Meditation Information Information Research

Tell a Friend about this Site

A Forty-Five-Second Meditation


Is Meditation Too Much Time And Trouble?

If you haven't meditated before, you might think it's too much trouble to learn. If you do meditate, you know it can be difficult to find the time to do it consistently. So is there really a meditation you can learn right now that can be done in 45 seconds? There is.

Three Deep Breaths

Try this: breath through your mouth, and notice how your chest expands; then breath through your nose and you'll notice how your abdomen goes out more. You see, breathing through the nose causes the diaphram to pull the air to the bottom of your lungs. This delivers a good dose of oxygen into your bloodstream, and into your brain. It also tends to relax you.

This is why meditators breath through their noses. It's healthier, and it is the basis of this forty-five-second meditation. You simply close your eyes, let go of your thoughts (to the extent possible), and take three slow, deep breaths through your nose, paying attention to your breathing.

The Rest Of The Story

Now, this won't get you into a deep meditative state, especially if you've never meditated before. Is this a reason not to do it? Not at all. You'll get what you get out of it, and that almost certainly includes a clearer mind and a reduction in stress.

Make it a ritual. For example, each time you get into your car, quietly do your three deep breaths. Having a regular "trigger" like this to remind you will keep you from procrastinating so often that you eventually forget to meditate altogether (isn't this typical when we don't make a habit out of the things we want to do?).

Want it to be a deeper experience? There's nothing wrong with just enjoying the relaxation created by three deep breaths, but you can go further, if you wish. Longer meditation will help, of course, but that isn't the only way.

If, when you have more time, you learn mindfulness, how to relax more fully, or better ways to let go of distractions in your mind, you can more effectively use that forty-five-seconds. You may even be able to get to that "alpha" state (brain wave frequecy of 8 to 12 hertz) during your short meditation.

Don't worry if some say this isn't "real" meditation. We walk before we run, and not everything has to be difficult to be of value. Why not do a forty-five-second meditation right now?

Steve Gillman has meditated and studied meditation for over twenty years. You can visit his website, and subscribe to The Meditation Newsletter at: http://www.TheMeditationSite.com/newsletter.html


MORE RESOURCES:

Guided meditation and talk at UU in Davis
Daily Democrat
Join Heather Sundberg for a guided meditation and a talk on working with judgments at 7 pm, Thursday, April 1, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, ...

and more »


'Meditative Gardener' aims to cultivate good nature
Rutland Herald
By Kevin O'Connor Vermonter Cheryl Wilfong remembers a 2005 meditation retreat in which a Buddhist nun sought to weed everyone's minds of wild, ...

and more »


A guided meditation for a new perspective
AnnArbor.com
Continuing with the theme of getting a new perspective on whatever is bothering you, this week's blog is a guided meditation putting yourself in the bubble. ...



6 Week Meditation Class
Pleasanton Weekly
In the Flow-Opening the Pathways of the Energy Body is a six-week meditation class that will focus on the flow of life force and earth energy through the ...



How transcendental meditation can prevent war and terrorism
Sify
A new research paper has pointed how militaries worldwide could use the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program, founded by Indian spiritual guru ...

and more »


A Matzah Meditation
Chabad.org
Matzah, the cracker-like bread, round or square, made by hand or machine, that we eat on Passover. True enough, say the Jewish mystics, ...



Vandals Damage Public Church Meditation Area
Fort Smith Times Record
A community meditation area at a Van Buren church has been vandalized, a church member said Thursday. Bob Perry discovered the vandalism in ...
Church Property Vandalized in Van BurenKFSM

all 3 news articles »


Spiritual events for March 20
The Olympian
Olympia Zen Center: 3248 39th Way NE, Olympia offers daily meditation in the Soto Zen tradition and monthly one-day retreats. ...

and more »


Answers from Deepak Chopra
Times of India
I am 28 and have been into meditation for the five years. Initially, it helped me a lot but gradually, I realized I had become addicted to it and it is ...



Goddess of surfing makes a sacrifice
San Diego Union Tribune
Of all the unlikely places for a worldly news conference, the oceanfront meditation garden at the Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinitas has to be at the ...


Google News



MaineBannerExchange

home | site map
© 2006