Meditation 101

meditation

When at birth were all pretty well smacked for something we didn’t do or deserve as far as I’m concerned. But the practice was thought to shock you into taking that first breath,. My first thought, how about not holding us upside down and allowing the blood to rush to our head for that first roller coaster effect at the first introduction as infants. None the less, way it was attempted to teach us at birth, the importance of our first breath. Breath in and Breath out. As we age we seem to loose the understanding of proper breathing. Wether its stress or some type of emotional upheave; we have all lost the idea to remember how to breath as we once did as infants. At the rightful age, many of us learned that we can punish our parents by crossing our arms and stamping our feet and when that didn’t work, holding our breaths was our last result. That lasted until that swift hand changed that idea or if lucky, we had the chance to pass out and avoid that all together. For those of you who say; my mom an dad never did that to me. I say too bad, it may have did you some good and if not then I will say your parents would have received some stern looks of disgust. Lucky you!

As we aged we learned through society that breathing properly wasn’t cool because it often meant having a belly. So with that we again hold our breath while at the gym when some hot chick walks by, for you girls its all about the slim look or in this day in age could be a multitudes of reasons.  Hence, Meditation has become the in thing, for proper health. And we are all learning that we have to go back to the basics of breathing with breath in and breath out. Teaching meditation at our house and keeping in mind the importance of breathing in and out. From this you contract and expand with the breath in and out via our our belly’s. As you would take a long deep breath in (preferably from a seated position) the stomach should expand outwards. Not from your chest. As you breath out the stomach contracts pulling the stomach inward towards the back of the spine.

This allows the muscle’s to become relaxed and creates proper blood flow through out the whole body and organs. By continuing with breath in and breath out,  the whole body eventually relaxes. As you will allow the breath to continue, eventually the automatic body will take over and because years of bad habit which; you will eventually reverse to the latter way of breathing and is ok at this early stages of meditation. If you’ve meditated for a long time be aware of the breathing and the stomach movement. By the way this also helps digestion. So many wonderful benefits to meditating, lower blood and cholesterol, I could go one but… you get the point.  This is why it is important to practicing breath in and breath out. Start at first for 5-10 min then allow the body to take over, try to remain seated up. Often if you lay on the floor stress may allow your tired body to fall asleep and miss the exercise. Which, leads to the misconception of truly meditating, unless you have meditated for many years and have a good sense of the breath in and breath out. I say; as long as your relaxed thats fine  sit how you like. Either way the body will shut you down if need sleep.

I once asked a Buddhist Monk at the Chan Sam Temple in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada:  Why is it that some of the people in my meditation prefer to lay down on the floor during meditation? He replied; thats because in another life, they may have been an ox, a snake or a goat, then chuckled.  I went home that night and did told the group what he said and they laughed happily returning to meditate as they do, on the floor. I guess they understood better than I did.  Lastly, I will tell you that when you practice meditating, don’t worry about “Monkey Mind” , By this I mean just allow what comes into thought to be and do nothing about it. Just relax… close your eyes and get comfortable and remember to just breath in …and breath out

Happy Meditating,

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