Meditation for inner peace
Author – Lydia Chang, Flow Retreat Director
At the end of every Flow Retreat, I often find guests feeling hesitant to leave. Many of them have experienced profound sense of relaxation, and they are not sure how to continue feeling peaceful once they return back home.
Fortunately, there’s a powerful tool to help sustain or create the transformative effect of a retreat at-home. This powerful tool is meditation.
What is Meditation?
“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” – Alan Watts
Imagine there’s a glass of water, inside the water is muddy as it’s mixed with dirt and sand.
This water represents our mind, and the dirt and sand represents our thoughts, feelings, and mental clutters.
All day long, we are constantly moving, doing, and thinking. This is similar to us stirring the water of our mind, the more the water is stirred the more muddy the water becomes.
Now what happens when you leave the water alone? After awhile, dirt and sand slowly sinks to the bottom…..and the water becomes clear again.
Just like water, within each one of us lies the capacity for inner peace and calm.
But we often get consumed by our busy lives, leaving us feeling stressed out, tired, and confused.
When we practice meditation, we are creating an opportunity for true rest, we are allowing mental clutters to subside, and from there we can access your inner tranquility whenever needed.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation offers numerous benefits that contribute to our overall well-being and help us maintain inner peace.
Physically, science have proven that meditation practice lead to structural changes in the brain in as little as 8 weeks of regular practice. Areas associated with attention, emotional regulation, and self-awareness showed improved cognitive function and emotional stability, allowing us to better navigate stressful situations and maintain a sense of inner calm.
Emotionally, meditation cultivates self-awareness and emotional resilience, enabling us to observe thoughts and emotions without judgment. This non-reactive state promotes a peaceful mindset and harmonious and more loving relationships with ourselves and others.
Spiritually, meditation enhanced intuition and wisdom: By quieting the mind and accessing deeper levels of consciousness, you can tap into profound insights, creativity and guidance.
How to Meditation?
- Step 1 : Relax the body
Find a comfortable position to sit, and relax your body. You can try to relax your body starting from the top of the head, part by part, down to the feet. Scanning the body from top to bottom, wherever your attention goes, relax that part of the body.
- Step 2: Focus on Breathing
Bring your attention to your breathing. Naturally breathe in and out, there’s no need to change your breathing. Focus on the breath movement, enjoy the sensation of the breath. Whenever thoughts and feelings show up and you’re distracted, know that it is normal, gently bring your attention back to the breathing over and over again. The more you practice being aware of the breathe, the stronger your ability for focus and awareness.
- Step 3: Be in Stillness
Continue to focus on breathing and allow the body to settle into stillness. Resist the temptation to move or scratch your body. As the mind and the body is intricately connected, the more the body can be still, the more the mind can be still. Practice for at least 20 minutes.
We love to hear from you! Try meditation today and let us know how your practice goes!