You can't change what was yesterday and you don't know what tomorrow will be. Meditation aligns our focus on the here and now.
Even if the measures taken here against the spread of Covid-19 on Koh Phangan Life on the island is currently severely restricted, so far that it has not reached the same dimensions as in Europe. Not only is meditation ideally practicable at home, it can also give you strength and calm in the current situation.
Find out what meditation is, how it works, what it does and why you should meditate in these times!
What is meditation?
Simply put - sit quietly, breathe through your nose and Watch thoughts.
Meditation is your haven of peace, yours Psycho-hygiene, your self-finder, your fear fighter, your brain fitness studio and your decision-making guide. Meditation is a spiritual practice that can be found in many religions. Above all, meditation is something that everyone can practice. It is not rocket science!
How do I meditate properly?
How do I meditate properly: There is actually not much to consider. You can take a sitting, kneeling, or lying posture, but you have to Spine straight be aligned. For this you can imagine that a string is attached to the highest point of your head, like a puppet. Now pull this imaginary cord straight up and you will feel how your spine suddenly aligns itself correctly.
The sitting, comfortable posture is probably the most common:
- Sit in the long seat on the front edge of a seat cushion.
- Pull your right heel towards the perineum and the left heel, only as far as you are comfortable and you do not feel any pulling in the knees.
- Let your knees sink as far as possible towards the floor.
- Place your arms relaxed on your knees.
- Relax your shoulders. Chin parallel to the floor.
There are many variations in posture, the most challenging is certainly the one Lotus Position. You can put your hands in your lap with your palms up, or with your fingers Mudra (a symbolic hand gesture).
However you position yourself, it is okay, you have to be able to stay in the chosen posture for a long time. It would be a shame if you have to stop your meditation because the lotus position and the chic mudra are for you Cramps and pain grant! As with yoga, meditation also takes place No competition instead.
Now breathe in and out a long time deeply and deeply in the stomach, let it bulge out really nicely and pull it back in.
Now you have to consciously do something about yours Spirit into the present to get and keep there. At the beginning, I recommend that to you Watching your breath. Your breath flows in coolly through the nasal passages as you inhale, and warm out again as you exhale. Breathing creates small air vortices at the tip of your nose, feel it!
Now others are Thoughts and perceptions start popping up. Let them come, watch them and let them go again. Your willpower, however strong it may be, cannot prevent these thoughts and perceptions from coming. Do not react angrily, everyone feels the same, and with practice it will become quieter in your head.
Later you can Use affirmations, such as…
- "My heart opens. I feel joy in my heart. "
- "I am full of strength and energy. I am fine.",
or mantras, wie zum Beispiel
- "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" for love & joy
- "Krishna Krishna Mahayogin" for trust & courage
The shortest but most powerful mantra is "Om". It brings body, mind and soul into harmony. Recite this syllable as you exhale. Affirmations and mantras unfold their full beauty when they are spoken out loud, but the effect does not diminish if you just repeat them in your head.
If you are a little more experienced, you can too meditate on light. For this you imagine a light that flows into you from above and completely fills you. You can also imagine that your consciousness is reduced to a tiny point of light, penetrates your cell bodies and envelops your DNA in light & love.
Where can I learn meditation on Koh Phangan?
Almost every yoga studio also offers meditations, because yoga & meditation belong together. The studios listed below are one personally selection made:
- Shakti yoga
- Orion Healing Center
- Loyfa Better Life
- Samma Karuna
- One yoga
- Ananda Yoga & Detox
- Sunny Yoga
Another type of meditation is that Walking meditation. You are in constant motion. We tried this technique, click on the picture to get to the article:
How long should a meditation session last?
In the beginning it might just be ten minutes be, and that's totally fine. Ten minutes of meditation is better than nothing! Buddhist monks can stay in meditation for many hours. This is wonderful and worthy of recognition, but all the positive effects come into play regular practice even with much shorter units.
It is most beautiful if you go into your meditation and just stay in it until you are done. Our Everyday life during the week there is usually not much more than the ten minutes mentioned above, but these ten minutes before you face the world can be decisive how you cope with it.
Where can i meditate
The best place is where you are well and safe fühlst.
Preparing a cookie is basically a Rthat is already preparing you for your upcoming meditation. A beautiful seat cushion, incense sticks, candles, relaxing music ... all of this triggers something in our brains. It is also wonderful in the nature to meditate, accompanied by the chirping of birds, the sounds that the wind makes in the trees, or the rustling of water. So a specially designated or special place is beneficial, but you can meditate basically everywhere.
On Koh Phangan of course the Beach at. Nobody will look at you strangely because “Magical Island” is used to people doing yoga and meditation exercises in public, among other things.
What does meditation do?
Meditation calms the mind, a calm mind relaxes the body, and a relaxed body builds stress hormones from. Less stress hormones in the body give him the opportunity to do that Immune system to harmonize and Inflammatory reactions to throttle.
A calm mind that has been accustomed to not jumping from one branch of thought to the next like a monkey, rocking around and following every distraction creates one calm, trusting and positive mood. You will react much more calmly to situations that previously upset you. That in turn strengthens it Self-esteem and Self-confidence. Meditation increases the ability to concentrate and mindfulness. And last but not least, it's a spiritual practice that gets you into higher levels of consciousness can lead.
My personal meditation experience
In challenging situations, two to three breaths with a mental "Om" are enough for me to calm down and switch the stress hormone kitchen to the back burner. As I am a visual type, I also like to travel during my meditations. Sometimes I visit my "safe place", sometimes I let myself drift and see where I'm going, sometimes I follow my power animal. I use the method described above, where consciousness becomes a point of light, to track down and change programs and patterns in me that hinder my development and growth.
One thing I always do, right at the beginning after my mind has calmed down: I ground myself. I anchor myself deeply in Mother Earth so that I don't take off or find my way back again. Grounding gives me the security that my mind is not going anywhere. My visual personality comes through here too, I imagine myself forming roots that dig into the deepest layers of the earth and hold me there.
What meditation aids are there?
Nick Bender: Actually, the nice thing about meditating is that you don't need anything but yourself. Most things are more fun for me when I can use some kind of technical gadget
There is also an electronic tool for meditation: the Muse headband. It is a kind of headband that you connect to your smartphone and that should help you meditate.
The Muse headband measures, among other things, your brain waves and your heartbeat and uses the values to analyze what stage you are in during the meditation. The goal when meditating is to get to the Theta Stadium.
The app belonging to the Muse not only offers an analysis after meditation of how long you have been ruhigen was, it also provides real-time feedback. A background noise is emitted that gets louder the more restless you get, or in other words, the more active your brain is.
If you are particularly calm and in the theta state, you will hear birds chirping. That may sound a little strange at first, but the results are convincing for me: I was able to more than double my meditation duration and frequency.
There is currently $ 30 off Muse headband.
