what rightfully belongs to you.
You will also find that as you struggle with your own life you can easily become far too stressed to help or be there properly for others.
This now becomes inner me time.
Other forms of meditation
Here this kind of meditation is more closely related to relaxation rather than a deep sit-down type meditation.
The intention here is to help you learn to relax your body which will then as your progress along the way allow the internal functions of your amazing body to take over and readjust all your levels within.
As you progress with your various forms of relaxation and as you continue this then this form of relaxation meditation will later help you to become better focused and working on other forms of meditation as well when you slowly move towards that oneness spoken above.
For now, start at the beginning.
One of the ways you can start is with exercise.
There are many different ways and it is up to you to try out which is the best for you.
Walking
This is a great way to take out the daily stress after a long hard day’s work.
I used to start this routine in the morning but for me found that doing my meditation in the morning and going for an afternoon walk was more beneficial for me.
So do what works best for you.
After a hard and long days’ work, it can be mentally draining.
Going for a brisk walk (for me it’s about 45 mins to an hour walk) each day helps to clear the mind of the day thinking and brings in a refreshed train of thought that becomes relaxing to the body, mind, soul, and spirit.
You will also find as you do this each day your health will improve as the body is now circulating the blood flow more easily, the stress levels are lowered or minimized.
Not to mention that losing some weight as well, bonus!
Another aspect you will find is your mind starts to clear that fogginess that has been lingering all day.
You will start to get some refreshed ideas and thoughts or even clear answers to some problems that you have been asking for.
Gardening
Now if you prefer to do some gardening this is also are other ways to perform some of these relaxing techniques.
Doing something you love, such as a hobby like gardening can be a form of relaxing meditation.
As you are focused on gardening this becomes your particular form of training
All other issues of the day seem to dissipate around you, your tensions are released, you start to feel relaxed and at ease rather than at dis-ease.
The whole point of these methods is to clear that pollution that has been absorbed in your mind and like a breeze is able to take away those thoughts and pains from normal day-to-day life.
In the next article, we will go through Meditation Techniques for Beginners.
Added Reading
The Four Quadrants of Life
As Always
