What Is Meditation?

In this audio short, you will receive a brief definition of what meditation can be. From that basic understanding, we mention how the practice can be expanded into more in-depth work for personal development.

Transcript

What is meditation? Meditation is widely recognized for its health benefits and we often see images of Buddhist monks sitting cross-legged radiating bliss and calm. Have you ever wondered what the hype is all about? Let's have a closer look at what meditation is. Hello, My name is Astrid Bernkopf. I'm grateful you have chosen to listen to one of my InsideTimer recordings. If you are interested in my work, Follow me, Message and leave a review. I love to hear what you found useful. In this specific short, We will have a look at what meditation is. In a nutshell, We can say Meditation is a practice of concentration. When we meditate, We focus on something and blend out anything else. One of the most commonly used focal points is breath. So in a breath meditation, We focus on our breath and how it travels through the body, Or we may count breaths. We can also focus on other things such as our body, A mantra, That is a word we internally repeat to ourselves, An image such as a mandala, Or follow a story like a guided visualization. As you see, There are numerous ways to focus your attention onto something, Leading to a variety of different types of meditation. What they all have in common, However, Is that our attention focuses on something and blends out distractions, Such as thoughts or sensations, That are not linked to our focal point. When we practice meditation. Our mind becomes a spotlight that illuminates only the focus point of our attention. Unlike our daily activities, Where our attention jumps from one point to the next, Like a light bulb disseminating light into all directions, We train our mind to focus and stay with this one point. In reality, Staying with this one point of focus takes practice and time. Our mind is geared towards constantly scanning our internal and external worlds for anything popping up. Yet when we made it tape. We work at not engaging with these distractions and place our undivided attention on the focus points. We meditate to train our mind to focus and give it a break from this constant state of scanning and jumping back and forth between stimuli. In doing this, We work at understanding thoughts and emotions as something that is passing. They come and go. We also learn to not identify with our thoughts and emotions. We practice looking at them from a distance. In time and with practice we can expand our meditation practice and observe more of our internal world. We can start to explore what we feel. Again we learn to consciously observe what we feel from a slight distance. Just like with the thoughts or physical sensations. If we have a particular trigger, We can work on this and hopefully become skilled enough to not give in to an outburst of emotion. This leads us on to a deeper understanding of meditation. Through meditation we can learn about ourselves through self-observation and self-reflection leading on to self-development. Each of these points is a distinct phase of development in the meditation practice that requires some training. In the first stage we learn to observe ourself from a slight distance, Just as if we were to look on to something. From this stage of self-observation we can move on to the next in accepting ourselves and working on areas that we wish to improve. It is this awareness and self-observation, Paired with reflection outside of meditation, That will support self-development. In addition, When working on ourselves, We also work on how we relate to others, Thereby improving our relationships. That means meditation and self-reflection can be tools that support not only our own well-being, But also resonate wider into our communities. To summarise. Meditation is a practice of concentration, Where we focus our attention on a particular focal point. We train our mind to return to this focus point and to let go of any distractions. If we want to take this skill further, We can learn to observe ourselves and reflect on who and how we are and how we interact with the world. I hope you found this short explanation useful. Feel free to message me and let me know what meditation means to you. Follow me for more content and consider supporting my work with a donation.