meditation Archives | Ahimsa Meditation

Meditation: Entrepreneurial Mindset

We have spoken with so many people who are early on their entrepreneurial journey. They are stressed out, report lack of energy and complain about having no time to eat properly.

All these things can negatively affect new businesses and people around small business owners too.

Surely, these symptoms of an overworked person can also describe a modern-day office worker. Pressure for a constant business growth, increased demands from peers and multitude of marketing messages that are stimulating us to consume.

It doesn’t matter whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee, all these triggers lead to feelings of personal deficiency and lowering down our confidence levels.

Tired of your ‘I’m never enough’ feelings?

We’ve teamed up with Peace of Mind School to help entrepreneurs to get enough peace of mind, overcome extreme busyness and stress. They feature a simple but straightforward peace of mind course online and the course book just went live (Kindle format and in print) on Amazon.

Using this course and your free time allocated to some self-discovery, you can learn how to fight excessive business and stress. This course also showcases how to live healthily but without strenuous diets.

It is very useful for business people as when you are stressed out, you can’t focus or pay attention to what matters most. YOu cannot make best possible business decisions. Yet almost all successful people know where exactly to pay attention. As a result, when you are stressed out for a long time, you start hating what you are doing. Prolonged exposure to stress changes your neural pathways. It all ends up with your business or career path to feel like an impossible climb.

Consider enrolling to this course or simply buying this peace of mind coursebook on Amazon (UK version is here) so you can reclaim your feeling of Enough and enjoy your life journey.

Peace of Mind School is on the mission to empower your entrepreneurship, business, body and mind. We love this!

With this course book you can easily create a plan for your peace of mind.

Meditation To Help With Alcohol Dependence

It has to be emphasized that meditation cannot be the only technique used to treat alcoholics. On the other hand, we may conclude that meditation, especially mindfulness meditation can be a very effective supplementary technique in treating alcohol dependence.

The active ingredient of meditative practices is, most certainly the “be here now” principle. Most addicts tend to crave psychoactive substances in a stressful situation when automatic thoughts overwhelm. In these situations, alcoholics begin to question their own self-worth- we all do this, but people with mental health problems cannot relativize the truthfulness of their thoughts.

People with alcohol dependency take their automatic thoughts and conclusions for granted and then succumb to the detrimental behavioral patterns.

To solve the problem, psychologists have developed various techniques aimed at gaining a patient’s control over their desires and developing motivation for long-term abstinence from alcohol.

Meditation from alcoholism is one of the methods of self-help, which gives positive results, especially when applied simultaneously with other psychological techniques.

What is the essence of meditation to quit drinking alcohol

The task of meditation is to focus on one’s own feelings or thoughts, to enter a state of altered consciousness, which in a sense is related to meditation with hypnosis.

In a state of meditation, a person better understands his feelings and emotions, enters into a dialogue with the subconscious, relieves nervous and muscle tension. Thanks to meditation, it is possible to better understand yourself, your true desires and motives of behavior.

Meditation helps to gain control over alcohol addiction and can significantly reduce the craving for alcohol.

Guided meditation to stop drinking

The key problem of alcohol dependence is the psychological craving for alcohol, which causes frequent breakdowns and addiction.

For meditation, a person can choose any pose convenient for him: lying, sitting, standing. The most famous is the pose with a straight back and legs crossed in front of you. At the same time, the head is inclined to the chest, the eyes are closed, and the arms are turned with palms up and resting on your knees.

It is important to create an appropriate environment: quiet, comfortable. You can turn on relaxing music or have a session in the lap of nature.

Example of meditation to quit alcohol

Preparation: Assess your drunkenness and the harm it does to your health and life.
Time: If you do not have enough willpower to give up drinking, then do this meditation with the involvement of a higher power that will help stop your addiction.

Sit on a pillow or chair in a meditative space. Light a candle. For five minutes, focus on breathing to calm and clear the mind.
Visualize the warm light of love around your heart region. Feel the heart soften and open.
Visualize the higher power that you believe in. Offer her a prayer. Ask her for help on your difficult journey to get rid of alcohol addiction. Pray that your vision will gain the ability to penetrate beyond the material world into the spiritual and Divine planes of our reality. And finally, ask that you be able to constantly feel sorry for yourself during this difficult journey.
Finish your meditation by imagining that a higher power settles in your heart forever.

During meditation, the task of a person is to free his head from all thoughts, to concentrate on the internal sensations coming from his body. If thoughts arise, it is necessary to concentrate again on the inner sensations. It is permissible to present pleasant pictures during meditation, to “listen” to pleasant music. Gradually, the time of meditation should be increased from 1-2 minutes to 15 or more.

Research On Meditation For Alcohol Addiction

Zgierska and colleagues have conducted a study that sought to test the efficiency of mindfulness meditation in preventing alcohol relapse. Their participants went through an 8-week course revolving around mindfulness meditation.

These are some of the most important aspects of this course:

Craving and automatic pilot: Here, a connection between automatic thoughts and alcohol craving is drawn. Participants learned the basics of what it means to “be, here, now”. For instance, alcohol craving can come as a result of automatic thoughts like “I am not good enough.”, or “People won’t like me if I am not happy and outgoing (drunk).”. Alcoholics are not aware of these automatic thoughts and the first step towards preventing relapse is to become conscious of them. With the help of meditation, participants are anchored in the present moment, which helps them control their craving and automatic thoughts.
Learning to identify barriers: Learning to use meditation when frustration, anxiety, and other negative emotions become overwhelming is the most important part of the second phase. For instance, alcohol addicts learn how to identify the stimuli that trigger them to consume alcohol. When triggers are identified, participants are encouraged to do a short, preventive meditation session.
Learning to employ mindfulness meditation in everyday life: This phase revolves around mini-meditation and walking meditation. Walking meditation is especially interesting because it shows that meditation can be adapted to everyday life and habits.
Acceptance and change: Meditation helps alcohol addicts accept their personal suffering and all the problems they avoided in the past. Alcohol dependence and all substance addictions, in general, are quite often “cover-ups” for other mental health problems like depression, anxiety, personality disorder, PTSD, etc. People often resort to substance abuse as a way to avoid the mental health issues they experienced in the first place. Mindfulness meditation motivates people to accept their innermost vulnerability, and use this acceptance to change their behavior.
The difference between our thoughts and reality: Mindfulness meditation helps people learn to observe their thoughts as they would observe anything else. Instead of acting automatically, participants learn that their thoughts are just a more or less biased representation of reality.

It has been found that adhering to the mindfulness meditation program leads to a reduction of various symptoms linked with alcohol addiction- anxiety, depression, and stress. The intensity of craving also decreased markedly. On the other hand, physiological markers of alcoholism and mental health issues (cortisol levels, and pathophysiological examination of the liver) didn’t show statistically significant improvements. It may be argued that such results are ought to be found, but the study we’re describing here didn’t include that many participants- only 19 alcoholics took part in this research.

Does meditation to stop drinking alcohol work?

A study by the University of Michigan proved that the inclusion of spiritual exercises in the treatment of alcoholism in a shorter time allows you to stop drinking and cure patients of this addiction.

This conclusion was made after studying 154 adult Americans suffering from alcoholism who tried to get rid of their addiction to alcohol. Before starting treatment, drunkards filled out detailed questionnaires in which, in particular, they talked about the degree of their religiosity (for example, they believe or do not believe in God, how often they attend church, how often they read books and spiritual articles, how much they tend to forgive their neighbors And so on). Such questionnaires were periodically filled by alcoholics during and after treatment.

It turned out that for half a year the “religious component” of half of alcoholics has seriously changed – they began to demonstrate views that are more consistent with religious canons. At the same time, the fundamental principles of relations with God did not change (that is, for example, atheists remained atheists, and believers did not disappoint in their religion).

Further analysis showed that those alcoholics who became more religious with each day of treatment more successfully refused an addiction to alcohol than those drunkards whose spiritual life did not undergo any special changes.

Excessive alcohol consumption is among the causes of mortality in the United States in third place – after smoking and malnutrition. Alcohol abuse kills 75,000 Americans every year.

We invite you to have a look at our very simple and straightforward guide on how to meditate, get our Nonviolence Meditation book to support your meditation practice (and also help others), and browse our meditation courses.

Abundance Meditation

Abundance is not only money in a bank account, it is not measured by trophies, it is not the number of people around, an acquaintance or relatives. Abundance is a connection with the soul and the complete accord of the mind and body, in every step of life, in every decision, in its own internal and external space.The feeling of abundance gives you the opportunity to look at life without limits. Feeling the wealth, both internal and external, you begin to see the meaning of things, events, and even the quality of your relationships with others.

What gives meditation for manifesting abundance

Many come into fertility meditation in order to attract money. But in fact, the task of such meditation is to make your life meaningful, to teach you to enjoy your existence and live in harmony. During the practice, your abundance grows and, along with this, you have more peace of mind, confidence not only in yourself but also in the outside world. You lead opportunities where you have not even looked before, you feel a surge of strength and a lack of fear.

Abundance meditation is applicable in various aspects of life:

For men and women who are trying to build relationships. Thanks to the abundance meditation, you will feel the flow of love, you can reconsider your relationship from the point of view of a completely satisfied person
For those seeking financial growth. Abundance meditation can help you see a new developmental option, exacerbate a sense of affluence and enhance your peace of mind.
For those wishing to overcome internal psychological fears and clamps

For meditation, it is not necessary to attend special groups or go to yoga. Abundance practices are applicable at home. To do this, you just need to familiarize yourself with the general instructions and find a convenient, quiet place for yourself.

Guided meditation for abundance

Find a quiet place where you can absolutely relax and just listen to my voice. Do not take anything except my voice. Let your mind calm down. Let your body relax.

Think of the Abundance that surrounds you. Wherever you look, you will see wealth. For example, trees, leaves, grass, animals, birds – divine Wealth and Abundance are everywhere.

The limitation exists only in our thinking. We set boundaries for ourselves. Stop and look at your life, look at yourself and realize that you are the highest form of God’s creativity.

The biggest mistake of a person is the conviction that for the desired result something else is needed, except for the correct state of Consciousness. Everything that happens to a person, everything that he does, everything that comes from him is the result of the state of his Consciousness.

As you immerse yourself in the abundance meditation, your Subconscious will go on a journey through beautiful places. Realize that you can realize everything that you see on the screen of your Consciousness in the material world.

An Example of guided meditation manifesting abundance

The abundance of Money Meditation

Create a calm cozy atmosphere in the room. You can use a variety of incense for this or include music to help you tune in accordingly.

In most cases, meditation is recommended alone. However, sometimes you can do the Abundance of Money meditation with your family members or business associates. In the second case, you need to meditate where you work, so that the streams of money attracted by you rush there.

When you are comfortable, you need to imagine a rich atmosphere in the room, a table breaking with food, mountains of money, etc. Imagine all this in colors and be filled with a feeling of abundance. Then, while maintaining your emotional state, take a lotus position (padmasana) or a lighter version of this position (sukhasana) and close your eyes.

Try to relax while doing this. Get rid of extraneous thoughts and imagine that you are very rich. Absorb this image, merge with it together. Feel yourself happy, get the joy of the profits that your money brings to you. Stay in this state for as long as you can receive joy from your imagination. At the end of your meditation, consider the pictures of abundance with which your meditation began.

If you find it difficult to imagine yourself in wealth and abundance, then remember the paintings or movies where famous people are in luxury and put yourself in their place. Feel their energy and absorb it into yourself.

Do meditation daily for 10-15 minutes for 2 weeks. It is especially effective to do this before the full moon.

Following the teachings of Reiki, mantras can be read as a mediation of plenty.

Mantra of Abundance

POSITION: Simple, with legs crossed.

WISE: hands clasped tightly in front of the Heart Center in the Castle of the Bear (left hand pointing palm forward, right hand facing the chest). The forearms are parallel to the ground.

EYES: The eyes are 1/10 open and focus the tip of the nose.

TIME: from 11 to 31 minutes.

Chant the mantra:

Har Har Har Har Gobinda

Har Har Har Har Mukande

Har Har Har Har Udaare

Har Har Har Har Apaare

Har Har Har Har Hariang

Har Har Har Har Kariang

Har Har Har Har Nirnaame

Har Har Har Har Akaame

Make meditation practice your habit. So you will open to the world of Plenty in all its wealth and day after day you will not only see, but also attract all the blessings, from the smallest to the largest, which are already in the Universe.

By meditating regularly, you better learn to see, attract abundance and maintain it throughout your life. In addition, you will have enough time to start practicing all that you have learned at a much deeper level.

The Usefulness of Abundance Meditation

While most of these practices are essentially meditations for financial prosperity, there are also other benefits of abundance meditation. For instance, there are special variants of abundance meditation for sleep. Achieving a lasting peace of mind is a goal for many of us, we also work very closely with Peace of Mind School in order to help everyone on their way to a feeling of more inner peace in their lives.

If you are a fan of mobile apps for training, you’ll most probably like abundance meditation apps. They mostly include various guided exercises, which will especially be helpful for beginners and people who are new to meditation.

How to Breathe Correctly: in Meditation and Beyond

What does correct breathing mean?

Do you think it is a bit of a joke that breathing needs a separate how-to? Our automatic actions, like walking or breathing, by definition, don’t get much attention from our part. But automaticity does not guarantee that an action is carried out in an appropriate (and healthy) way. When something is unconscious, we are unable to assess its appropriateness, and, subsequently, we cannot change the way we act.

How to breathe correctly while meditating

Meditation takes an unconscious act (breathing) and takes it to the surface of consciousness. By focusing on our breath, we also gain control over our thoughts and feelings. Correct breathing exercises are “active ingredients” of meditation. This is why it’s extremely important to learn the difference between unhealthy and healthy ways of breathing. Not only will you be able to meditate properly, but you’ll also learn how to recognize when your “breathing technique” is bad. By regaining control over your breath, you’ll be able to attain the state of peace and tranquility even in the most stressful situations
But let’s first see what are the “trademarks” of bad breathing.

Examples of improper breathing

First of all, bad breathing is almost always shallow. Shallow breathing has numerous detrimental consequences. For instance, when your breath is shallow, chances are that your brain doesn’t get enough oxygen (and, inversely, your body gets too much CO2). Your body recognizes these changes as stress-related signals and initiates numerous compensatory activities that are meant to make up for these detrimental changes. Needless to say, if your body is forced to cope with shallow breathing for too long, at one point the stress will become overwhelming, and compensatory activities (increased activity of the thyroid and adrenal glands) will no longer help. Quite the contrary. Increased activity of adrenal glands is a typical somatic response in almost all stressful situations, and this kind of response usually helps you to overcome the challenge. However, when the stressful situation lasts for too long (or when we are unable to deal with it), the increased activity of adrenal glands puts too much strain on your body. This type of maladaptive reaction is observed in some stress-related psychopathological syndromes like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Just so you know, you can check our targeted meditation practice to help with PTSD here.

How improper breathing affects health

Shallow breath is linked with negative emotions like fear, feeling threatened, nervousness, and anxiety. The list goes on and on, but these are the most dangerous (and negative) emotions linked with shallow breathing.

Bad breathing correlates with bad posture, which is, of course, another topic. However, your breathing method is most surely unhealthy if you, for example, have the so-called “forward head”, which is essentially the way you hold your head while you’re using your mobile phone. You can try this for yourself, as a little experiment: Just bend your head forward as much as you can, and you’ll see that it’s extremely hard to breathe in this position.

What is it proper breathing technique

Deep diaphragmatic breathing isn’t only beneficial for the mind. Some studies have shown numerous physiological changes that can be ascribed to diaphragmatic breathing therapy. For instance, diaphragmatic causes a significant increase in O2, while decreasing the amounts of CO2 in the body. In other words, the psychological effect of proper diaphragmatic breathing cannot be analyzed separately from its physiological reactions.

There are numerous ways to practice diaphragmatic breathing. First of all, you’d want to perform breathing exercises in several positions. The efficiency of supine, lateral decubitus, sitting, and standing positions has been empirically proven (Wellington et al. 2012). After you make yourself comfortable (in one of these positions) take, a slow, deep breath, while paying attention to the movement of your belly.

Diaphragmatic breathing is characterized by slow, constant ascendance and descent of your abdomen, so make sure to pay attention to this important aspect. After inhaling deeply through your nose, slowly exhale, by pushing out all the air from your lungs. Don’t force anything. Diaphragmatic breathing is steady, slow, and relaxed. You can also put a hand on your belly so that you get tactile feedback.

Guide how to breathe correctly

It is now believed that various yogic breathing exercises achieve their effect thanks to diaphragmatic breathing. One such yogic technique is called pranayama, which is, essentially, a term that designates our ability to control the breath. Prana, life’s vital force, is increased thanks to pranayama exercises. However, these yogic breathing exercises have some special characteristics, like yogic poses.

One of the alternate correct way to breathe is nostril breathing, another yogic technique that has so many psychological and physiological benefits that we won’t even try to mention them all.

We will only give you a guide on proper inhale and exhale techniques through the nose:

1. First, you should place one of your hands on your knee (if you are left-handed, put your right hand on your right knee. The opposite goes for right-handed individuals)

2. Lift one of your hands (left for left-handed, right for right-handed), towards your nose.

3. After exhaling (make sure to empty your lungs) close one of your nostrils with your thumb (right nostril if you use your right hand… you get the idea).

4. Inhale deeply through the open nostril.

5. Then close this nostril and inhale deeply through the other nostril.

6. Repeat this circle for about 5 minutes (i. e. inhaling through one, then the other nostril).

In conclusion, the proper way to breathe diaphragmic will do wonders for your mental and physical health. Developing it is not rocket science, but a gradual process to move away from shallow patterns to deeper ones. With time, your meditation practice but also everyday life would benefit from better breathing.

Have a very good practice, everyone!

Yoga And Meditation: Complementary Practices For A Healthier Life

Somewhat obscure beginnings of yoga span more than 5 millennia. The East Indian culture is considered as yoga’s cradle, with Patanjali as its founding father (Forfylow, 2011). Yoga was just one part of his philosophical system, which incorporated 6 ways of attaining unity of the body and mind. The word itself, “yoga”, can be roughly translated as “joining the mind and body in harmonious relaxation” (Fortylow, 2011, p.134). This article introduces how yoga and meditation complement your health and well-being.

Pillars of Yoga

Hatha yoga (and its many varieties) is by far the most popular type of yoga in the world. Although there are some differences, all styles of yoga have a set of common characteristics:

Breathwork – this aspect can be regarded as the backbone of all yoga styles. Each yoga exercise or posture starts with steady, concentrated breathing, after which various postures are practiced. The calming effect of breathing exercises has been noticed since yoga’s inception. Breathing exercises can have both energizing and calming effects. The so-called Ujjayi technique is believed to stimulate and energize, while Bhastrika breathing has a calming effect.

Postures are yoga’s “trademark”. Almost all individuals, even the ones who have barely even heard of yoga, know that yoga involves some kind of peculiar postures. The Sanskrit word for postures, asana, also means “flexibility, balance, circulation, and coordination”. There are many asanas in yoga, and each has its purpose- exercising a certain part of the body. Utilization of training tools, such as weights, is fairly uncommon in yoga, especially in its traditional forms.

Mindful Asanas

Postures, while being good for the body, also benefit the mind. The benefits aren’t confined to soothing and calming sensations that are so often associated with Eastern traditions. Just as breathing exercises can be invigorating, many yoga postures stimulate one’s energy. The classification relates specific postures with their respective effects on the mind.

This list shouldn’t be taken for granted, as some individuals might have different experiences with yoga postures:

1. Forwards bends= attaining the state of serenity, and calmness

2. Backbends and inversions= energizing and invigorating

3. Balancing postures= transferring bodily strength and poise into the mind

Yoga and Neurology

It’s easy to say “this breathing exercise is for that”, or “do this posture and you’ll feel this or that”. Scientists with rather diverse backgrounds aren’t satisfied with such statements. So they wanted to empirically test yoga’s effectiveness. They found that yoga has a plethora of health benefits, including “the mitigation of gene expression changes in response to social adversity; reduction in perceived loneliness; decreased inflammation; improved immune regulation; mental flourishing; and decreased all-cause mortality independent of other variables” (Sullivan et al. 2018).

Neuroscientists use a term that encompasses all these health benefits- eudaimonic well-being.

In other words, yoga affects (positively) both the mind and body.

Recently neuroscientists began making various theoretical models, hoping to find out how yoga changes the way we feel (Deshmukh, 2006).

Sullivan and colleagues tried to link yoga with some modern neurological theories, like PVT (Polyvagal theory). These researchers combined a thorough understanding of yoga- of which the concepts of 3 gunas (rajas/tamas/sattva) are the most important ones- and three important neural platforms. But let’s first explain the gunas. Gunas are qualities of Prakriti- material world. Purusha is the spirit that perceives these qualities.

About Gunas

So the the three gunas are:

1. Sattva is the state of calmness, serenity, and pleasure. Although it may seem that we should focus on this quality, it isn’t necessarily so. Yoga is the balance of all three gunas. You shouldn’t overemphasize one at the expense of the others. If one indulges in joy and pleasure excessively, the balance is lost.

2. Rajas is a turbulent, invigorating, and energizing state. Activity is rajas’ most important characteristic. Emotions like anger are also linked with rajas. Pain is as well. Just as we mustn’t overemphasize sattva, so we shouldn’t try to completely mitigate the rajas. Balance is the key.

3. Tamas is situated between sattva and rajas. It is neither positive nor negative. It’s indifferent and linked with inertia. When balanced with other gunas, tamas will bring stability.

As neurology developed, we’ve begun to find special neurological systems with numerous purposes. Of those, three systems are often mentioned as the most important- sympathetic nervous system (SNS), dorsal vagal complex (DVC), and ventral vagal complex (VVC). These systems are crucial for the integration of information received from the body’s periphery. We may even regard them as systems of neurons for the perception of Prakriti- the material world. A balanced integration of information coming from all three systems is crucial for psychological and physiological equilibrium.

Neurologists concluded that gunas are in fact systems of neurons (neural platforms). Sattva (joy, pleasure, etc.) has its basis in the ventral vagal complex (VVC). VVC, in turn, is crucial for interoception and relaxation, allowing the seamless interpretation of facial cues and prosody.

Not surprisingly, rajas is linked with the sympathetic nervous system. This system has a “stimulant” effect on the organism. It is about the so-called “fight or flight” actions. Overactivation of this system results in stress, fear, anxiety, and hostility.

Finally, tamas has its basis in the dorsal vagal complex. It is known to transmit sensations like stability, indifference, and inertia.

Yoga and Meditation: Mindful Integration

Just as all three neural platforms (or gunas) have to work together to attain the equilibrium, so is the combination of yoga postures, breathing exercises, and meditation the best “remedy” for both the body and mind. Sullivan and colleagues don’t think that by saying “yoga postures are for body and meditation is for the mind”, we tend to oversimplify an extremely complex phenomenon.

Meditation is a state of deepest contemplation. Evidently, it comes from the Latin word “meditationem”, which also means “to think, consider, reflect” (Online Etymology Dictionary, n.d). As of recently, it acquired a slightly different meaning that doesn’t incorporate much cognitive work, whereas psychological serenity is emphasized. In the traditional sense, meditation is the highest level of the body/mind integrity. It is the contemplation of the most important principles of life.

You can start your day by a basic concentration meditation (perfect meditation for beginners) or develop your vipassana meditation practice. You can follow it up by a sun salutation yoga sequence and get yourself fully ready for a brilliant day ahead.

If you do a more robust yoga practice like attending a class, it usually finishes with a corpse pose. Surely, it allows you not only to rest well after yoga session but also to meditate a little bit in a very relaxed way.

As you can see, the options are there, not it is your turn – try to establish a meditation routine and follow it up with a simple yet so effective yoga sequence. Your mind and body would thank you for that.

Enjoy!

References cited above:

Deshmukh, V.D. (2006). Neuroscience of Meditation. The Scientific World Journal. Vol. 6, pp. 2239-2253. Doi: 10.1100/tsw.2006.353
Forfylow, A. L. (2011). Integrating Yoga with Psychotherapy: A Complementary Treatment for Anxiety and Depression. Canadian Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Vol. 45(2), pp. 132-150. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ930795.pdf
Online Etymology Dictionary (n.d.). Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/meditation
Sullivan, M.B., Erb, M., Schmalzl, L., Moonaz, S., Taylor, J.N. & Porges, S.W. (2018). Yoga Therapy and Polyvagal Theory: The Convergence of Traditional Wisdom and Contemporary Neuroscience for Self-Regulation and Resilience. Front.Hum.Neurosci. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00067/full

6 Most Common Meditation Biases | Meditation Is Not What You May Think

Throughout years of meditation practice, you might hear questions and concerns. Most of them are formed because of a lack of knowledge of what meditation is. Some of them are stereotypes that emerged from movies, newspapers and other media. Surely, there is a lot of information on meditation around. It’s easy to get lost and form a meditation bias. Some would call them meditation myths.

We’ve collected 6 most common pieces of meditation bias around.

1 Meditation is mumbo jumbo crap

This is a summary of plentiful smaller pieces of meditation bias. In an example, it does not work, it’s not possible to just sit without thoughts and so on. All of these comments are caused by ignorance or inability or lack of motivation to try something that cannot be touched. Yoga mat and other props for yoga practice make it quite tangible, specific routines and postures make it so you can follow it by set instructions. Meditation does similar things with your mind – it makes it more agile, something that’s called Neuroplasticity. It means that this method of cultivating your mind is not as visible as stretching your muscles. Yet it does something similar – you come mentally healthier and more flexible to respond to stress factors.

As for ‘it does not work’ commentary, it is important to bear in mind that meditation requires a disciplined approach and a daily routine, so with time you would be able to feel the results yourself. Make a parallel with gym sessions, you would not expect to achieve your goals after just a few sporadic sessions, would you?

So all people who still think that meditation is a waste of time should probably try to start a regular practice. After all, dedicating just 20-30 minutes a day for yourself and your mental health is not a high price to pay, time-wise!

2 Meditation is for religious people. To meditate is like joining a sect.

Meditation is at the centerpiece of Buddhism and the teachings of Buddha are very simple. He said that you should you own common sense and think every concept through. If you joined a meditation group or center and feel that something ‘smells’ funny, just leave and try another. In fact, if you practice meditation using our simple instructions for concentration meditation on breathing or Vipassana meditation, there is no necessary chanting involved. It is 100% secular and is based on training your attention on your breath or contemplating some questions about yourself or life in general. Vipassana meditation is a precursor to various insights and it may help you with your personal life and relationships, but also with your professional life too.

3 Meditation is for extremely lazy people. They should just get on with your issues.

Whilst the second part is something that seasoned meditators approach with skill, namely facing obstacles and issues with increased awareness, it requires training. So it is definitely not laziness that drives meditators. But rather an effective method to stay emotionally composed and ready to respond to problems. As opposed to reacting to stress with even more stress.

4 Meditation is a practice of death.

This statement has its roots in the fact that Tibetan monks have a piece of works called ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’. The main idea is to work with your fear of death and accept that it would happen to everyone. One of the authors of a modern edition of this book, Sogyal, said: “Fear of death is fuelling that destruction of our environment that is threatening all our lives”.

This book teaches us to find a happy balance in modern lives in the form of simplicity. Meditation is a practice that cultivates our minds not only to simply accept death. It teaches us to treat all beings at all times with compassion.

If you want to try our Vipassana meditation, we also offer the following statement to contemplate:

“We may idealize our freedoms, but when it comes to our habits, we are completely enslaved”.

5 Meditation is not for everyone.

It cannot be far from the truth. You do not anything to practice meditation, no props or expensive equipment or clothing. You do not even need a mat or a cushion to sit on. All these things are completely optional. See our basic instructions on how to meditate here.

Moreover, you don’t even need to be in excellent health (though we hope you are!) to meditate. Many clinical practitioners recommend meditation to their patients in order to reduce stress and feel better. Research has shown that meditation speeds up the recovery and lengthens telomeres which slow down the aging of your cells. Kids also benefit from meditation similarly to their parents and the elderly.

6 Meditation is not good. Meditation is bad for you.

This type of opinion is too negative and generic. We wonder what triggers such an assessment. There is no research that would state that meditation worsens patient’s conditions, physically or mentally. Quite opposite, many studies (please see our extensive collection of scientific research on meditation here) have proven positive and healing effects of meditation practice. Read more on how meditation helps with weight management and weight loss, but also to manage stress and get healthier with whole food plant-based nutrition.

Wishing you delightful meditation practice, insightful and without any bias!

Cruelty and the Nature of Violence

The Nature of Cruelty

Sometimes it’s almost inconceivable that so many people are capable of unspeakable acts of cruelty. Some of them are very visible – abandoned pets, beaten up kids and domestic abuse. Yet some are inflicted on us by our own selves: constant negative rumination and beliefs that we are ‘not enough’. This is cruelty.

Cruelty means showing indifference to suffering. It can also mean actually inflicting it, or in some very clinical cases, taking pleasure in inflicting it.

There are forces that drive this cruelty – unconscious dislikes or just a feeling of being uncomfortable with something. This all inflicts suffering.

We can be all ‘nice people’, but still inflict suffering to ourselves and/or others.

We need to make conscious efforts to acknowledge our dislikes and see that another person does actually suffer. This awareness or mindfulness of suffering brings understanding and kindness to our own selves and others. You simply cannot move to eliminate cruelty without a better understanding of yourself and others. When you do understand and accept, the unconscious feelings lose the grip over you and do not trigger cruel intentions or actions.

Therefore, cruelty is the enemy of compassion. Any unkind responses are to be avoided. Yet it is very challenging because of the internal and external pressures that actually trigger such responses.

Why is it important to recognize cruelty!

When are aware of those causes and can look deeper into them, we can befriend them and move on. This brings a lot of generosity to ourselves and others, feelings of compassion and kindness.

Without a recognition that it is our own discomfort that causes the suffering of others, we cannot escape and eliminate cruelty.
Let’s hear from Ajahn Sumedho, a Buddhist monk, who said the following in his book “Peace is a simple step”.

‘We kill because of basic ignorance, this unreflecting human mind that tells us to annihilate what is in our way. However, with reflection we are changing that; we are transcending that basic instinctual, animal pattern. We are not just being law-abiding puppets of society, afraid to kill because we are afraid of being punished. Now we are really taking on responsibility. We respect the lives of other creatures, even the ones we don’t like’.

Meditation cultivates awareness

Meditation is a tool that helps us to condition our own minds, so we can let go of the ingrained hard-line views and many fixed ideas, but instead, open up to our own selves and the world around us.

Mindfulness meditation, when practiced in a disciplined fashion, trains our self-control. The latter, on the other hand, helps to deal with short attention span and hatred.

Mindfulness exercise

One great mindfulness exercise that you can employ during your meditation or simply during your day is to feel your emotions in your body.

What it means, when you feel hate or an intent to be cruel, simply pause and visualize your emotion. Breathe and feel where in your body this emotion ‘lives’. In example, you can maybe feel it in your throat or near the belly button. Turn your attention to it, observe and accept it as it is. This will make it subside and you can exercise your self-control over it. This is how awarenesses and attention to your own self help you to live without cruelty and hatred.

Violence vs Calmness

Psychologist David Hume long ago tried distinguishing ‘violent’ passions and ‘calm’ passions. When you practice meditation and employ this mindfulness exercise described above, you cultivate calmness and emotional stability. You do not change who you are, you are just living as a better you.

There are countless implications to living with a lot of hatred and cruel intentions. Jon Kabat-Zinn in his ‘Full Catastrophe Living’ writes:

‘high hostility scores predicted not just myocardial infarction and death from high disease but also increased risk of death from cancer and other causes as well’

We at Ahimsa Meditation have also been reporting on multiple studies that link poor nutrition to violent behaviors (Nutrition of Nonviolence), so you can see that it is all interconnected and you need to employ a holistic approach to better your life.

Paying attention to your nutrition, being mindful about your feelings in your body and living a calmer and kinder life, all this contributes to health and happiness.

Meditation for Greed | Minimalism vs Consumerism

Are we here at Ahimsa Meditation leaning towards ultra-minimalism or even asceticism? Are we trying to monetize meditation and create consumer products for this ever increasing market? Our stance is neither of these options. Let us disucuss consumerism, values of enough and how meditation for greed can help us all.

Whilst we think that healthy minimalism is great and our society’s insatiable nature of consumption should be addressed, we are also great advocates of human progress.

Humankind has evolved to live more peacefully and we should enjoy the results of such progress. One of the biggest examples is that we are now able to nourish our bodies with plant-based foods without the need for killing innocent animals.

We are also capable to diagnose and treat many diseases, we have environment-friendly cars and so on. Yet if you look into worldwide statistics, there are so many people who die from overconsumption and lavish lifestyles. Much more when compared to people who suffer from malnourishment and hunger. Mindful living starts with meditation for greed as a tool to take our insatiability.

It just shows that consumerism, being the driving force of a capitalist society, also steers us all in a very wrong direction. This destructing direction is clearly visible today. We are horrified that billions of innocent animals are slaughtered every year for our food. Global warming is not just a distant scare anymore. Violence is on the rise even in the most developed nations.

Lifestyle

When it comes to our lifestyle, we are capable to live happy right at this moment provided that have “enough” of our basic needs.

What are those? Everyone should have enough food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. It would be irrational to ask a man to be virtuous if they cannot get at least these.

Nutrition

Healthy nutrition can also showcase how aiming for ‘enough’ benefits to our bodies. Plant-based whole foods provide enough protein for your balanced nutrition. You also can get enough fiber from whole grains, oats, pseudo grains like buckwheat and quinoa. Enough doesn’t mean bare minimum, you can nourish your body with enough nutrients and vitamins by eating food derived from non-violent sources.

As opposed to that, think about junk food. It simply doesn’t give us what we need from food. Instead, it fills us with toxins. Materialistic values fill us with psychological toxins. Junk values are distorting our minds. Materialism is KFC for the soul.

That’s how our current system trains us “there is never enough”.

Enough & Happiness

Thich Nhat Hahn in his book “The Art of Living” says that there are a few mindfulness trainings and one of them is directly focused on finding true happiness. He suggests the following mantra or contemplation can be added to your meditation routine: “I am aware that happiness depends on my mental attitude, not on external conditions, and that I can live in a present moment happily simply by remembering that I already have more than enough conditions to be happy.”

This allows us to forego that annoying thought that creeps in from time to time – ‘Am I good enough?’ It is not productive. You most probably already have enough of everything to be happy.

R. and E. Skidelsky in the book “How much is enough?” suggest at least three major building blocks of a strategy how to create a better world for everyone: reduce the desire to consume and distribute the fruits of productivity more evenly. They suggest that societies could introduce basic income, reduce the pressure to consume by creating a tax on consumption (i.e. luxury items) instead of on income, and significantly reduce the advertising. They hope that people can discover for themselves ways of life in which money-making is not central.

Greed

When greed is our ultimate motivation, it’s clear that no matter how much we have, it’s simply never enough.

Gandhi said something similar: “There is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

Meditation for greed

Meditation can provide an effective platform to deal with greed. Being a close observer of your own self allows us to see clearly own true inner needs and wants. And not the ones that are dictated by our consumerist society. You may then realize that the luxury items, that are merely some symbols of your status, are simply your ego’s desires, not yours. Values of enough come to the surface.

When you use our most simple way to meditate but add there a contemplation about your greed, you will be able to face it directly, observe it and understand it better.

What happens next is that your greed will lose its grip over you. You will live in an abundant place of plenty where you have enough of almost everything you need. It brings you an enormous amount of happiness and also clarity how to live your life.

And that’s a very good thing. You may call it simplicity or values of enough, your own kind of minimalism, but it is a journey of finding a better life.

Meditation For Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not easy

We all carry a lot of grudges and that’s quite natural. Yet this ‘baggage’ is not really healthy.

We are hurt often and we feel guilty ourselves, but sometimes we also blame others. Well, it is inevitable that someone should be blamed for a failure or a mistake, don’t they?

Funny thing is, it should not be this way.

Hurtful feelings are widespread

Many of us ruminate and hurt ourselves with these distractive thoughts. Some of us direct this blame towards our enemies. Whilst it is all logical and so on, it is not productive or helpful.

When you lose someone really close to you, it is unbearably hurtful. And sometimes you can blame yourself for your mistakes or wrongdoings. Yet you can’t change the past and your future simply hasn’t emerged yet. All you can do is just to learn from these experiences and move on.. hopefully, to be a better you.

Losing someone or experiencing a break-up are those instances when we really feel tender. Forgiveness is a thing that might heal some of the wounds we have. It is definitely important when we turn to ourselves and explore how do we actually relate to ourselves.

Many of us treat ourselves like.. well, awful.. Just sit down and have a five-minute break from everything. Allow yourself some alone time. Can you see how you usually address your own self?

We often start picking on our flaws. We are our own worst critic. But why? Why cannot we just forgive ourselves for being … well, simply ourselves?

Meditation as a tool to practice forgiveness

Meditation teaches us… or frankly speaking, opens our own eyes on who we really are.

We look into ourselves, we are in ‘being’ mode instead of ‘doing’ and it reveals our true nature.

Ability to forgive actually increases our well-being. Everyone can increase their self-compassion, self-care (nutrition and activities), practice forgiveness, gratitude, but also realise how connected we all are and that we want ultimately the same thing. We do not need to seek and strive to prove how ‘special’ we are, but rather be kind to ourselves and others.

Don’t think of forgiveness as a sign of weakness, it is quite the opposite. Forgive and let all those toxic energies leave your body, mind, and emotions. This allows you to start letting go of the emotional traumas of your past. This, in turn, enables you to heal naturally. Forgiveness is a very important step to your freedom and meditation is a tool to help you do just that. See our basic instruction and learn how to meditate today.

‘Putting yourself in an altered state of mind, and tapping into your spiritual energy during a forgiveness meditation can help you quickly and lovingly release your negative thoughts and feelings’ (https://www.wikihow.com/Forgive-Using-Meditation).

Forgiveness meditation

Jack Kornfield advises that during your regular meditation practice you can decide to start breathing ‘into the area of your heart, let yourself feel all the barriers you have erected and the emotions that you have carried because you have not forgiven – not forgiven yourself, not forgiven others. Let yourself feel the pain of keeping your heart closed. Then, breathing softly, begin asking and extending forgiveness’.

Try incorporating this forgiveness meditation into your loving-kindness practice. Having a lot of energy drawn from wishing yourself and others well-being, health and peace will also help you to forgive and heal.

We hope you can look deeper into yourself and heal some of your traumas with forgiveness meditation.

Meditation for Beginners: Just One Thing You Really Need

Meditation is no longer a hype. Even though you can read about it from various magazines, newspapers and online, it is not a trendy thing anymore. It is here and will stay as an effective tool to cultivate one’s mind. Meditation for beginners could be confusing.

Meditation today

Similarly, as with nutrition, it started to accumulate a lot of ‘things’ and ‘stuff’ around. Quite often it is simply commercialised in order to make a profit on you meditating. Think about expensive apps or fancy cushions, music and special clothing, luxury retreats and events. Whereas there is nothing ultimately wrong with all of these, it may pose a problem for a beginner to meditation. Any newbie might start thinking that meditation is just a spiritual tool, but it needs a lot of effort and resources in order to start practicing.

It cannot be further from the truth!

Meditation happens when you concentrate and observe, you pay full attention to what you are doing and being mindful about it. Meditation can be a sitting one, walking, but also during yoga, cooking or running and so on.

In order to practice meditation, you do not anything. Well, except for your time to dedicate to it fully.

You do not even need an enormous amount of time – research has shown that 15-30 minutes of a daily meditation practice that happens regularly (read, every day) is enough for everyone to start experiencing profound changes in their mood, ability to cope with stress, become calmer and more emotionally stable. For more research and benefits that go beyond calmness and relaxation, but also positively influence your physical and mental health, simply visit our Benefits of Meditation page. We update it with the most up-to-date research on meditation practices and mindfulness.

Meditation for beginners: first steps

So if you have decided to try meditation, we have also got a very straightforward guide to meditation. You simply sit and concentrate on your breathing.

For the step by step instructions, please visit our How to Meditate page. It is very simple and you do not need anything at all, simply allocate some time to it.

Time is most probably our most precious resource

Meditation will bring great results for you if you find regular time slots when you simply practice meditation.

Try to avoid distractions at that time and create some sort of a habit. Many people like to meditate first thing in the morning, it energises them for the whole day and fills with serene, calm and pro-active energy.

Start avoiding excuses, and even though you may travel that day or have an important errand to run, remember to find an alternative time to practice. Maybe you simply need to set up your alarm 30 minutes earlier that day and you would be totally fine?!

It cannot be stressed enough how important is this regular practice. Think about it the other way – don’t you think that your health and happiness are important enough for you to dedicate just 30 minutes of your time per day?

If a person is not sure, and many of us were there too, it means that the world has sucked him or her in so much that they are no longer masters of their own time. People who cannot allow themselves to get away from their routine for just 30 minutes most probably do not like themselves enough to simply say that their health and happiness are worth it.

It may sound a bit egoistic, but if one is calmer, more composed and feels good about themselves, they are capable of more harmonious relationships with others. They can enjoy whatever they are doing much more. As we are very interconnected, our meditation practice is not only beneficial for us, it allows us to live in a better world. This world is peaceful and joyful.

Meditation for beginners is easy

Have a go at it. Sit for 10 mites to start with. Do the same tomorrow and the day after. Call it a ritual, a habit or simply something how you show some love for yourself and others. Do it for others too. Follow our basic instructions and don’t hesitate to ask questions if something is not super clear. Thanks and have a good start with your meditation practice.