Choosing to meditate for peace is a practice that could help you achieve a feeling of calm and peacefulness whenever you are going through a stressful situation. This exercise is an essential one to learn, especially during these trying times. In this article, we are going to expound on the benefits of this practice, why inner peace is important, how to meditate for world peace as well as meditation techniques and many more.
To most people peace refers to the absence of violence. However, inner peace is a state of being mentally and spiritually serene, tranquil or calm. It means that you have enough knowledge and understanding to keep yourself strong in the face of discord or stress. No matter what happens or what goes wrong, you will not be an anxious mess about it.
Inner peace is great for your mental health as well as your general well-being but, unfortunately, it does not always come to us when we need it. Inner peace must be cultivated from within us and it is best done through a meditative mind. Studies have shown that this practice has the following emotional/mental benefits:
Running a never-ending rat race, shoving trauma further and further away, falling into self-harming thought patterns, living life that’s eclipsed by constant anxiety and fear – this is what an average person goes through every day. Not addressing it will only pull you deeper into a downward spiral. BetterMe: Meditation & Sleep app will help you gain a new perspective on life and help you regain that long-lost internal balance!
Meditating as a beginner can be daunting. However, with a few guiding pointers you will be able to do it in no time. Here is how to start meditating:
This helps you concentrate better than if you chose to do this practice in a loud area.
You can meditate in any piece of clothing you desire, however, it is better to choose loose clothing that does not cut into you and that allows you to breathe well.
Since it requires concentration, it is best to do this exercise at a quiet time of the day. This could be done early in the morning or late at night before bed.
You could either sit on the ground or choose to sit on a chair with your feet on the floor. Whichever position you choose, make sure you are as comfortable as can be to avoid fidgeting.
While it might be tempting to dive in and try meditating for 30 minutes, slow down and start small. At first try meditating for just a minute or two a day, Once you have mastered it, move on to five minutes, then 10, 30 and eventually you could be meditating for an hour each day.
Whether you are choosing to meditate for peace, happiness, focus, stress or anxiety, being clear about your motivation will help you sink into your meditation mood better. It creates the right attitude for your goals and keeps you committed to it throughout the session.
This will help with concentration as you are not distracted by the things your eyes land on.
Do not try to control your breathing. Breath as you normally would and notice how your body expands and contracts with each inhale and exhale, respectively.
When starting to meditate for peace (or for any other reason), the mind tends to wander. If this happens, bring your thoughts back to your breath and focus on it. If random thoughts try to take root in your mind, do not focus on them. Let them filter in and out without holding on to any specific one.
Please note that there is no one specific or right way to meditate. Because of this, it is advisable to try all meditation techniques for you to find the best one that works for you. Here are some that you can try:
Also known as Metta meditation, its goal is to help the practitioner cultivate an attitude of love and kindness towards themselves as well as people and things around them. It encourages them to show love and compassion not just to the positive but also to the negative people or situations that cause them mental stress, anger, frustration, and conflict.
Also known as progressive meditation it involves paying attention to one specific body part at a time and slowly tightening and relaxing it, or visualizing a wave drifting over this part and taking the tension away. The main aim of this technique is to notice any tension in the body and release it, thus promoting relaxation.
This technique is often used in Buddhist teachings and it encourages practitioners to remain aware and present. Instead of dwelling on the past or dreading the future, it encourages you to remain in the now. While taking part in this, you are required to, without judgment, pay attention to your thoughts as they pass through your mind.
This practice can improve your memory and focus, lessen impulsive, emotional reactions, and reduce the fixation on negative emotions (3).
This is an exercise that combines both meditation and visualization that is based on the calm reflection of life. This practice enhances feelings of relaxation, peace, and calmness by visualizing positive scenes or images.
Read More: Visualization Meditation: Benefits And Techniques To Help You Unlock The Life Of Your Dreams
It is a combination of breath, movement, and sound that intertwines the practice of kundalini yoga and kundalini meditation. The benefits of this include mental clarity, sharper intuition, increased mindfulness and compassion, better sleep and improved mood (2).
This technique is used by practitioners to help them transcend or rise above their current state of being. It promotes a state of relaxed awareness and uses mantras to help people concentrate and achieve this state.
This technique requires the practitioner to concentrate using any of the five senses. It could be done through the counting of yoga beads, listening to some meditation music, etc.
If meditation is not for you, here are other ways on how to find inner peace:
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Scientists, through the use of MRI scans have realized that meditation causes our brains to take a break from and stop processing information as actively as they normally would during other times. Here is exactly how this happens:
This part of the brain ‘goes offline’ or switches off during the period of meditation. The frontal lobe is important for voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions. These executive functions include the capacity to plan, organize, initiate, and self-monitor.
When meditating this part slows down. This lobe is located at the upper back area in the skull and it processes sensory information mainly relating to touch, taste, and temperature.
The function of his part is to relay motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex. As you meditate for peace, this practice will cause the flow of incoming information to slow down. The more vast you are at meditation the less information this part of the brain receives whenever you choose to meditate.
This part is best known for its role in promoting arousal and consciousness. As you meditate, this exercise puts your feelings of arousal on hold.
This practice also improves focus and concentration, increases self-awareness and self-esteem, lower levels of stress and anxiety, and helps us be kinder to ourselves and those around us.
What does meditating do to our bodies? This calming exercise helps decrease metabolism, eases chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and improves heart health and heart rate (it reduces high blood pressure in the long term).
It also improves breathing, can boost your mood and improves your immunity. In relation to women’s health, this practice is said to help with PMS (premenstrual syndrome) – reduces hot flashes, breastfeeding in news mothers – boosts the production of milk -, as well as infertility problems in women trying to conceive.
Read More: Meditation Breathing Techniques: A Must-Do In Stress Management
In 2011, Harvard University psychologist and famed intellect Steven Pinker, in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, claimed that human beings are now living in the most peaceful times in the history of our species. While we are not hearing about sieges, colonization, or occupations the world is not as peaceful as we would like to imagine.
At the tail end of 2019, the website ForeignPolicy.com made a top 10 conflict watch for 2020, a scary list that shows you how people, even children, are engaged in bloody wars all over the world. As of October this year (2020), according to world conflict tracking websites, nearly a quarter of the world is currently engaged in either skirmishes, minor conflicts, wars or major wars all which have claimed many human lives.
If this was not enough to worry about, others have even started tracking and mapping out areas where they believe that World War III could possibly start. Such news and statistics is quite unnerving and could lead to a lot of stress and anxiety. Choosing to meditate for world peace is one way to help get rid of these negative feelings and spread some love and light to the world.
Choosing to meditate for peace is a practice that will pay off in your day to day life. Not only is the world currently going through a pandemic, but wars and social injustices seem to be dropping up everyday in different parts of the world.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, take a few minutes to meditate for world peace and meditate for peace within yourself, your family and your county. This will help combat anxiety and stress keeping you grounded in these any difficult times that may arise in the future.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. A licensed physician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any medical conditions. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!