Meditation is a spiritual practice that aims to heal the soul and body of a person. In the modern world, each of us performs a specific function or, more simply, a role. As a rule, life circumstances exhaust our physical and spiritual conditions. Meditation is designed to help a person, relieve his brain and relax his body.

In order for you to achieve the desired result the first time, first of all, you need to identify your needs. If you are a beginner, your first priority will be to relax your mind and body. However, if you are an experienced practitioner, you can achieve different states of mind. The effects of meditation are striking in their variety. For example, if you want to replenish your energy balance, you must first tune in to the process and carefully consider all the steps of your immersion. The most important thing is to turn off the internal dialogue. This means that if you have a stream of thoughts in your head, chaotic or not, you should note them, but not get involved in thinking about this or that matter. In order to fully engage in the process, your thoughts must be pure.

What does meditation give to a person? What effects can you expect?

Relaxation and release effect. This is the first of many meditation dividends. For example, the well-known Madonna meditates in order to find inner freedom and happiness. She claims that meditation practice gave her a release from the accumulated negativity and purification of consciousness. Renowned filmmaker David Lynch claims the secret of his success is in the Transcendental Practice.

In this case, meditation provides internal motivation for success and strength to achieve the desired result.

Many well-known politicians who practice meditation on a regular basis note that they have achieved certain heights, again with the help of meditation. What's the secret? Meditation gives you a sense of depth and wholeness, you feel an immediate burst of strength. Each of us needs recovery and rest. For example, Osho practiced various types of meditation. In his own words, meditation practices gave him a fresh outlook on his own life and helped to change his destiny and outlook.

What does meditative practice give to an ordinary person? The answer is obvious - the harmonization of consciousness, the absence of internal dialogue and withdrawal from reality to recuperate.

To get the most out of your practice, you need to tune in to work. Once you visualize the picture in your imagination, you can easily enter a state of mindfulness in meditation. As a result, you get excellent health, a surge of energy and a cheerful state of mind. For better results, it is very important to remain calm in mind and body. According to celebrities, it is meditation that helps them cope with nervous overloads at work and in life.

What does practice give? Cleansing your mind and body. It has long been known that your thoughts can and should be cleared. Why not take advantage of this?

Meditation in the aspect of fulfilling desires

Meditation gives you the energy and strength to build the future of your dreams!

As a rule, many people want quick results from meditation. However, it takes more time for your wish to come true. Internal and external transformations are inextricably linked. According to experts, the process itself can and should be enjoyable. And the manifestation of the results in reality is just a pleasant bonus from the practice. Meditation in this case gives you energy and strength to build the future of your dreams!

The responses to certain types of meditation are completely different. We recommend trying each of the options found in order to weed out unnecessary practices that are not suitable for you.

What does meditation bring to a person? The main request of people at seminars and the Internet. However, do not forget about the primary needs of each person. Getting rid of stress is an important point that any person needs. Overwork at work, spoiled relationships with relatives or problems in personal life - meditation. It is a completely safe potion for your health and mental well-being. The effects of the practice, as a rule, are much larger than just unloading consciousness.

Coming to a new, more harmonious level of life, you become more indifferent to stress and nervous shocks!

Meditation for an Effect?

As a rule, meditative practice is necessary to build a harmonious and happy future for a person. However, it is not so much the result of meditations that is important here, but the process itself. For a more complex immersion in the practice, you need to turn off all the mechanisms present inside your head, as if to penetrate into the subconscious. In this case, meditation gives an outlet to a new level of consciousness and subconsciousness.

This is an important stage in the self-development of each person. Coming to a new, more harmonious level of life, you become more indifferent to stress, nervous shocks and thereby improve the quality of your life.

Of course, this does not happen immediately, but through long and hard training. You will notice improvements in all areas of life: at work, in self-development, personal life, in relationships with friends and colleagues. Meditation will improve your appearance. One cannot but agree that all internal transformations greatly affect our reflection in the mirror. Changes can be noticed with the naked eye by eye expression, body position or manner of speaking. Warmth and internal energy emanate from such a person. Such a person gives strength to accomplish feats and other people. It is not for nothing that there is such a thing as charisma and inner magnetism. These effects are precisely developed through meditative practices.

With constant practice, a person gets a sufficient number of results for himself. Let's consider some of them:

1. Cleansing the mind and body. Most meditators declare the appearance of lightness in their body;
2. A surge of strength. Meditation has the ability to fill the practitioner;
3. Restoring harmony in the mind of a person;
4. Removal of anxiety and nervous tension;
5. Getting rid of stress caused by environmental factors;
6. Cheerfulness of spirit;
7. The state of inner fullness;
8. Replenishment of mental and physical strength;
9. Motivation for self-improvement and self-development;
10. Mindfulness in relation to oneself and to other people, as well as objects;
11. Infects other people with energy to improve the quality of their lives;
12. Development of creativity in various aspects;
13. A qualitative change in your life;
14. Coming to a more conscious lifestyle, for example, quitting smoking or alcohol. Transition to a new stage of development.

What gives practice and the effects of practice

The effects of practice are rather vague. In order for the first results to appear, it is very important to practice regularly and efficiently. Do not think that by meditating a couple of three times, you will become an experienced practitioner. This takes time and you will get a high-quality meditation result. What does practice give a person? The answer is obvious - good health, both mental and physical, good spirits, endurance and resistance to stress. Transition to a new stage in your life. Meeting like-minded people. Knowledge replenishment. From now on, small problems will cease to exist for you.

We wish you high quality and lasting results!

Over time, people noticed that almost all meditators live long and have extraordinary health. This fact is of great interest to the modern world. Through many scientific studies, it has been proven that consistent meditation really has a positive effect on health and emotional well-being. In addition, meditation allows you to abandon the realities of life, for a while to forget about problems and losses, to become a simple impartial contemplator, which helps to understand yourself and solve seemingly insoluble life problems.

What is the benefit of meditation?

At present, it is very difficult for a person to completely relax. Even in your sleep, you feel tension and anxiety. Meditation sessions provide complete relaxation, immersion in a state of peace and tranquility. Due to this, the emotional background is quickly leveled, meditation gives a powerful surge of strength and joy.

During breathing slows down, the blood begins to be more saturated with oxygen. Thanks to this, blood pressure is stabilized, the heart muscle is strengthened, the airways are cleared, which contributes to the prevention and even treatment of many diseases.

Many experiments were carried out, during which it was scientifically confirmed that with the help of meditation people were cured of many diseases, even such terrible ones as oncology.

It is noted that meditation strengthens the immune system, even special antibodies are produced that fight viruses and infected cells. With maximum exertion, which sometimes cannot be avoided, meditation gives the fastest positive result of relaxation and rest. Inside the body, hormones of joy and happiness are produced, this state is remembered and stored for a long time. Therefore, people engaged in meditation are much more resistant to stress and respond more adequately to all situations that occur.

Sooner or later, everyone thinks about the meaning of life. Meditation allows you to know your own "I", to feel the connection with the Universe. Helps to find out your own mysterious inner world and understand your purpose.

With the help of meditation, you can find answers to many questions, find harmony and joy in life.

These are just a few answers to the question of what meditation gives, in fact there are many more. But only in practice can you appreciate and understand the full power of the magic of meditation.

What Meditation Gives?What is meditation for modern man? If you want to start meditating, you need to knowwhat is meditation for and what does it give.

The answers to these questions are necessary for many people who have heard about meditation, and even would like to start meditating, but cannot for some unknown reason. Not understanding, what meditation gives, the brain resists and finds excuses: I do not know how to visualize, I cannot stop the continuous running of thoughts, I have no time, I have no opportunity to retire, my relatives will not understand me, etc ...

Today, millions of people of all ages and different religions in many countries practice daily meditation, both in ashrams or special centers, in workshops in groups led by an instructor, and on their own at home or in cars, while fishing or washing dishes, waking up in the morning. or rocking a toddler. And those who have never practiced meditation, as a rule, treat with understanding and interest, and even want to try one day too, so as not by hearsay, but by their own experience, to learn what meditation is ...

What is meditation for?

The answer to this question has been given by great meditation masters such as Osho, Sri Aurobindo and others.

Meditation is an ancient spiritual practice, initially accessible only to initiates, is one of the paths of spiritual development and has existed in the East for many centuries as the art of connecting with the Divine principle, realizing the Divine nature of your soul, your true "I". In the West, the art of meditation began to gain popularity around the 60s of the XX century, as a practice of changing consciousness, allowing you to be happy here and now, regardless of life circumstances.

Nowadays, with the help of meditation, they get rid of stress, chronic fatigue syndrome, excess weight, financial or creative crisis, etc., achieve happiness, peace,.

Today it is no longer necessary to prove that stress is the cause of many human diseases and premature aging, and meditation is one of the best healthy ways to relax, eliminate nervous tension, prevent the effects of stress, and increase stress resistance. By releasing stress and irritation, calming the mind through meditation, we allow the body to channel the released life energy to heal and restore physical, mental and mental reserves.

Meditation is needed to free the mind from unnecessary information, opening up opportunities for development and creativity. Many people, while practicing meditation, notice an increase in the ability to concentrate, an improvement in memory and thinking speed, an improvement in mental balance, and even a decrease in sensitivity to pain (an increase in the pain threshold).

What is the benefit of meditation?

This question can be answered by the results of scientific research.

Since the second half of the 20th century, when oriental practices began to spread in the West, scientists began to study the effects of meditation on human health. As a result of these studies *, a positive effect of meditation in general on the general state of human health and in particular on the following body functions was revealed:

• metabolism,
• blood pressure,
• brain activity and memory,
• mental processes,
• cardiovascular activity,
• disease resistance.

For example, as a result of an experiment by American researchers led by Herbert Benson, professor at the Harvard University School of Medicine, it was proved that during meditation, the brain of Tibetan monks plunges into a special "altered" state, which gives a feeling of complete peace and unity with the world and allows you to redistribute forces in a few minutes and energy in such a way that they are enough for the whole day *.

In the course of research by other American scientists from the College of Medicine of Wisconsin (USA), it was found that transcendental meditation, namely meditation on the mantra "Om" or another mantra, helps to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases. In the group of patients with cardiovascular diseases who practiced transcendental meditation twice a day for 20 minutes, mortality from stroke, heart attack or from any other cause was 48% lower compared with participants in the control group who followed traditional recommendations (healthy eating and exercise) ... In the group of meditators, a decrease in the level of stress and irritability was noted, and a decrease in pressure was recorded. According to the head of the study, Robert Schneider, meditation turns on the body's hidden resources, and he begins to heal himself. The researcher claims that the more a person meditates, the lower the risk of cardiovascular disease *.

It is also worth mentioning the studies that have established how meditation affects the health of the elderly. It turned out that meditation helps a person to manage their stress and cope with loneliness - such a conclusion was made by American experts led by Dr. David Cresswell, based on the results of a survey of men and women aged 55 to 85 years. After a medical examination, a group of elderly people began teaching meditation and yoga under the guidance of an instructor. After two months of regular meditation practice, the participants in the experiment underwent a second examination, the results of which were compared with the initial data. As it turned out, meditation had a beneficial effect on the health of the participants in the experiment. According to the results of the survey, the activity of substances that provoke inflammatory processes in the blood of people who meditated decreased. In addition, the general well-being of the elderly improved, they did not feel calmer and more easily cope with the feeling of loneliness *.

Thus, the evidence of scientific research allows us to reasonably state that meditation produces positive dynamics:

• mental balance,
• mental development at almost any age,
• physical health,youth and beauty, and consequently:
• financial well-being (just imagine how much you can save on drugs and treatment),
• quality and life expectancy.

Be persistent!

All beginners have difficulty concentrating, the tireless brain does not allow to concentrate and stop the "internal chatter". In this case, images help very well (for example, a painting, photograph, flower, stone, candle flame, or other object). But if you know why do you need meditation, difficulties will not prevent you from reaching your goal. If you know, what meditation gives You are ready for change.

Nowadays, of course, it is ideal to start meditating in a special center under the guidance of an experienced master, and then move on to independent practices. But if you are ready for self-knowledge and to work on yourself, then the absence of such an opportunity will not be able to stop you. I myself started practicing meditation at the age of 17 after reading several books. At that time, there were no centers in the city of my childhood, and I did not have mentors. Then, of course, there were classes with an individual mentor and group trainings and meditations in the ashrams of India. But that very first experience of meditation left an indelible impression, because it was new and unusually vivid sensations, a different reality and a different awareness of oneself and one's life.

There are many types and techniques of meditation. Some can be mastered on their own, to comprehend others you need the help of a teacher. It is better to start with meditative practices given by famous masters, for example, with Osho meditation.

For beginners to practice meditation, especially for those with visualization difficulties, very suitable . And for those who find it difficult to retire, they will suit and.

What meditation gives to the soul. Spiritual development

We have already examined what happens to our body, to our mind and to our psyche from meditation. It's time to talk about the soul.

But these things are not clear to many because go beyond our ordinary knowledge. They belong to the mysterious, unknown, little-studied. Many simply do not believe in all this. And in vain. Modern scientists began to study such things that previously seemed to everyone as a fantasy. If the scientific world already recognizes this, then we must not lag behind in time and recognize the existence of this knowledge.

Yes, meditation heals physical and mental illnesses, changes the fate of the practitioner, makes him better in all respects, stronger, smarter, but this is all secondary and not important.

The most important benefit of meditation lies in the spiritual transformation of a person, in the transformation of his higher consciousness - in ascending or even jumping up the evolutionary ladder and in gaining spiritual immortality.

This is considered the true goal of meditation, for which it is worth starting the practice. And health and a change in fate will come as a result of spiritual development.

After stopping the ego during meditation, the soul of a person is revealed. She finally wakes up, comes out of captivity, and then real miracles begin.

The practitioner opens up paranormal abilities. He learns what true Love is, becomes a happy person, wisdom and other higher qualities and feelings are revealed to him. He becomes flawless in all respects and cognizes his true Self. His attention penetrates into the subtle spheres, he begins to see what an ordinary person cannot see.

And it is the transformation of the higher consciousness that is the further development of man as a species, which means true evolution.

And only the soul is considered an immortal part of our being. Having shifted the point of self-awareness to the soul, we ourselves become immortal and can exist after the death of the physical body.

At first I thought about whether or not to talk about spiritual development through meditation in an article. I think everyone should know this. It's just that I will not go into detail on this topic, it is beyond the scope of our blog.

Whoever does not believe in this knowledge, let him apply meditation for simple, ordinary, understandable to many purposes.

Indeed, we are all different, and only, probably, 1% of those who practice will meditate for the sake of spiritual development. For many, this is simply incomprehensible.

But there is nothing wrong with that.

If you want to get rid of any disease, please practice meditation.

Maybe you want to become healthier, more resilient, or make your body more beautiful, also practice meditation.

If you want to quit drinking, smoking or getting rid of drugs, you are welcome, and here meditation will help you.

You cannot concentrate for a long time, you have a bad memory, you have no willpower, and here meditation will come to your aid.

You cannot sleep at night, you have nightmares, you are tired of constant depression and panic attacks. Stress overwhelms you. There is a magic pill. This is meditation.

You want to change your difficult temper that is causing you problems. Meditation will rewire our brains and we will become a different person.

And so many reasons can be given so that you finally move and start practicing.

If I haven't convinced you yet, and you are in doubt about meditating or not, then you are probably crazy. What could be more important in life than meditation. And I have not yet met such a universal remedy that would solve all human problems.

But no. You are not crazy.

Of course, not everything is so simple.

First, we come to the question, why, with such a universality of meditation, people do not engage in it.

There are very important reasons for this. This conversation deserves a separate article.

Secondly, the effects and benefits that I talked about are achieved for many not just by meditation, but by competent energy-meditative practice.

There is a category of people in whom meditation leads to asthenia, a decrease in blood pressure, a loss of strength, they become lethargic and lazy in life. Such people need to compensate for sitting in a posture and relaxation with special asana exercises, qigong or other energetic work of the body. But this is all solvable.

You just need to competently approach any business, and even more so to meditation.

And thirdly, real meditation is replaced by its surrogate. The practitioner does not perform the technique correctly, i.e. meditates incorrectly and does not come to results. Today, the word meditation is understood as a variety of techniques that are not related to true practice. These are visualization techniques, all kinds of autogenic relaxation and God knows what else. They pursue some specific goal, for example, to rest, recuperate, maybe even improve their health. The practitioner, even if he gets all this, but he quickly gets tired of such activities. And such a small number of bonuses from such techniques do not justify the time spent. Often, instead of positive results, the opposite is true. And a person is disappointed in meditation, telling everyone that this is nonsense.

That's why I don't like the word meditation. There is no such name in the East.

Real practice is the development of true awareness, the discovery of the real I or soul in oneself, and all this is achieved only when the ego stops, the psyche and the silence of the mind sets in.

Once you get a taste, this practice will never get bored, because each time the practitioner will feel positive changes in himself in the form of many bonuses that I mentioned. An understanding will come that there is no limit to perfection, the practitioner will happily sit down a pose every day and begin the practice with a sense of accomplishment.

And if we miss classes, the soul will suffer and ask to study again.

Even if you do not pursue high spiritual goals in meditation, you still need to do it correctly. This happens, I repeat, only when the mind or psyche stops, or the internal dialogue is still talking and the silence of the mind sets in.

Therefore, it is so important to meditate correctly so that later you will not be disappointed. Even such a well-known technique as tracking the breath is fraught with the danger of turning from real meditation, when the ego disappears, into a practice to strengthen the ego.

On the pages of this blog, we will learn to meditate correctly. And I will help you with this.

Summarize. Finding strength

Spending just 20-30 minutes of daily meditation time will give you as many bonuses as you will never get from anything else. Time spent on yourself will pay off in full.

I think now you understand why people meditate, and do not laugh at them.

All of the above effects and bonuses can be combined and expressed in one phrase. But it is in this simple expression that a deep meaning is hidden, which reveals and explains as a simple and understandable benefit from meditation, in the form of gaining health, endurance, stress resistance. So is the benefit that comes from the mysterious aspects of our life - improving fate, improving life, good luck in all matters, increasing intuition, creativity, gaining paranormal abilities.

The Force will come to us, we will become strong.

Remember the phrase from the movie Star Wars - "May the Force be with you." I hope you understand that it was not about the physical strength of a person, but about some abstract Power that does not dwell in our ordinary world, but in the mysterious and unexplored world of subtle energies. This is where our soul dwells. These are the energies that confuse classical physics, which studies the visible world familiar to us. And which modern quantum physics has just begun to study.

This Power, which permeates all that exists, sets the laws of the whole world, even though its subtle manifestations seem imperceptible to us. It feeds every cell of our body and all living organisms. It gives them strength, but only if the body is open to it.

And we do not notice her, are not open to her, because we are closed in our bubble of ego, and the Force cannot reach us.

When we stop the ego during meditation, the Force freely penetrates into us, nourishes our body, psyche, soul, and we become healthy, smart, wise. We're just getting better than we were. Strength endows us with what many have heard about, but did not know what it is, or they confused this expression with another quality of a person. Thanks to her, we gain, become strong in spirit.

What is fortitude is difficult to explain, because it also does not apply to our visible world and in words it is inexpressible. It can only be understood by someone who has experienced it himself.

The strength of the spirit, or they also say personal strength, is, first of all, the strength of the spirit, i.e. our soul. When the soul is healthy, not clogged with the ego, our psyche, it is strong, able to control the ego and a person feels it.

And only then the power will manifest itself in every part of our being, in the form of those bonuses that I mentioned above, and then we will be able to describe and understand it with our mind.

At the level of the body, as ideal health and we will be physically strong and resilient.

At the level of the mind, as the acquisition of a strong personality with unshakable views, sober and clear thinking.

At the level of the psyche, as a decrease in negative emotions, emotional strength and peace.

And all this is achieved, I repeat, only when our spirit is strong. And the spirit can be strengthened only when the ego stops, the soul spreads its wings, and the Force freely penetrates into us.

And this happens precisely in meditation.

Therefore, we have answered the main question of this article. First of all, you need to meditate in order to become strong, in order to gain strength of mind. Perhaps this is a revelation for you, and you have never heard of it. What can I say, read the blog and you will find out a lot more interesting things.

How modern man now lacks fortitude. Now there are fewer and fewer real men, because most are addicted to alcohol, which takes away strength. There are fewer and fewer real women, because lust, gluttony and other weaknesses prevail in modern society.

Because of this, many do not tolerate life's difficulties, are often prone to physical and mental illnesses, react sharply to pressure from outside, take offense, get angry, become discouraged and pour a glass of vodka into grief.

And they don't know how to get out of this circle. They simply do not know that there is the only remedy that will solve all problems and give them strength - this is meditation.

In the modern realities of life, when we are constantly under pressure psychologically and morally, you must admit that it is not the one who is physically strong that will survive, but the one who has a strong spirit.

We all want, probably, unconsciously to be a strong person with strong energy. A strong man has always been an example to follow. Look at the idols. Actors, politicians, singers, heroes. Of these, only those who have a strong energy and a strong personality become idols. And they have such energy and such a personality thanks to their great fortitude. But they have this innate feature, given to them by nature.

Why do we create idols for ourselves. Because, consciously or unconsciously, we want to be like them. We imitate them, take an example from them. But what happens. In most cases, this kind of imitation from the outside seems ridiculous and awkward. Of course, how can we become an eagle, being a sparrow, become a tiger, being a fat, soft and weak domesticated cat. We're just a different species, and we're made of a different dough. People simply do not understand that in order to become an equally strong personality, you need not external imitation, but you need to change your inner essence.

We need to change our internal energy, only then we will turn from a cat into a tiger. Is it possible? Of course. What do we have to do? One needs to gain strength, and this is achieved only through meditation. And only meditation will change you from the inside and turn you into another person. Remember, I said that meditation is climbing the evolutionary ladder. If you meditate regularly, the first step up this ladder will be to transform from a weak cat with poor energy into a strong tiger with increased energy. (Here I do not want to offend cats and gave this example just for clarity. In fact, there are cats with a weak and strong energy, as well as tigers and any animals.)

Women want to become beautiful and they often have beautiful actresses idols.

But they do not know what is external beauty, but there is internal beauty. Those who have fortitude have inner beauty. It is this beauty that can make a woman beautiful, even if her appearance is not very attractive by nature. And this is a truly miraculous transformation. There are many examples when a girl, as a result of some event in her life, literally becomes a beauty in front of her eyes, although her appearance has not changed, she did not do any plastic surgery. For example, she fell in love, recovered from a serious illness, made her dream come true, i.e. she just became happy. And happiness is, first of all, the recovery of the soul, which means the acquisition of strength of the soul or spirit. And there are examples when strength leaves a person, for example, due to severe stress, grief, loss of a loved one, loss of love. Or because of alcoholism, gluttony, sexual lust, or other indulgence of lower passions. And then the beauty turns into a freak. A young woman can turn into an old woman in a short time.

What woman is a mentally healthy man reaching out to. Which is outwardly beautiful, but there is no inner beauty, or, conversely, to the one that radiates inner beauty. I think you get the idea. What it takes to be beautiful. And there is only one answer. Gain strength of mind through meditation and after a while men will be crazy about you.

In general, to become a strong person you need two things. Meditation and life difficulties. It is not running away from problems, but meeting the hardships of life that makes us a strong person. And the stronger the scrape, the stronger we will become, coming out of it. But we must go into battle with a strong psyche, otherwise the battle will simply kill us. You can't go into battle weak. There is meditation for this. Having gained strength of mind through meditation, we will be ready with a brave heart to face the trouble for which we are already ready, and, having passed it, we will become even stronger. And this newfound strength must be consolidated with meditation. This is an interdependent process.

But this is a completely different story, which I will tell you about later.

You can watch a lot of videos on the Internet about the benefits of meditation.

Or this:

What else can I say.

Meditate and the Force will come to you.

Welcome to the magical world of meditation.

Best regards, Sergey Tigrov

Interview: Karina Sembe

From an ancient spiritual practice, meditation has become a fashion trend and a ground for promising scientific research. Pop stars and actors talk about the experience of meditation in interviews, scientists see it as a panacea for stress and anxiety, and one after another startups create interactive applications for "fitness for the brain" and control of attention. We tried to figure it out, and now we talked about meditation with seven people for whom this practice has become an important part of working on themselves.

Ekaterina Shcheglova

production designer of theater and cinema

I have a rather unstable psyche and a sensitive nervous system, and I have been characterized by sharp mood swings for almost my entire life. I need daily meditation practice as medicine for people with chronic diseases.

I started practicing about six years ago. It happened quite by accident: I went to yoga for the company, and there was meditation. I almost instantly felt that it was something that made me feel better, and immediately decided to do it every day. It's just that somehow it immediately became clear - that's what I need exactly that. I came home, found on YouTube the very meditation that we did in the yoga class, downloaded it, extracted the audio track into mp3 and uploaded it to the player. Since then, she has been there, and I practice every day for an average of 40 minutes.

This is a dynamic meditation from Kundalini Yoga for 10 minutes, which is a set of physical exercises. When the voice in the headphones says “breathe, now don't breathe, now wave your hands,” and so on. It suits me because it makes it easier for me to turn off my head. You don't need to think, you just need to do everything, and by the end of the meditation I calm down so much that I can sit in silence for another half hour. At the very beginning of meditation, breathing exercises help me a lot: inhale through one nostril for 8 counts, hold your breath for 8 counts, exhale through the second nostril for 8 counts, hold your breath for 8 counts, inhale again - and as long as it takes (I do twenty times ).

Of course, for all this it is better to allocate time at the beginning of the day, to plan the time differently. Now I need to somehow create this extra hour for myself in the morning - get up not at ten, but at nine, or be ready to be an hour late and apologize. I always choose to be an hour late and apologize, but do the exercises, and not the other way around, and so far I have never regretted it. I don't really remember the scientific explanations for the effect of meditation, but I feel like a previously uncontrolled stream of consciousness stops for at least a few minutes. These exercises do something with the brain and the whole body that everything comes into relative balance and you just feel better. For me, there is no mysticism in this - it is a physical process. Probably, medications give a similar effect, but pills are like doping, and exercise just fixes you, and the body itself gets used to working normally.

When I insert new cartridges into my printer, it prompts me to calibrate them. This is very similar to how exercises "calibrate" my head - I just come to a resource state.

Vasily Ilyin

musician

For the first time I got into meditation quite by accident - about five years ago my friend called me to some zazen, said that this is a cool thing and I should try. First, we were told how to sit and breathe correctly during meditation, what to do with our thoughts. Then they all sat down on the pillows, facing the wall. After two half-hour sessions, I realized that next week I need to come here again. Before that, I had no special spiritual or mystical searches, I just quickly realized that I was faced with a very effective tool that can be associated with almost any area of ​​life.

The place where I started going turned out to be the Buddhist center of the Zen tradition. It is believed to be a lineage of meditation teachings from Buddha Shakyamuni. This line existed in India, China, Japan, and is now developing in Europe. The head of this school is the Buddhist monk Sando Kaisen, he lives in the south of France, his students open centers in different European countries. From the outside it resembles a little religion, but in fact there is nothing religious here - there is nothing to believe in and nothing to worship.

Deep meditation is based on being very careful about yourself.

It’s not so easy to say about some results or effects: I have been practicing regularly for several years now, and it’s hard to remember how things are different. I would not become attached to any short-term results: during or immediately after practice, we can have a variety of states - pleasant or not. Sitting on a pillow facing the wall, we learn not to depend so much on them, and it is this skill that can later be useful to us in life. We also learn to work with our attention, which is also useful in almost any business. We can better understand what we are doing, what we want, be more efficient, have more pleasure during our holidays. It becomes clearer how we can help the people around us, we can avoid unnecessary conflicts.

In the current situation around meditation, I see some complexity: people have a large number of prejudices and fantasies about this, many people think that this is necessarily associated with some kind of esotericism and something mysterious. But we are talking about very simple things: our body, our sensations, how our attention works, and how we could combine it.

Many in our country have a tendency to perceive the practice of meditation as something inevitably associated with overcoming oneself. It seems to people that in order to become freer and happier, they must first suffer, but this is not at all the case. Deep meditation is based on being very careful about yourself; concentration should always work with relaxation.

It seems to me that almost everyone can find some form of meditation that suits them. I would advise you to search a little and choose some tradition or method that is close to you, and start practicing regularly. It is also good to find experienced practitioners whom you can trust and who can discuss some of your difficulties and subtleties of meditation. It can be a teacher, trainer or Buddhist monk - whoever likes what. Sometimes it is good to practice in a group, for some it helps. Sometimes you can go to retreats, a kind of retreats for several days dedicated to meditation. You should not expect any revelations from such events, but during their time you can learn to connect formal practice and our daily life.

Olga Pastushina

brain fitness coach

It all started for me in 2010 when I quit my office job and my life changed significantly. Very different people began to come to it, who helped me to look at the world from a new angle. One day a friend of mine advised me to try qigong and meditation, the first for the body, the second for the mind. After six months of Qigong practice, my figure became slimmer, and I realized that I was quite capable of correcting it. I really liked this, because I had a little fad about the figure. Thanks to physical activity, I also became much less sick.

As for meditation, it turned out to be not so simple. In order to feel and understand this new state, it took me time, the personal experience of my friends and the latest technologies. I started like this: 1-2 times a week I would sit in the lotus position, close my eyes, turn on a mantra and try to meditate. As they explained to me, you need not think about anything. Later I began to use some simple techniques, in particular, I began to monitor my breathing. And then one day, while meditating on the seashore, I had the feeling that I did not need to breathe. This is an amazing feeling. Of course, I continued to breathe, my heart continued to beat, but it happened as if by itself. Over time, I realized that it is not at all necessary to sit in the lotus position or turn on a mantra to enter an easy meditative state.

Brain fitness plays a key role in maintaining
cognitive abilities

Headspace works like a personal trainer - it helps train the mind and control the flow of thoughts and emotions. You can listen to Headspace on the go or download a suitable session and practice offline wherever you like: in between meetings, in a taxi, after your morning coffee or sports.

Meditation is a very personal experience and for me my main guru is my body and mind. You just have to listen to them - and even a five-minute break alone with yourself will help you feel calmer and happier.

Alexey Munipov

journalist

In principle, describing meditation sessions is as futile as explaining any other attempts to improve something in yourself - whether it is running, psychotherapy or going to a massage. There is nothing super-complicated or super-exciting here, and meditation is also completely uninspiring business: well, a person sits for a while in silence and with a straight back, if something happens, it is only in his head - what is there to brag about?

At least something about meditation I began to understand, or, more precisely, to feel, having gone on a 10-day vipassana. It was in the mountains two hundred kilometers from Madrid, although it can be anywhere - all the same, almost all the time you sit on the rug in the assembly hall. The rules of vipassana seem to be already known to everyone. In short, it is something like an imitation of monastic life, provided with a vow of silence. For ten days you have to be silent and watch your breath, almost literally contemplating your own navel. Wake up at 4:30, lunch at 12:00, dinner at 17:00. Reading, writing, any gadgets are prohibited.

All this is needed to switch attention from the outside world to yourself. And in practice, this is a rather painful process - both in the sense of bodily sensations, and in the sense of what begins to happen in the head. Actually, this is approximately what meditation is about: it is not so much a way of relaxation (although many people think of it that way), but an attempt to switch attention to oneself, and ideally, to be constantly included. In general, it looks like the well-known Leary formula, only without the last term: turn on and tune in - yes, but drop out is optional (and even somehow silly).

By and large, there are a million ways to do this, reasons - even more. I will not pretend that I have made any progress in this, even in doing it on a daily basis. But in general, the idea that, for example, you can observe your own emotions from the outside, that you are not equal to them, is quite inspiring and can sometimes be very helpful.