Meditation has been proven by many research to be one of the practice that offers a lot of benefits to our mind and body, such as: to relieve stress, to improve concentration, to prevent dementia, etc. However, beginners might find out that it is not an easy practice as there are many ways of meditation available out there. For beginners, here are 3 ways of meditation that are simpler and easier to follow:
1. Mindfulness Meditation
In daily life, our mind is often living in the past or in the future. We forget that the only real thing in this life is the present moment. The past has been passed, while the future is yet to come. That is the reason why during the mindfulness meditation practice, we want to train our mind to be in the present moment. What we do is to try to be aware of what is happening in our environment, our body and mind, here and now. For example: be aware of the blow of the wind that comes from the fan, be aware of the sound of the air conditioner, be aware of our body posture, etc.
2. Breath Meditation
In breath meditation, the object of our meditation is our breath. Throughout the meditation practice, we try to be aware of our breath. We could pay our attention on the rising and falling of our belly or we could also pay attention on the air coming in and out of our nose. If there is one thing to take note about breath meditation, it is to breathe normally and as natural as possible. Do not let our mind to interfere/control our breath!
3. Loving Kindness/Metta Meditation
In loving kindness meditation, we wish everyone to be well and happy. We start by wishing ourselves to be free from suffering, to be well and happy. Then, we wish different groups of people starting from people who are very close and dear to us. The idea of this type of meditation is to get rid of cruelty from our mind and develop a good feeling of wishing everyone to be well and happy without string attached. Is world peace something that is achievable? It might be possible, but it is definitely tough to achieve. Because influencing other people to be in peace is beyond our individual control, so instead, why don’t we start developing our inner peace through loving kindness meditation?
