As announced in the last blog post, today I would like to introduce you to the first steps towards silent meditation. Various meditation instructions are now circulating in books and on the Internet. Often, however, this is described in a more spiritual / religious context, which often puts people off who are not interested in these topics. So I would like to give you a little guide on how you can use meditation for yourself and your personality development even without a spiritual context.

If you want to start meditation, you should first look for a quiet place where you feel comfortable and can be undisturbed. Turn off your cell phone and ask family members for B. not to disturb the next half hour. A slightly darkened room can help you to get into a calm mood and relax your eyes, but it is not absolutely necessary. The room should also have a comfortable temperature for you so that you do not freeze or sweat under any circumstances. You should also wear comfortable clothing that does not distract you by sitting too tightly or scratching during meditation. 

Once you have completed your preparations, sit in an upright position on a comfortable chair or on a pillow on the floor. Place your hands palms up in your lap or on your thighs. Make sure that you can stay comfortably in the position you have taken for the next few minutes. A lying position is rather unsuitable, as one tends to fall asleep lying down and it can therefore be more difficult for you to achieve a calm but awake state. 

Such preparations are no longer necessary later. The practiced can seek out the quiet place in themselves anytime and anywhere, even when things are turbulent around them. This is a very important point, especially with regard to preparation for a competition. 

The first goal is now to calm yourself and your thoughts and to direct your perception away from the outside, towards your inner being. Breathing techniques are very suitable for this. Normally, your breathing is controlled automatically and subconsciously by you. But you can also control it directly through conscious decision.  

Now close your eyes and begin to perceive your breathing, to intensify it and thereby slow it down.  

Consciously take a deep breath through your nose and feel your lungs fill with air and your chest rise. Keep breathing in and feel your stomach rise too. Notice exactly how your body is expanding. Hold your breath at its maximum for five to ten seconds and then consciously and slowly exhale through your nose. Now feel how your stomach and chest slowly lower again. The exhalation usually takes longer than the inhalation. 

If you have never worked with breathing techniques, after just ten of these deep breaths you will notice how your body and your thoughts come to rest and you will be amazed at how much you can control your perception. The main goal here is to get all of your attention on your breathing. The essence is not about breathing slowly, but training your attention and your perception.

If your thoughts wander again and again during the breathing exercise and you catch yourself thinking, for example, about what you still have to do today, you can intensify the breathing exercise through visualizations. This allows you to put other disturbing thoughts aside for the moment and better concentrate on your meditation. Here is an example of a visualization: 

Every time you inhale, think of the following sentence: “I feel the breath flowing into my body. I am filled with the power of life. “ In the short phase of holding your breath, think to yourself: “I am completely healthy and vital.”  As you exhale, think to yourself: “I am confident and believe in my own strength. I’m good the way I am. “ 

Of course, you can also think of your own positive sentences in advance that fit your individual situation. However, please be careful not to use negative wordings. This is important because our brain does not pay attention to whether we use a “not” in a formulation or not. For example, if you are not supposed to think of an apple, you will inevitably think of an apple. Your brain automatically shows you the apple in front of your inner eye the second you read the word apple.  

Therefore, as an example in the third phase, we better formulate “I am confident and believe in my own strengths” instead of “I let go of all my fears and doubts”, even if the content of the statement is basically the same. It is important that when you first enter into meditation, no images arise in you that make you negative in any way and thus lead to wandering of your thoughts and possibly to the interruption of the exercise. Hence the pure focus on positive formulations at this point. 

This exercise to start meditation shows you a first step on the way to perceive your inner voice and to draw strength from the calm within you.  

Please be patient with yourself in your first few attempts. It is completely normal if you need several attempts to keep your attention to yourself and the visualizations for 20 breaths. Give yourself time and don’t put yourself under pressure. You will see, with every attempt, you will be able to take more and more breaths into the matter. As soon as you have trained yourself to stay with yourself for a full 20 breaths, you have successfully mastered the entry and can begin with further steps to deepen the meditation.

The ability to consciously control one’s attention can be trained like a muscle. Persistence, determination and self-conquest also play a key role here. Later goals of meditation, especially in sports, include the establishment of your inner balance, as well as the expression of your inner strength in athletic performance. 

Some people find it particularly difficult to access meditation, which is no reason to hang your head or to sideline this topic. In addition to the silent meditation described in this article, it can also be accessed through sports that are characterized by regular movements. Long-distance swimming or running are very suitable for this.  

Another way of getting started with meditation with the help of sporting exercises is the  ZENbo Balance , which we also work with at Body & Soul 3volution. It is a gentle sporting discipline that combines meditative units with sporty units and is therefore also ideal for overweight people, people with handicaps and seniors.