The benefits of meditation are well known. Hundreds of studies have shown that meditation decreases pain, improves your immune functions, and lowers inflammation throughout the body. However, many of these studies have worked with people who have been meditating for years, who spend at least half an hour a day at their meditation practice. That’s given the average person the idea that meditation is great for your health, but you’ve got to be a yogi or a monk to have the self-discipline required to get the benefit. The truth is, anyone can do it. You just have to know how to meditate the easy way, not the life-of-discipline way.
Can You Really Get Rid of All Thoughts?
You may have heard that the goal of meditation is to quiet the “monkey mind”, or get rid of all thoughts. That sounds hard! And if you try to force yourself not to think of things — it is hard! (Don’t believe me? Try not to think of an elephant.)
Now, think of the last really great movie you watched. Were you thinking of other things, or were you totally swept up in the story unfolding before your eyes? It wasn’t hard to stop thinking of other things at all, was it? You just became totally present in the moment of the film.
To quiet your monkey mind, all you have to do is become totally present to something far more interesting than your thoughts. The folks behind Transcendental Meditation call this bliss, and believe that once you experience it, you’ll naturally still your mind so you can experience more of it. So how do you do it?
Experiencing Bliss
According to “Quieting Your Thoughts,” an article on how to meditate effortlessly in Conscious Lifestyle Magazine, there are 5 levels of thought.
- Focused thinking (“I am quieting my mind.”)
- Random thinking (“I wonder what’s for dinner?”)
- Random dreams (“The fish is driving the car.”)
- Dream sensations (“This is what the color blue feels like.”)
- Settled mind (Bliss)
By trying to meditate, you’re invoking focused thinking, which is as far from the bliss state as it is possible to be. Instead, you need to relax and allow yourself to enter the bliss state.
How to Meditate
You can relax by using a mantra, paying attention to your breathing, or many other meditative pathways. I usually pay attention to my breathing. The very first thing that almost always happens is that my chest tightens up and my breathing gets more shallow — because now I’m focusing on it. But if I consciously exhale, and allow myself to relax, that goes away.
Next, random thoughts will arise. Just acknowledge you’re having a random thought, and exhale again. Eventually, you’ll stop being aware of your body and your surroundings. You may feel numb, or disembodied, or see yourself floating in the grey foggy nowhere space. This is the place of dream thoughts and sensations.
Finally, if you allow yourself to completely let go and relax, you will enter the bliss state. You might imagine this as exhaling your last connection to a physical form, dissolving into light, or merging into the mists. The point is that it is not a conscious action. Whatever completely letting go looks like to you, it will happen when you’re ready for it to happen. You cannot force yourself to enter the bliss state. You have to relax into it.
More Benefits of Meditation
You will lose track of time in the bliss state, so it’s helpful to have a timer of some sort that gently draws your awareness back to your body. Don’t use an alarm — that’s too harsh and sudden. Zen timers that gradually raise the level of light or gradually increase the sound of chimes are good. After all, flooding your body with adrenaline will offset all the good you’ve done from your meditation!
You’ll generally feel more focused, more productive, less stressed, and well-rested. Your mind will be less prone to wandering, less likely to worry, and less inclined to endlessly rehash past actions.
Once you’ve experienced the bliss state, you’ll find it easier and easier to drop back into it. If you want more guidance on how to meditate, consider enrolling in the freemium online meditation course by Peter Russell. You can also pick up a guided meditation CD or DVD to walk you through relaxing and letting go.
