Meditation Resources
About Mindfulness Meditations
I frequently recommend mindfulness meditations for a variety of reasons. Whilst other demands of day to day life result in a busy head, meditations really provide us with a tool to land us back in our bodies, and generate an enhanced sense of awareness.
Awareness is useful to assist in the practice of noticing when our muscles are tense and they don’t have to be. It assists us in the practice of being able to let go of these unnecessary tensions, and have a more comfortable body. This ability to let go of things also translates into a mind setting, as well as a body setting. Instead of dwelling on unhelpful negative thought patterns, through practising meditation and bringing the awareness into our everyday lives, we are better able to let these thoughts and associated bodily tensions evaporate, and engage with a more positive and comfortable sense of what it is to be ourselves.
Awareness is useful to assist in the practice of noticing when our muscles are tense and they don’t have to be. It assists us in the practice of being able to let go of these unnecessary tensions, and have a more comfortable body. This ability to let go of things also translates into a mind setting, as well as a body setting. Instead of dwelling on unhelpful negative thought patterns, through practising meditation and bringing the awareness into our everyday lives, we are better able to let these thoughts and associated bodily tensions evaporate, and engage with a more positive and comfortable sense of what it is to be ourselves.
If you’re not already sold on giving meditation a go, such practices have also been shown to improve focus, improve symptoms of depression and anxiety, assist with concentration and creativity, as well as improve sleep…!
“Meditation is nothing but a way to learn to do something totally- once you have learned, make your whole life a meditation. Let life be the only law, let the life be the only meditation. And then time disappears.”
-Osho
The key of the practice is training your mind to focus on something (this could be scanning different areas of your body, as in the bodyscan, or focus on breathing, sounds, a mantra, anything!). The game is to catch when your mind has wandered off (which… it will, minds do that) and bringing it back to the task in question, without any frustration at getting distracted, just an acceptance of the wandering nature of the mind, and a gentle refocus.
I have compiled some of my favourite resources here for you to experiment with and enjoy. Many are from a book by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, I find their way of speaking nice and calm, and their meditations are varied in length and subject. A link to their page is http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/ where you can find all of their meditations and information about their book, “Finding Peace in a Frantic World”.
RESOURCES:
Less than 10 minutes:
10- 15 Minutes:
20 minutes + :
Non-Guided, bell only Meditations
If you find guided meditations too structured, and you have found something that you enjoy focusing on (such as breathing/sounds/body sensations), you might prefer a primarily silent meditation track, with reminder bells. This track is 30 minutes with reminder bells every 5 minutes. Insight timer app (below) offers you settings to enable you to set any length meditation with reminder bells as frequently as you like! Worth a try also.
Apps and websites
Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/
This is a great app that is available to download on apple and android devices, that has a website too. There are thousands of free resources (and some paid, but you can easily navigate away from these). At its simplest, it functions as a timer, that you can set for any length of time that you want to meditate for, set ambient music, decide how often you want bells as a reminder and decide on the sound of the bell! Then there are more structured guided meditations similar to the ones above, from various people around the world. The topics can vary from compassion, to focus on breathing, or even sleep and relaxation.
Finding peace in a frantic world: http://franticworld.com/mindfulness-apps/
This app is free for the first 10 days, then there is a one off payment to continue using it. I never did feel the need to purchase the app, because the resources are so readily available online, but worth a try for ease of access.
“Meditation is a surrender, it is not a demand. It is not forcing existence your way, it is relaxing into the way existence wants you to be. It is a let-go.”
-Osho
