Can You Really Change Your Life, In Just 5 Min?
In five minutes, you can completely change your life.
If that sounds hyperbolic, then please hear me out.
Normally, when we think about ‘changing our lives’, we tend to focus on changing some aspect of the world around us. Maybe we want to change how much money is in our bank account, how healthy we are, or maybe how many freedoms and opportunities we have.
But in fact, these things won’t really change your life... We know this.
Keep reading to discover–everything you'll ever need to know about Meditation and Mindfulness, and how to use them to Change Your Life. And It only takes Five Minutes a Day!
The 5 Minute Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness
Science tells us of something called the ‘hedonistic treadmill’, which basically reminds us that the human condition is designed to be in a state of perpetual ‘mild dissatisfaction’. To always be just short of where it wants to be. Studies show this.
In one such experiment, participants were asked to rate their happiness immediately after winning the lottery, or immediately after losing a limb.
As you can imagine, the lottery winners were significantly happier on average. But when the same question was put to them a few years later, both groups ended up with the same score!
It sounds unbelievable, but it makes sense: we adapt to our circumstances.
From an evolutionary perspective, it makes no sense for us to be so stressed and anxious that we curl up into a ball and never do anything. But likewise, it makes no sense for us to be so content and happy that we stop pushing the boundaries and exploring new horizons.
So, it all makes sense. But that doesn’t really help you, does it?
If there’s no way to make yourself feel better, then what really is the point after all?
Why strive for anything, if you’re just going to remain in the same state of ‘slightly uncomfortable’?
The answer is to stop looking outside, and to turn your attention inward.
Focusing on the way that you process what is going on around you, and suddenly you can find peace and happiness no matter where you are in life.
This is a case of having the glass half full, versus having the glass half empty. The glass is the same, but one person views themselves as lucky, the other views themselves as short changed.
The first person is of course the much happier and healthier one!
Can a glass half-empty kind of person, become a glass-half-full person?
Introducing Meditation:
It Can Help You to Become the Best Version of Yourself.
The answer, fortunately, is yes. And the answer is meditation.
Meditation can improve our lives in a great many ways – both in the short term and the long term.
In the short term, meditation can be thought of as a kind of refuge. Meditation is about calming your mind and driving out negative, stressful thoughts. If you can do that, then you can find an oasis of peace in even the most chaotic circumstances.
Imagine it: you’ve come home from work after a stressful day. Your colleagues are shouting at you and you have a deadline that you’re falling behind on. You might come home and stress all evening – spending your whole evening thinking about work, rather than enjoying time with your partner, and/or kids, and/or friends.
OR... you could meditate, remove the distracting thoughts from your mind, and just enjoy your evening. Worry about it tomorrow: when you can actually do something about it. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
In the long term, being able to do this at will eventually helps you to change habits that have formed over a lifetime. It helps you to learn to rise above your problems, and to not think of them as the end of the world.
You can put things in perspective, and you can crank down that irritating little voice at the back of your head. Reducing stress actually helps your brain to regrow damaged tissue and neural connections. You will create a thicker prefrontal cortex.
You will become better at controlling your thoughts and ultimately, you will learn to appreciate what you have.
So… you in?
Before we dive into this in more depth, let’s look at the top types of meditation and how to get started with them.
The Top Types of Meditation:
Stressed? Anxious? Over-Worked?
100% FREE GUIDE! 5 Ways To Instantly Calm The Mind
Meditation is the Perfect Cure for 21st Century Malaise.
Mindfulness Meditation:
One of the most popular forms of meditation is mindfulness meditation.
This comes from the psycho-therapeutic school of ‘cognitive behavioral therapy’ and revolves around becoming more aware of your own thoughts, such that you might start to control them.
In mindfulness meditation, the goal is not to completely block out all thoughts, but rather to simply let them pass you by like clouds – without getting you upset.
The aim in other words is not to engage with the thoughts. At the same time though, you will allow them to go by and you will make a note of them, so that you can develop a more accurate picture of what happens inside your own brain.
This type of meditation is perfect for dealing with stress and for overcoming anxieties and phobias. That’s because it allows you to step back and observe your thoughts dispassionately. Ultimately, you become better at using your own brain.
Body Scan Meditation/Progressive Relaxation:
This is a form of meditation that is often used alongside mindfulness meditation and CBT – though it can be used on its own.
The simple idea in this case is that you’re going to be focusing on your own body, and specifically on getting it into a calm state by relaxing each muscle.
You normally do this by first contracting (tensing) the muscle, and then letting it release entirely. This type of meditation is perfect for feeling calmer and happier and for letting go of stress at the end of a day. In fact, it can also be useful for getting ready for bed.
Breath Awareness Meditation:
This type of meditation can be used in conjunction with many of the others, or it can be considered to be its own unique form of meditation and used solely on its own.
Either way, the basic concept is simply that you are going to focus on your own breathing, using that as a great way to remove distracting thoughts.
A lot of people find it hard to empty their thoughts, but by focusing on something like breathing, you can create a laser concentration that pushes out all other thoughts and helps you to reach a calm state quicker.
Kundalini Meditation:
Kundalini meditation is a form of meditation from yoga that incorporates a number of different factors.
Here, you will be performing meditation while moving into numerous stretch positions and strengthening the core and other muscles. This form of meditation is perfect for those who want to kill two birds with one stone: enhancing their health and fitness while also combating stress and improving their focus.
Kundalini also utilizes mantras and specific breathing work in order to achieve the state of calm and enhance overall health.
Tai Chi/Moving Meditation:
Another example of meditation that isn’t static is Tai Chi. Here, practitioners perform extremely slow movements while focusing carefully on their bodies and how they are moving.
This in turn can allow them to tap into greater strength and control, while also serving as an ideal way to take their mind off of other worries and enhance focus.
While the movements are slow and may appear to have more in common with yoga at first, they actually do have martial application when performed quickly and with power.
Another similar example of this kind of meditation is ‘Chi Kung’ (Qi Gong). This is a more static alternative to Tai Chi that sees practitioners holding positions while focusing on the movement of energy through their body. This is often used in conjunction with Tai Chi, or with Shaolin forms of Kung Fu.
(TM) Transcendental Meditation:
Transcendental meditation or TM, is another of the most popular forms of meditation and is used by a number of high profile celebrities. The objective in TM is to completely empty the mind – in contrast to mindfulness.
To do this, you will focus on a ‘mantra’, which is a word or a noise that you repeat over and over. The most famous example is ‘Om’, but it truly can be anything. The Sanskrit root word 'manas' translates as mind, and 'tra' means instrument or tool. It is commonly translated to mean “an instrument or tool for the mind” or “that which when reflected upon, brings liberation.”
In the short term, clearing the mind can be a perfect way to eradicate stress and enjoy some relief. In the longer term, as you become better and better at shutting out all distracting thoughts, you’ll find that you start to experience feelings of ‘oneness’ and the like.
Don’t be scared – this is actually just an altered state of consciousness, achieved by allowing areas of your mind to shut down while others remain active.
Productive Meditation:
Productive meditation is an idea that was put forward by Cal Newport in his book Deep Work.
The idea is to focus on a topic or a problem and to think deeply about that. This can be a great way to solve an issue you’ve been having, and is just as effective a way to practice your focus.
Candle/Flame Meditation:
Candle meditation is a form of meditation that involves focusing on just a candle flame and watching it flicker.
Doing this can allow you to completely calm your mind, and especially because the candle itself is hypnotic as it dances.
There are many other things you can gaze at for meditative effect. How about looking at the moon for instance? Or a running stream?
Mindful Washing Up:
Washing up isn’t meditation. But that’s not to say there’s no way that it can be.
The point here, is that anything can become meditation as long as you calm and focus the mind while you do it. Focus 100% on washing up and this becomes a meditative exercise that will help you to push out distractions.
And the point is that once you reach this point, anything can become meditation.
Have you ever wondered why some people enjoy a happy, rich and stress-free life while others don’t?
The only way you can change your outer world is to learn and master your inner game, when you change your inner state your outer world will, and must follow it is a universal law. Master Your Inner Game to Achieve Your Every Desire:
What to Take From All This:
So those are a lot of different forms of meditation, and you might be forgiven for feeling a bit confused and overwhelmed at the moment. In fact, though, things are a lot simpler than they may at first seem.
Despite these forms of meditation all seeming extremely different, they actually have a lot in common. In fact, they all have the same basic objective: controlling attention.
Whatever you’re focusing on, the idea here is not to focus on something that could make you feel stressed out and to choose how you want to spend your time thinking. In doing that, you become less stressed, and you simultaneously ‘work out’ your attention like a muscle.
In most cases, we can divide these different forms of meditation into four groups:
• Sensory meditation
• Kin-aesthetic meditation
• Concept meditation
• Movement meditation
So, while productive meditation and religious meditation might both seem very different, in truth they are actually both examples of concept meditation.
Likewise, both Tai Chi and Kundalini are examples of movement meditation. So is mindful washing up! And you can use anything else here to fill the blanks. So, the key is just to find what works for you and to go with that.
How to Get Started:
To get started with your practice, try not to put any pressure on yourself.
Sit somewhere quietly, choose the type of focus you’re going to employ and begin.
If you need to get up to scratch your nose – that’s fine. You don’t have to ‘start again’.
If you notice your attention start to wander, don’t punish yourself for it: just bring your mind quietly back to the task at hand.
The mistake many people make is to place too much pressure on themselves to get it right – or to stick to 30 minutes of meditation daily.
Neither of these things has to happen: there’s no reason you can’t practice just for five minutes, a couple of times a week and still see benefits.
The whole point is, this is meant to be relaxing!
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