Mindful meditation is more than a technique, a paradigm about healing and the power of mind inspired by the Buddhist and Eastern cultures which continuously practise the habit of being present here and now, holding a unity between spirit, mind and physical body. But it isn’t just a belief or way to perceive human being and its health. It has also been  sustained through diverse researches which confirm that meditation is an important key to improve your health and quality of life.

Next in Meditative Mind we bring to you the steps for a more successful but still simple mindful meditation to stay happy, healthy and holy in your daily routine.

Steps for a mindful meditation

1. Choose the right time and place and accept the commitment  

The final objective of Mindful meditation is to achieve and keep during the whole day a meditative state of mind, connected to here and now and being master of our emotions. But, as novices, this isn’t instantaneous and we need to start on the basics, giving at least 10 minutes of practice every day.

The best moments to set a meditative practice are: after you wake up; at the sunset and before going to bed. It’s up to you to choose the time that better fits for you. It’s better to do it just for 9 minutes every day than trying to do it for 20 minutes and fail.

Once you find the best time for your practice, focus on setting a nice place to use for that practice. All yogis say that the place for your practice should  always be the same, as the mind will remember better that state of consciousness achieved during meditation, so in every practice it’ll become more and more effective.

It’s also quite nice to use some aromas to harmonize that place even more, and also some background healing music before and during the practice to help tuning your mind with higher states of consciousness.

2. Set objectives

It’s said that a practice or routine without objectives has more risks to evolve into a rigid obsession. This means that even though it’s correct to meditate every day you can set your practice for periodic objectives. For example, start with 7 minutes but for 21 days. The day 22 you may increase that time to 11 or 18 minutes, and so on.

This doesn’t mean that the practice loses efficiency, but that as more we clean our minds, the deeper we’ll go and find still more garbage that separates our minds from true peace. But don’t worry about lack of time. This habit will naturally set  your mind in order and consequently your routine, finding this way a bigger parenthesis for your practice as you keep going.

3. Let thoughts and emotions flow

For the whole practice or at least for the start, change your paradigm about thoughts. Look at them as if they came from a universal internet, where your mind is a computer and you, as the user, have the power to select which thoughts you prefer for your life. No one of those thoughts is originally yours.

Emotions and reactions to those thoughts and memories are just those reactions that are perfect in the sense that we need them to respond to stimuli in our life, but we shall not get identified with them.

4. Select an object or element to focus on

It’s also common to focus on something you want to promote in your life, using the power of mind and attraction to make that dream possible. Nevertheless, to evade empowering a desire which is coming from ego, it is mandatory to meditate for the first days mainly on letting thoughts and emotions flow and not get attached with any of them.

5. Extras you may add to your practice

For some people, this kind of practice could need some extra-resources to make it easier to do and keep going. Some extra tools may also be useful to anyone once in a while, as every day is different and some of them can be harder and full of stress and you may need more tools to calm your mind. Or the opposite, for that day off, an extra time for us is a very nice idea to consider.

Therefore, without losing the ease of Mindfulness, you can add some of the following practices to improve its results

• Stretchings and Yoga: A lot of stress and tensions in our mind will be released only if we release the analogic tensions found in our body. It means those contractures and pains that represent and sustain that mental stress. At least twice a week those stretches could be great.
• Workout: It’s similar to stretching and yoga -and may get combined with them in a time-extended practice- but it’s not the same. Sometimes we also need intense cardiac activity and a bit of that healthy stress. For that, just 5 or 7 minutes of intense training (like HIIT or Crossfit) with some bodyweight exercises will make you feel fresher for meditation. Thanks to that louder heartbeat, you’ll literally have the chance to ‘listen to’ your heart, making easier getting focus on here and now.
• Sitali Pranayama : Pranayama or controlled breathing techniques are great to achieve a meditative state of mind. Sitali Pranayam consists of opening your mouth and bringing your tongue out, and then folding it like a ‘U’. Through the tongue in that position, inhale deeply, suspend the breath for a pair of seconds, and exhale through the nose, and repeat. If you can’t fold the tongue as we said, don’t bring it out and just open the mouth like if you were sucking air through a straw. This Pranayama helps getting calm and will also refresh your body in case you feel too much heat and stress.
• Tibetan singing Bowls and Gongs: And why not live music? In Meditative Mind we have already explained how Tibetan singing bowls work and its use for Meditation. They fit perfectly with this kind of practice, and learning to play one of them is an excellent resource for Mindfulness. Try it! Listen to a sample here and get inspired!