“I can't meditate, I've tried and it never works for me, I find meditation tedious, I always fall asleep.”

All some of the things I hear people say about meditation every single day.

The word meditate comes from the latin word ‘meditatum’ which means “to ponder”.

Meditation has a history going back thousands of years and is believed to have originated in India. Many different religions have adopted meditation for their own practice with meditation now being a popular way to self regulate in modern times. 

In this blog today I will give you the tools needed for effective meditation!

Just some of the benefits of a regular practice of meditation are:

• Reduced perceived stress by 40%

• Improved symptoms of stress related conditions 

• Better sleep

• Reduced symptoms of depression 

• Enhanced self awareness 

• Better discipline 

• Enhanced attention span 

• Reduced symptoms of pain 

• Lowered blood pressure 

• Release of helpful hormones including serotonin, melatonin and epinephrine

There's an old saying “go take a breather” usually used when someone is appearing to be stressed and unable to cope. Awareness of breath is a fundamental part of meditation, why? Because when we can be aware of breath we have control, we cannot control the circumstances we are in, but we can control our breath so taking a breather is a great way to induce calm.

When I am teaching meditation teachers to facilitate meditation we speak about bringing awareness to breath and body by doing what's called a body scan, this is meditation but also a form of mindfulness, being present and checking in with each area of the body. When we body scan we are sending powerful signals from brain to body to relax and encourage the part of the parasympathetic nervous system “rest and digest” to activate, this in turn moves us out of the need to stress and fear danger. This is why body scan meditation is so effective, remember that word meditate means to ponder! We are pondering with fascination on our body. It has a different feeling when we change the word meditate to ponder.

Think of a number between 1 and 10. 1 being that you are stress free and 10 being you are very stressed. What's your number right now?

So ponder for a few minutes as you read this, take in 3 nice big deep breaths, in through your nose (if you can) and out through your mouth. Focus on the top of the head, the forehead, the eyes and ears, the jaw, and breathe, work your way all the way down to the feet.

Now take a moment and check your number. I guarantee it has reduced. Keep practising this body scanning meditation, it can take anything from 1 minute to 5 minutes. 

You are pondering. Checking in and taking time to breathe. This IS meditation. You don't have to be a master or imagine yourself flying through the sky or on a moonlit lake in a Zen garden!

This simplest form of meditation is extremely effective and accessible to do at any point in your day but you must practise every time you feel stress, checking your numbers every time. What happens is over a number of weeks you will find that you don't have to think too hard, and you train yourself to breathe and ponder every time you feel stress. 

If I feel stress the first thing I do is breathe and I feel instant relief. So try pondering whenever you need stress relief and you will find the unbelievable wonder that is meditation without all the woo woo craziness that can be associated with new age practices!

Here's a link to our YouTube channel where you will find a body scan meditation completely free and takes less than 10 minutes:

Body scan

From my soul to yours 

Steven “The Soul Man” 

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