Introduction:
Mindfulness meditation is a training of the mind in which we focused on the present status of our mind and body. We slow down the thinking of multiple things and just accept what it is with no judgments. By using your senses in mindfulness meditation, you are fully aware of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You are also aware of where you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing this. You are not overly reactive in any of the present thoughts, as you are fully mindful.
Requirements for mindfulness meditation:
For practicing it, you do not need a specific mat, bench, tool, or any specific area. The only requirement is to sit at some place for only 2 to 5 minutes. You may practice it on your own, but if some trainer is available, it is good, specifically when you are facing some medical issues. The trainer will boost your healing power by giving you the right directions.
Why practice mindfulness meditation?
Sometimes you are in mindfulness meditation without knowing it. You may have observed it at some point in your life; you are very peaceful with good observing power, and it seems to be very easy to tackle bad situations or make good decisions because your mind automatically meditates on it. On another day, you have multiple blurry thoughts in your wandering mind, and you feel anxiety, fear, burden, depression, or something else. The reason for all these bad things is that your mind is not meditating automatically, so you are not aware of your current feelings, thoughts, and surroundings. To overcome all these bad feelings, you just need to sit somewhere peacefully for about five minutes and meditate yourself.
Differences between mindfulness meditation, meditation, and mindfulness:
Mindfulness meditation is one of the mindfulness techniques used to know about the present by clearing dull and blurry thoughts.
Meditation is a technique that is used to clear the mind of fear, anxiety, depression, and bad thoughts.
Mindfulness is a quality, value, or state that does not always require meditation; in fact, a person may be mindful at anytime.
10 steps of mindfulness practice or mindfulness meditation practice:
You simply follow these ten simple steps to meditate yourself.
1. Give time to yourself:
Today, life is too busy, as we don’t have time for ourselves. The first and most important step in meditation is to find a few minutes for ourselves.
2. Sit peacefully:
You don’t need an expensive mat or bench for sitting. Just find a place where you can sit peacefully for meditation.
For beginners, it is important to find some quiet place for meditation; otherwise, they may find it difficult to focus. With experience, they may meditate themselves in noisy areas.
3. Cross over your legs:
After sitting on the couch, floor, mat, or anywhere, just cross your legs. It is the first part of posturing the body.
4. Posturing your upper part:
After crossing your legs, you have to posture the upper part of your body straight up. Don’t stiffen your upper part so tightly because in meditation you have to relax your body, and you may also know that our backbone has a natural curvature, so don’t straighten up so tightly.
5. Posturing your arms:
Posture your arms along the upper part of the body and place your hands on the legs by keeping the palms downward. It seems to be natural and relaxing.
6. Posturing of the face:
Keep your chin a little down along with your gaze so you feel relaxed in this posture.
7. Experience the sensation of breathing:
Now start the breathing and observe the stretching of the lungs when air is inhaled, as well as the expansion of the lungs when air is exhaled.
8. Feel the breath:
During the sensation of breathing, your mind encounters thoughts, so for every thought, you simply have to focus again on the sensation of breathing. You do not need to quit thinking; in fact, just shift your focus from thoughts to the sensation of breathing.
9. Don’t react to thoughts:
On every thought, you don’t need to react, but simply shift your focus from thought to the sensation of breathing and continue the process.
10. Feel the results:
Now lift your gaze and think about your thoughts and emotions. You feel happy and release all the stress.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy:
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a cognitive therapy that uses mindfulness meditation to remove bad thoughts from your mind, and these thoughts are the reason for anxiety, depression, and fear.
Conclusion:
Mindfulness meditation is good for your physical and mental health. It will help you to know yourself and also help you to deal with daily tasks more efficiently by analyzing them properly. It also helps to make a good relationship with your surroundings (friends, family, and society) because, through this meditation, you will be able to know the behavior you are analyzing. So make this meditation necessary for daily practice.
Other practices for mental health is travelling, Video gaming, Cardiovascular Exercising, and others. One fun activity for releasing stress is Origami (Paper craft).
Featured image credit: Dingzeyu Li on Unsplash