For a while now I’ve been meditating on a regular basis which I love, the benefits are truly astounding. With this article I want to let everyone get familiar with the best meditation technique and to tell everyone about the amazing health benefits we get from meditating.

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years but has only been studied scientifically for the past 40 years. There are over eight hundred scientific papers and journals that show the beneficial effects of meditation.

So first of all what is meditation? Many people tend to think of meditation as concentration and contemplation of prayer and whilst those may be related to the practice of meditation, they are not meditation. Neither is meditation a getaway, instead it should be seen as a way to tune in, tune in to the higher self.

Meditation is the progressive settling down of the mind in to a field of silence. Known and called in traditional wisdom as the field of pure consciousness. On top of the normal health benefits such as stress reduction, improved memory, increased creativity and attention, heightening of ones feelings of compassion etc. scientific research shows that when you go into that space between our thoughts our blood pressure goes down, our heart rate slows down, our immune system gets stimulated, our growth hormone which is an anti-aging hormone goes up, our adrenal steroid which is also a sex hormone goes up, our hearing and vision improves and in regular long time practice it shows a decrease in wrinkles. Eastern traditions say: Do one thing in which you can do all things and that one thing is meditation.

How to meditate:

We want to sit with our back straight, we can sit cross legged on our bed with pillows behind our backs, we can sit on the floor or on a chair, whatever we are comfortable with. Now let us put our hands, palms facing up, in our laps. Be open and have an inner attitude of surrender, there is nothing to do.

One simple way of going in to meditation which can take you very deeply into a meditative state is a meditation technique that involves a little attention on the breath and a simple sound or mantra that goes with the breath.

Let us close our eyes and become aware of our breathing – the air entering our nostrils and then as it leaves our nostrils. Don’t analyze what is happening and don’t try and manipulate our breathing, we should just be observing and be aware as the breath goes in and as the breath goes out. According to Indian meditation tradition as the breath goes in we mentally say the word So and as the breath leaves our nostrils we mentally say the word Hum. This is our mantra and these words mean I am. We can use the words of our own language I just prefer the soothing vibration of the original mantras. Now we are watching our breath – in, So- out, Hum- So – Hum – So – Hum. So is the vibration of the inhalation and Hum of the exhalation.

Suddenly we will find that our mind goes to some sound that we are hearing in our environment it can be children playing, the washing machine or maybe the sound of the road. When we become aware of that sound we revert back to what we were doing before which were observing our breath – So - Hum – So – Hum – So – Hum. The same thing goes for any thoughts that goes through/enters our minds. Do not force them away just revert back to our breathing and our mantra. Bit by bit our bodies now go in to a deep state of rest and restful awareness. We do this for 20-30 minutes, we then “come back” and wait for another minute before opening our eyes.

Meditation should always be without an agenda. When we sit down to meditate we need to do so with no expectations and no assumptions. Just let the process be what it is – nothing more, nothing less.

It’s very important to understand the mechanics of meditation, because most people doesn’t do it right, they think they have to concentrate when it has nothing to do with that.

After a while when meditate we will experience thoughts and mantra at the same time. As we start to think the mantra – we don’t need to recite the mantra, we might feel better remembering the mantra with every breath or we’re “listening” to the mantra. It’s an inner attitude to what we prefer. We shouldn’t be focused on it, because if we are too focused on anything it’s on the surface, it’s mental.

What happens now is that thoughts are coming and mantra is coming over and over again suddenly everything is starting to get a little bit uncertain, this means that we are on the right track. Thoughts are random and mantra is random, there is a proliferation of uncertainty. Thoughts and mantra become vague. If we do this long enough, 20-30 minutes, then there are periods when mantra and thought cancel themself out. This is the gap between thoughts. This means there is no mantra and no thought and what is left is what is called pure consciousness. This is the field of infinite possibilities, pure potentiality and intention orchestrating its own fulfillment. It’s the field of pure creativity and observer affect.

We can’t get in to the gap by wanting to get in to the gap or thinking I must get in to the gap, because wanting to get in to the gap is also a thought. Neither can we get rid of our thoughts by saying I have to get rid of my thoughts, because surprise, surprise that is also a thought. It’s a very simple mechanical understanding that we don’t force anything.

How will we know when we are in the gap – We won’t know where we are, we will have no sensation, we will experience no sound and we will have no thought. It will not be nothingness but wakefulness. We are on our way to a higher consciousness. Do this regularly and all these benefits and sensation will follow us in our everyday life becoming a part of us.

Here are some different mantras and their meaning:

So Hum – I am

Om Bhavam Namah – I am absolute existence, I am a field of possibilities

Sat Chit Ananda – Existance, consciousness, bliss

Om Vardhanam Namah – I nourish the universe and the universe nourishes me

Yum – Repeating Yum facilitates a deep connection to everyone in your life.