Article overview:
- The Mind & Meditation
- Enabling True Self to Flourish
- Meditation Frequencies & Music
- Meditation Techniques
The Mind & Meditation
Meditation is widely known for inducing a sense of calm, peace and balance, often used to relax and cope with stress. This benefits emotional wellbeing and overall health. However, the significance of the positive impact and change it brings tend to be overlooked.
There is a multitude of scientific proof that the state of the mind has the biggest impact on the body. This is why you can have people who seem unhealthy (e.g. poor diet, excessive smokers etc.) living longer than expected; because they are happy in themselves, happy with their life and have a positive outlook. Likewise, people who seem healthy can live shorter than expected (e.g. if they have a stressful mindset, if they’re attached to fearful/worried thoughts etc.).
Meditation also brings self control, enabling people to focus on improving any part of themselves. This is one of the most empowering things as if you can improve any part of yourself you improve your whole reality as a knock on effect; Hermetic Principle Number 1 (mentalism) ‘All things are created from and expand from the mind’. This can range from physical wellness to self image.
Physical wellness examples include Dr. Joe Dispenza‘s work which has been backed with proof of results and exceptional testimonials. He is a neuroscientist, New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and corporate consultant whose research has led him to develop a practical formula to help people transform their lives. His work has cured people of cancer who have been told that they have only a few months left to live, enabled wheelchair bound people to walk again, helped blind people see and many more (discussed in the video with Ed Mylett further down this article).
“If we want to change some aspect of our reality, we have to think, feel, and act in new ways”, Dr. Joe Dispenza. Meditation and visualization are key to doing this.
Self image is a key source from which a person’s reality is created, including their quality of life, their achievements, their relationships, their lifestyle. Dr. Bob Proctor was a big advocator of this. He extensively studied the subconscious mind, including Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon that noticed when he removed a facial scar, a nose job or created clear physical change/improvement, it didn’t always make the person feel better or more confident about themselves. This was because they still embodied the negative self image. As such, he postulated that there must be two images that we have, an exterior image and we also have an inner self-image. Dr. Bob Proctor has many famous quotes including:
“The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves.”
“Thoughts become things. If you see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.”
“The subconscious mind can not tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined.”
Our thoughts shape physical reality. As Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can or you can’t you’re right!” You can achieve your goals with the right mindset and vision.
Enabling True Self to Flourish
Meditation minimalizes the 5 physical senses of the body, enabling your true self (source of being/soul/awareness) to flourish. When meditating, acknowledge that you are your non physical soul inside a physical body and your soul is in control of your 5 senses and thoughts. You are not your thoughts, you can detach from and analyse your thoughts separately.
“Meditating is also a means for you to move beyond your analytical mind so that you can access your subconscious mind. That’s crucial, since the subconscious is where all your bad habits and behaviors that you want to change reside,” Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Thoughts are not always true, but a manifestation of habitual thought patterns. These thought patterns can be changed over time through repeating meditation that adjusts subconscious thoughts by acknowledging them and consciously replacing them with more positive ones. Meditation brings underlying subconscious thoughts to the surface for you to identify with the conscious mind and suggest/practice more positive thought patterns.
“Train the body like an animal, saying you’re in charge; you are the mind, the body isn’t,” Dr. Joe Dispenza.
It is also important not to battle with thoughts, but acknowledge them and let them pass/flow out of you. The reason for this is that battling them in your head (e.g. saying this isn’t true) or forcefully ignoring them builds more tension, defeating the object of meditation which is to relax the mind and body. The more this is practiced the more you are gaining control. Also, this means you are less likely to be triggered by outside factors (e.g. what someone says to you or how they act). Again, reiterating the control of how you feel. “If somebody effects your mood, they have a level of control over you,” Dr. Joe Dispenza.
“Meditation creates a new personality, creating a new personal reality,” Ed Mylett.
Meditation Frequencies & Music
Note that people often meditate to the Solfeggio Frequencies, the 9 healing frequencies. Each frequency aligns with one of the 7 main chakras along with affirmations that match the chakras like the ones shown in the images below:
Binaural beats are also often used for meditation. These are also a therapeutic music which uses two tones, each at a different frequency so that your brain creates an additional tone you can hear.
Even when not meditating, playing Solfeggio Frequencies, binaural beats or any relaxing music (relaxing jazz, relaxing hip hop, reggae, classical music, sounds of nature etc.) can help you maintain a calm state for longer. It’s easy to fall back into a less relaxed, default state, especially when starting out meditating. Playing relaxing music in the background can maintain a level of serenity and help create a new, more relaxed default state. Try putting some relaxing music on like this jazz or this LoFi reggae whilst reading the rest of this article and you are likely to feel more calm.
Meditation Techniques
The video below explains the 7 main different types of meditation. This can help you identify which meditation techniques are best suited to you.
Video summary:
1. Mindfulness Breathing Meditation – You are practicing your ability to observe your thoughts without judgment.
Method – Focus on the sensation of breathing, the feeling of air going in your nose and out of your mouth, and whenever a thought appears, you simply notice it, let it float away, and then you bring your attention back to your breathing.
Scientific category : Open Awareness Meditation : focus becoming aware of your thoughts and feelings.
Benefits :
– Increases your levels of creativity (improve focus and memory).
– Trains you to let go of your negative thoughts, preventing you overthinking and the negative side effects that come with it.
– Reduces fixation on negative emotions.
2. Meta Meditation – Loving kindness meditation.
Method – Send love in several directions. Sending love towards yourself by repeating a predetermined phrase like ”May I be happy” or ”May I be healthy” in your head. Then to a friend, then to a stranger, then to someone you dislike, and finally to the universe as a whole.
Benefits:
– Increases empathy.
– Reduces pain.
– Reduces negative emotions.
– Reduces depression and anxiety.
– Helps with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
– Increases the amount of gray matter in the brain associated with emotional intelligence, which could improve social skills.
This sort of meditation is good if you feel like you have a lot of hate or anger within you or other people.
It may also be a good form of meditation if you’ve suffered of past traumas.
3. Guided Meditation – From a coach, video or app that you’re using.
Method – Focus on the words of guidance.
Benefits:
– All benefits that other forms of meditation bring, but with less intensity (someone talking while you meditating).
This sort of meditation is good if you tried other forms of meditation, but felt like it was too difficult.
4. Focused Attention Meditation – Any sort of meditation where you focus on a particular stimulus of any kind like a sound, sensation or visual.
Method – Getting yourself to focus as much as possible on a single sensation.
Benefits:
– Researchers discovered that Focused Attention Meditation activates and strengthens a part of the brain that Open Awareness Meditation does not; The Anterior Cingulate Cortex. This is the part of our brain used for detecting errors, overcoming impulses, and solving problems. Practicing this sort of meditation will help you to improve all of 3 of these things.
This meditation is good if you use meditation to excel in school or in your career, as well as to practice impulse control (overcome your addictions easier).
It’s also an easier form of meditation to practice because you only need to do one thing compared meditations like Mindfulness Breathing Meditation and Open Awareness Meditation. As such, it’s a better form of meditation to start with.
5. Mantra Meditation – Repeating a phrase or a series of words over and over again.
Method – Focusing on repeating a word, phrase, or set of syllables. The best mantras are positively phrased.
Benefits:
– Reprogram the way you think and view yourself depending on the phrase you say. For example, “I can achieve anything” to make you feel more confident in your abilities, causing you to take more action.
This sort of meditation is good for anyone who is not looking to gain multiple benefits, but rather to fix one specific problem. This is because it allows you to pinpoint a specific problem that you have and fix it.
6. Pranayama Meditation – Breath control meditation.
Method – Controlling the pacing of your breathing. It is taught as a breathing exercise in the form of the 4/4/4/4. Breath in through your nose for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for 4 seconds. Exhale slowly for 4 seconds. And then hold for 4 seconds and then you repeat.
Benefits:
– Lowers blood pressure, reduces stress, help you fall asleep.
– It’s one of the only forms of meditation that has been shown to strengthen your lungs.
This sort of meditation is good for those that suffer from a lot of stress or anxiety. The box breathings is usually taught not as a form of meditation, but as a method used to calm people down. It is one of the easier forms of meditation to practise because you are not focusing on being present or emptying your mind. You are simply focusing on breathing at a certain pace.
7. Moving Meditation – Focusing on making some sort of movement. Like walking, doing chores, yoga, dancing etc.
Method – You focus on the physical changes and sensations that occur. For example, while walking, your focus will be on the feeling of your feet touching the ground and pushing off.
Benefits :
– Teaches you how to enter the flow state. such as dance, force you to be creative and present at the same time because you have to decide which movement you will make next. It is somethings that doesn’t happen with any of the other forms of meditation.
This sort of meditation is good if you have a hard time sitting still. Or maybe some health issues that prevent you from doing so or maybe you feel too jittery.
You can practice this form of meditation with any movement. washing dishes and even taking a shower.
When starting out it can be hard to focus, relax and stay present. This is why guided meditations (as mentioned in the video above) are a good way to get the most out of meditation initially and develop the skillset for more independent meditations going forward. Andy Puddicombe (CEO of the renowned meditation company Headspace) is a highly favoured meditation guide. Here are a couple of his many guided meditations below, including his ‘Day 1 Meditation’ and one for alleviating stress:
Here is a guided meditation targeted towards enabling furthering manifestation:
In the video below Dr. Joe Dispenza details some of the profound benefits of meditation:
Dr. Joe Dispenza has used meditations to help himself and vast numbers of people manifest their desires from overcoming disease and health goals, to financial goals and abundance, to living a happier more fulfilled life. Here are some of his meditations below:
You can read more about Dr. Joe Dispenza via his category here on his website here and more on Solfeggio Frequencies here.