Meditation

What Is Meditation and How to Use It to Relieve Anxiety and Feel Happy?

Key Insights

  • Meditation is simply something that reconnects you with your true self i.e. happiness, peace, and clarity
  • It can be as simple as sitting down and closing your eyes
  • Taking a walk or sitting at the seashore can be a form of meditation
  • You don’t need to take a course or hire a teacher to start meditating
  • You can do it anywhere, anytime, in as little as 5 minutes

Practising meditation has several benefits:

  • reduced stress and anxiety
  • more energy and better focus
  • Improved sleep
  • helps process negative emotions
  • Develops positive feelings and expectations

What Is Meditation?

If you’ve read the blog you have undoubtedly noticed that I regularly encourage you to meditate. If you already practice meditation, you are well aware of the benefits it bestows upon you, like reduced stress levels, more energy, focusing your thoughts etc. Meditation can even work as a natural remedy for anxiety. If you haven’t practiced meditation, or just do it because “everyone does it” or “it’s trendy”, then you might be confused about the whole subject.

First of all, what is meditation? There are different practices described in blogs, books, magazines, there are apps for your phone, the internet is full of audio and video, the amount of options is just overwhelming.

Even with all the options out there, meditation is nothing too complicated.

Meditation, in it’s core, is simply something that connects you with your true self or inner self, whatever you want to call it. Your true self is, well, who you truly are beneath all the layers of habits and thought patterns you have accumulated over your entire life. Have you ever had a moment when everything just feels just as it’s supposed to be? You are calm, at peace, happy. This is your true self.

The moments of clarity and joy are usually very fleeting and few and far between. Therefore, this is precisely why meditation comes in handy. Meditation is a practice that helps you connect with these moments of clarity and happiness, you true self as mentioned before, more often.

"Have you ever had a moment when everything just feels just as it's supposed to be? You are calm, at peace, happy."

Connecting with your true self can happen anytime, anywhere. You may have experienced (or can experience in the future) moments of re-connection while:

  • walking on the beach or in the forest
  • staring at the stars at night
  • or even while doing some mindless chores like vacuuming or washing the dishes. 

Who knew that washing the dishes could be a form of meditation!

Your experience of your true self is limited only by what you have come to believe over the years. Our mind tends to wander on anything and everything, but once we stop for a second to focus on where we are and how we feel at the moment, we might experience the connection.

Meditation does not have to be anymore complicated than that. 

However, the modern world with it’s unending distractions is making it extremely hard to just stop and be mindful. Also you probably won’t want to experience the benefits of meditation at random while vacuuming or doing the dishes. That’s why a simple meditation practice will come in handy.

At the bottom of this page I will guide you through a simple meditation practice that you can start with. Try to make a habit out of it. Once you get the hang of it, you might more easily remember what it’s like to connect with yourself to experience moments of clarity, joy and happiness.

Why Should You Meditate?

Now,  I understand that re-connecting with your inner self, your true self, may not sound that appealing to you. It’s one of those “new age spiritual mumbo jumbo” things that have no practical applications in our everyday lives whatsoever.

Maybe, maybe not. As always, this depends on your view of the world and what you have come to believe about it.

But if you want to get rid of stress, anxiety, worry or even depression, pain or illness, I strongly advice you to develop new thought patterns. Doing the same old things and thinking the same thoughts over and over again will keep bringing you same old results. Change your thinking to change your habits and thus change your life. 

That is where meditation comes in.

Meditation is a powerful tool for habitually redirecting your thoughts and training your mind to focus.

You can (and I encourage you to) use it to become aware of your thoughts, therefore learning to focus on positive thoughts and desired outcomes. This is an excellent way to reduce stress and develop concentration.

You can also use meditation to train your mind to pick up healthy habits, such as improved sleeping patterns, eating healthier, exercising more etc. 

Meditation has certainly made a huge difference in my life and helped me in many different situations. I can’t imagine what my life would be like, if I didn’t know how to find help to emotionally, or otherwise, difficult situations by meditating.

Processing painful memories and reducing stress are just some of the benefits of meditation I have experienced.

Did you know that studies have found that meditation indeed has many benefits?

Check out the list below.

Benefits Of Meditation

Frequent meditation has positive effects on different areas of your brain responsible for:

  • Emotional regulation and cognition
  • Learning and memory
  • Empathy and compassion
  • Self-relevance and mind wandering

Meditation has a profound effect on your amygdala, the fight or flight part of your brain

  • Mainly responsible for fear, anxiety and stress
  • Amygdala can get smaller with meditation, thus reducing experienced stress levels

Meditation can help process fearful memories

Helps reduce stress and clear your thoughts

  • Relieve anxiety
  • Focus better on the things at hand
"...become aware of your thoughts, therefore learning to focus on positive thoughts and desired outcomes. This is an excellent way to reduce stress and develop concentration."

Meditation As A Tool To Improve Quality Of Life

I am by no means a meditation expert or a “certified” meditation teacher. Still I have meditated and tried different techniques for the past ten or so years. What I want to do, as is the case with everything in this website, is to give you ideas and options you can try out for yourself and see what works for you.

An important thing to think about is: What are you trying to achieve with meditation?

To me, meditation was for a long time something that only monks did in seclusion or something that wise men did in a cave on a mountain in order to find enlightenment. Whatever that meant. I could not see any practicality in meditation. So for a long time I thought meditation is meant only for quieting your mind to experience something called enlightenment.

Indeed that may be the fundamental goal behind meditation – to achieve enlightenment. But that may not tie in well with the schedules and challenges we face everyday in our lives. We do not have the time to sit quietly and still for hours in hopes of elevating ourselves to an enlightened state of being. For what we struggle with everyday, we might do with a quick fifteen minute meditation to get rid of stress and worry.

It’s important not to view meditation as a chore.

Therefore we’ll take a look at a simple meditation practice as a tool to feel happier in your everyday life .

How To Meditate?

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    3 Quick Tips For Meditation

    Take note of these tips before you start your meditation:

    1. Think about an event in your life that made you feel happy. Really, truly, deeply happy. It could be the birth of a child, a moment in your relationship (present or past), achieving your goal etc. You will come back to this moment during meditation.
    2. Set a timer for 15 minutes. This way you won’t be concerned about what time it is and how much or little time has passed. The alarm will tell you when it’s time to stop meditating. Once you get more proficient in meditation, you can do it in as little as 5 minutes for quick anxiety relief.
    3. Don’t try not to think. Instead, just try to observe your thoughts and feelings. You will think thoughts. Your mind will never “shut up”. This is unavoidable and totally normal.  Disconnect from your thoughts as if you were a bystander observing cars drive by on a street. If you find that you got lost in your thoughts, take a deep breath in and focus on your breath for a while. Then continue with the meditation.

    15 Minute Happiness Meditation

    Sit with your back straight but relaxed

    • You can sit on a chair, couch, or a pillow on the floor
    • You do not need to cross your legs, just sit comfortably - the most important thing is that your back is straight
    • Push your chest out slightly
    • Place your hands on your legs with palms facing up.

    Alternatively you can also lie down

    • Lie down on your back with your feet about shoulder-width apart and arms relaxed on your side with palms facing upward

    Close your eyes

    Breathe deeply in and out three times

    Think about a moment when you were truly happy

    Take a moment to “take in” this feeling of happiness

    • Feel the happiness with every cell of your body from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head

    Keep feeling the happiness

    • Let the feeling stay with you but slowly release your thought of the event
    • Be with the feeling and try to ignore everything else

    When you are ready, slowly open your eyes and take a long deep breath

    Are You Ready To Get Rid Of Stress?

    Even when trying meditation for the first time, you might notice that the feeling of happiness stays with you when you come out of  meditation. At first it might only stay with you for a very short time, but as you practice, you should be able to keep the feeling with you for a longer period of time.

    Try to make meditation a habit. Set aside 15 minutes each day for meditation and keep at it for 21 days. That is the time estimated that it takes your mind to form a new habit. The best times to meditate are as soon as you wake up in the morning or right before you go to sleep at night. If your work stresses you out, try meditating after you get home from work.

    That’s a great goal, but what about the realities of life? There’s just no time, energy, motivation etc. 

    How about utilizing some modern tools to help you?

    Here's A Quick Way To Meditate

    I know it can be hard to stick with a meditation practice with all the rush, stress and chaos of modern life. I have often had times when I just couldn’t be bothered to meditate even though I was well aware of all the benefits. 

    You may spend your days at the office in a hectic job or your work just stresses you out otherwise. When you come home, there’s a family waiting for you that needs taken care of. Maybe you study after work to get an education and a better job. Where do you find the time and motivation?

    First of all, there is time. Think about the moments you spend watching TV or staring at your phone. Most of us spend three to four hours every day staring at our phone. Do you think you could find 15 minutes to put your phone down and meditate instead?

    If you find it hard to put your phone down and develop a meditation habit, use your mobile device to your advantage. 

    There’s one application in particular that has worked wonders for me and thousands of others: The Tapping Solution:

    Check out The Tapping Solution here

    I am not affiliated with The Tapping Solution, I just think it awesome!

    The basic version of the app is free to use and has everything you need to get you started with quick and easy stress reduction. You don’t even need the app once you get the hang of it. It’s all explained on the website.

    Conclusion

    Meditation is something you can do very easily in very little time to relieve stress and anxiety.

    You don’t have to be a guru or hire a teacher to meditate effectively. Start with a simple practice, like the one described on this page, and keep at it. You will quickly adapt a style that works for you and your goals.

    Meditation has many science-backed benefits:

    • Reduces stress
    • Controls anxiety and in some cases even depression
    • Brings about positive feelings and expectations
    • Improves sleep
    • Can control pain and conditions like high blood pressure

    Once you know how to control stress and anxiety, you can start to uncover true happiness, your natural state of being.

    Learn More

    Learn How to Turn Stress and Anxiety into Happiness

      By downloading the eBook you agree to join Happiness On Demand mailing list.

      We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.

      Built with ConvertKit

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