Meditation

Numerous science backed evidence on the benefits of meditation for the mind & body and improving overall wellbeing.

Benefits of meditation for the mind & body

1 Meditation activates the vagus nerve which deepens breathing, slows heart rate and lowers blood pressure

2 Meditation releases stress imprints and builds a stronger mind-body system

3 Meditation flips the switch from ‘fight or flight’ to ‘rest and digest’

4 Meditation shrinks and calms the brain’s overzealous threat detector, amygdala which helps reduce reactivity to stress

5 Meditation raises levels of neurotransmitters – GABA (calmness), dopamine (pleasure) and serotonin (happiness)

Key to meditation is understanding the nature of the mind

The greatest myth on controlling the mind
You cannot control your mind forcefully, it will only multiply and persist.



Elephant experiment
Let’s experiment together now with just a single thought. Experiment this for yourself in the next 10 seconds to forcefully remove just one thought from your mind, if I said try not to think of elephants for the next 10 seconds?
Observation: You will notice all you can think about is elephants.

Out of the Mind, In to Life Process:
Move from Psychological Reality to Existential Reality

How can you resolve the monkey mind using the very mind that is creating it? Bring your attention and awareness to a life process –your breath, your heartbeat, your pulse.

Guided meditation – 5 mins

This guided meditation is designed to help you bring awareness to a life process – your breath.

Move from psychological reality of the mind to the existential reality of the breath.

Top tips on meditation

1 Breathe only through your nose to enable purification of the air and the air temperature is adjusted to your body temperature before it enters the lungs.

2 Closing our eyes enables greater internalisation – vision is our dominant sense, 70% of what we perceive comes through our vision.

3 Face slightly upturned, tilt your face slightly upward. You keep your head upturned because when your system “looks” upward, it becomes receptive.

4 Keep spine straight during meditation – the cerebral spinal fluid flows through your spine, flow of information from the brain to the body, body to the brain.

5 Sitting on the floor for meditation – Our body is 70% water, by sitting on the floor, your body is making the closest contact to the earth to enhance peacefulness and stability.  

6 Sit cross-legged on the floor and your knees need to be touching the floor, to be comfortable, the maximum surface area of your body needs to be in contact with the ground.
Helpful tip: Use any suitable padding you have at home for this purpose, place it just under the thighs (cushion or folded blanket which does not compress easily) and sit at the edge of the padding and ensure your legs are touching the ground. In this position, it maximises the surface area of your body that is in contact with the ground.

7 Light a candle as it purifies the space around you to help create a peaceful and centered atmosphere for meditation. Ensure to remove all safety hazards before meditating. 

Content drawn from Sadhguru | Isha Foundation