meditation

​Have you ever meditated? There are so many ways to meditate: mindful, transcendental, spiritual, walking, focused, movement, mantra, progressive, etc. I used to imagine a soft lavender dot right at the intersection of my eyes and the bridge of my nose. I would focus on that and slow my breathing. I got away from it for a long time. Then, a few years ago, when the new buzzword around was “mindfulness”, I started to learn about that. I tried it. I did it. I couldn’t get into it. Not as a regular, meditative practice, but I did apply it to other areas of my life, though. Then, I learned about resetting the vagus nerve (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S8KT7w4uaA&ab_channel=NervousSystemNinja(ReneeOstertag)). I LOVE doing this! I can physically feel my body releasing the tension.
About 6 weeks ago, I learned how to do transcendental meditation. According to WebMD, “Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a technique for avoiding distracting thoughts and promoting a state of relaxed awareness.
While meditating, the person practicing TM sits in a comfortable position with eyes closed and silently repeats a mantra. A mantra is a word or sound from the Vedic tradition that is used to focus your concentration.
According to supporters of TM, when meditating, the ordinary thinking process is “transcended.” It’s replaced by a state of pure consciousness. In this state, the meditator achieves perfect stillness, rest, stability, order, and a complete absence of mental boundaries.”
Now, if anyone digs deeper into TM, you might find something called yogic flying…we did NOT do this!! We simply learned how to transcend. Sometimes, I struggle during TM, which is not uncommon. However, when that happens, I practice the vagus nerve reset to calm my body, then try again and that almost always works!
Whatever your method of slowing down your mind and body is, keep practicing it. You will get better and, hopefully feel the lasting benefits on your health.