Meditation is an avenue where bliss is experienced. The beginning of internal understanding. Many people understand the benefits of meditation yet struggle with meditating. I wanted to provide some understanding of why it is so hard for us to meditate and how we can ease into it without trying to push yourself.

We all struggle now a days with the constant stimulus in our lives. After much stimulation, our bodies became programed to always be on alert. We can no longer sit still. We must reach for our phones, food, a task to add on, and even food/drink to satisfy the mental gap. We have trained our bodies to need constant stimulation. Resulting in stress, mental and physical problems. Our nervous system is no longer in homeostasis, where it shifts from sympathetic to our parasympathetic nervous system. It is predominantly activating our sympathetic nervous system. Our fight and flight.  How can we come back to center? A simple way is our breath. We don’t think of our breath as a contributor of our overall health. Most of us think we just breath to live. While that is true, we are also not benefitting from the complete benefits the breath provides.

By being aware of our breath is where we can begin to take control of our bodies, emotions and our nervous system. Our breath is the anchor to all our other systems on the body. During times of stress and tense moments our breath tends to shorten and increase in breaths per minute, creating a cascade of negative effects in our bodies.

So, start breathing slower, through your nose and breath less with a full breath. The breath is the steppingstone to calming the mind and body to get it ready for meditation. So how do we breathe to start the meditation process? There are many different breathing techniques that we could all try. I always suggest first learning how to take a full breath. A full 3-part breath will provide the body with the complete benefits of the breath and trigger the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for trigger your body to rest and digest. So, breathing by filling up your stomach, ribcage area and chest, you have started to alert your body it can relax.  When your body starts relaxing, your body is more open to opening the mind for mediation.

If you struggle to meditate start with your breath. Breath fully, breath through your nose and enjoy its benefits. It’s simple, its free and your body and mind will thank you.

If you would like to know more about this topic, click on the link below for more in-depth knowledge.

(317) You Are Destroying Your Health | James Nestor on Breathing – YouTube

(317) Breathe to Heal | Max Strom | TEDxCapeMay – YouTube