The Self-Help Basics: Meditation

Introduction

Tim Feris (entrepreneur, and public speaker) in his book Tools of Titans, interviewed 200 world-class performers. Tim Ferris says that over 80% of world-class performers meditate regularly. That's to show the power of meditation.

You might have a biased view of meditation. Perhaps you think meditation is for truly spiritual people, and that it's only a spiritual, theoretical concept. You might think meditation is just humming a sound whilst making weird dances with eyes closed to venerate a superior power.

In reality, meditation is a scientific habit to help develop mindfulness in your day-to-day life: the ability to be more present and grounded in the moment, which, if you're a masculine man, is one of the true gifts you have to offer to the world.

Meditation consists of sitting with your eyes closed, and focusing on a specific thing for an extended period of time, and only focusing on this specific thing. I'm going to give you tangible examples of meditation later on so you can understand and practice meditation. But really, it isn't complicated. And it's free to do.

In case you've been wondering, here are the benefits of meditating daily: improved focus, improved mood, improved presence, sleep, and energy. Decreases stress, anxiety, and depression, lower blood pressure, and helps regulate attention spans. Improves memory and resilience. It can improve confidence, self-esteem, and optimism.

In other words, meditation is a health-centered habit, it boosts your health, especially your mental health and your cognitive function. Overall meditation is a great habit to adopt, and the time spent meditating is really minor. You should meditate every day for 5 minutes minimum of the minimum, 10 minutes preferably as the perfect landmark, 20 minutes would be incredible, and more is just great.

But a trap I fell into and that I want to prevent you from is to believe that quantity overpowers quality. This is not true. In meditation, you need to focus on quality instead of quantity. It's better to do a 10-minute fully focused meditation session, rather than a 30-minute barely focused meditation session just to bolster your ego up.

I think meditation is what we need more. Men and women around the world are becoming less and less present and grounded in the moment, and I believe that this is a major consequence of the constant usage of our phones and devices. Therefore, meditating will make us more present and grounded, which is a major quality not only for yourself but also for your relationships, for your job opportunities, for the work you produce, for your marriage even.

Just know that one of the truly masculine man's gifts is presence. A man's presence is his value nowadays because his value isn't estimated on how much money he makes or how much food he brings back home anymore. Therefore, this simple habit could boost a lot your value in the dating market. As for women, being present and grounded in your feminine energy will make you way more attractive to masculine people. Your dating value will go up.

All of this to say: meditation is one small habit for one big pack of benefits. It's truly incredible and it's one of the basics of self-improvement for both physical and mental health, as well as spiritual health.

The different types of meditation

There are many different types of meditation, each offering a unique experience. These different types are all equally useful if done correctly: remember, the goal of meditation is not how you do it exactly, but focusing on your mind for an extended period of time.

So, let's begin, shall we? I'll put a small explanation of what it is and how to do it for each type of meditation we'll see here. Just know, that there are way more types of meditations, but for now, we'll stay on these five.

1) Nose Breathing Meditation

Nose Breathing Meditation has all the benefits of meditation and even more: nose breathing promotes incredible health and if sustained during the day can improve your jawline immeasurably.

Nose Breathing Meditation is a type of meditation that consists of closing your eyes, and focusing on your inhale and exhale. You can visualize the air going down into your lower belly/abdomens, then going up to your upper abdomens, then your chest, and finally out of your body through your nose or mouth on the exhale part.

Nose Breathing Meditation is one of the most basic meditation forms and it's used all around the world. It's really the basics of meditation, it's the one everyone should know about and that everyone should have at least tried once.

This meditation type is generally great. I have nothing more to add to this section because it's as simple as it gets: breathe from your nose and focus on your breath during the whole meditation session. Easy, accessible, and free. I recommend it but I have a better one in store.

2) Mantra Meditation

Mantra Meditation is a style of meditation that consists of repeating a mantra in your mind over and over again. Not only is this a useful and great type of meditation, it also instills autosuggestion in your mind which might help even more with self-esteem for some people.

To practice Mantra Meditation, as I've said before, choose a mantra (you can use to start "I am present, in mind and body.") and repeat that mantra over and over again, with eyes closed, and in your mind. Repeat it at whatever speed you want, but make sure to understand the significance of each word fully, maybe even making a mental image of each word, instead of just repeating the phrase like a dummy.

Mantra Meditation is also one of the most basic meditation forms and it's widely used. It's also called, from what I've understood Transcendental Meditation. It's basically the same concept.

I also suggest preparing and finding out your mantra before entering in the meditation session. Instead of jumping in and building a mantra right away, take a few minutes beforehand to think about a mantra that you would like to pronounce and begin training yourself a little bit, like a meditative warm-up. This could help if you're struggling to stay focused or if you're hesitating about which mantra to chose. Take the time necessary to do things correctly.

I recommend this one for new and advanced meditators. This one is great and it's the one I have used daily for the past few months, even tho I might switch back to nose-breathing meditation soon.

3) Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness Meditation is a style of meditation that consists of closing your eyes and observing your thoughts passing by in your mind, without judgment or fear. It's just watching, patiently, like being in the middle of space and seeing rockets and shooting stars pass in front of your eyes (the thoughts).

For people who have neuroticism (thinking negative thoughts), this practice is actually great for lowering neuroticism.

This meditation is great, and it can help you reconcile with your thoughts by understanding that they are only thoughts: and that the positive or negative thoughts are only what they ultimately are: thoughts. You can't choose your thoughts, but you can try to influence them. And, on top of that, it teaches you that thoughts are only thoughts and that the thoughts you have aren't a representation at all of your identity or of your beliefs or values, but it's only a rocket passing by from time to time.

I recommend this type of meditation if you have neuroticism or any type of negative thinking. Even if you have positive thinking definitely try it out, it's a good way to meditate. Some call it Vipassana meditation too.

4) Body Scan Meditation

Body Scan Meditation is a style of meditation that consists of scanning your body parts, from your feet to your head, or your head to your feet, and feeling the sensation of each body part individually, and then, together. For example, you start by sensing your feet, then your calves, then your thighs, then your hamstrings, then your abdomens, chest, arms, neck, face, and finally your whole body. You can basically play with this order.

Body Scan Meditation is literally like if you were passing through a "body scan", you see each body part and feel its sensations individually, and then you feel your whole body full of sensations from the different body parts. It is very similar to NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) which is a deep relaxation technique but not considered a meditation technique, even tho, let's be honest, it's almost meditation.

Body Scan Meditation can help you become more aware of the sensations in your body and it could help you "connect" more with your body. It's quite helpful and fun and it's a nice way to meditate. Whether you're new, intermediate, or advanced in meditation, this meditation technique is still great and will definitely help you unlock the benefits of this practice.

5) Walking Meditation

Walking Meditation is a variant of meditation that consists of walking and feeling the sensations of your feet. Feeling how your feet take off the ground, and how it gently fall back onto the ground, feeling contact with your shoes, feet, and the ground, or the skin with the ground if you're barefoot.

This meditation can be a nice form of meditation to try occasionally or daily. You do not have to walk long distances but you can simply walk in a room, hallway, or even your garden: just walk back and forth if required, but walk.

I don't really recommend this one at first since the levels of distractions are higher. In fact, I never even practiced this one, and I think I'm going to try it soon. But from what I've heard and researched, it works very well and can help becoming more mindful in your daily life even more, because whilst moving you're doing an activity.

You see, when you're meditating in your room, eyes closed (which is incredible already), you're becoming more mindful but when you're meditating whilst walking, whilst doing an activity, you're training your brain to stay mindful even during your day-to-day activities and actions. It puts your brain into the condition of distractions and sounds and feelings and sensations but you still have to stay mindful, so it's ultimately more challenging.

A step-by-step guide to sitting meditation

Even tho I've explained how to meditate, I wanted to make a step-by-step guide to sitting meditation so we can be sure all of the conditions are checked and your meditation experience produces the most benefits. Let's begin.

First off, turn off or put on airplane mode all devices and notifications if you can. Do not let any notifications disrupt your meditation session, as it could take your attention away from whatever you're focused on.

Secondly, sit or lay in a comfortable and quiet environment (a chair, a sofa, a bed). Set up an alarm on your phone, on an alarm clock, on your computer: whatever. You can use an app like Medito like I do (even tho you can't be in airplane mode with it or else it won't work) and follow the guided meditation practices. This can help a lot too, as there are a lot of free meditation courses in Medito.

Thirdly, try to maintain good posture preferably to make breathing easier and less shallow. Breathe through your nose and exhale through your nose or your mouth whilst focusing on whatever type of meditation you're doing. Meditate for 3-5 minutes at first (when you're a beginner) daily. Then, upgrade the time to 10 minutes daily. Finally, if you can, try to get to 20 minutes daily or more. But remember, quality and not quantity first.

The key to lifetime meditation

The key to keeping the habit of meditation for your whole life is consistency and patience. Let's break down these two aspects of meditation.

Consistency is required in keeping this habit for life. In fact, meditation can prove to be inaccessible some days: because of work constraints, relationship constraints, or because maybe you've missed it out of laziness. If this happens to you, it's not a big deal, and I suggest simply going back to your usual routine the day after.

There's no need to beat yourself over the fact you didn't meditate for a day. It's only one day in a succession of successful days. Failure happens. However, do not make it a habit, or else it's going to become problematic. Missing meditation should be a rare exception, not a habit.

I also suggest putting a low threshold where you will feel like you "meditated" for the day. For example, if your "threshold" for a "successful meditation day" is 5 minutes a day, even tho usually you do 10 minutes, if one day due to time constraints or relationship constraints or family constraints or job constraints or whatever you can't do the full 10 minutes, at least do five.

Remember: the goal is to SHOW UP. If you show up, you've already alarmed your brain that this habit is a lifelong habit and that you're not going to give it up, even for one minute of meditation. It's just like going to the gym, you might not be strong enough or you might not be able due to whatever constraints to do the whole workout but at least try to do 10 push-ups. Get something, a small threshold, so your brain understands that you're not getting away from it, even on the days when you feel like giving up.

But remember, the key to any habit that you want to keep over the long term is to simply be consistent, and show up even the days you don't want to. So, on the days you don't want to, force yourself to meditate. It's called discipline. Yes, the idea of "you can still try to do one minute" like I said before might work, but really, are we so sub-humans, a low-tier civilization of incompetent, sub-humans, to not even be able to meditate for 10 minutes when we don't feel like it? It's ridiculous.

So, on the days you don't feel like it, MEDITATE. On the days you don't have the time, try to create time throughout the day to meditate, or if it's too late, at least do the minimum. Also, don't make "meditation streaks". We're not here to play these little games of "Oh I got a 354-day streak at meditating!". We're here to make meditation a consistent habit in our lives, if you miss it from time to time it's not the end of the day. It's life.

It's just like healthy food: you can sustain a great diet but from time to time you'll go to the restaurant with your friends or wife or family, and you can't just be 100% disciplined forever. This is why balance is important too, balance is fundamentally important. Some people on self-improvement disregard balance as "weak-minded thinking". Now sure, if for you "balance" is playing "just one more hour of video games" or "watching the TV for one more hour" or "scrolling on social media" then of course balance is "weak-minded thinking".

But here I'm speaking for individuals who do not lie to themselves and who do not delude themselves and their lives with this "one more hour" mindset, I'm speaking for the people whose balance is working hard on their projects, and then going out with friends or in nature or speaking to a woman they're interested in. I'm speaking about real balance, like our ancestors. They chased the mammoth and then they got to dance around the fire and make social connections. It's the same idea here.

Finally, let's speak about patience. Patience is required in meditation because the results of meditation don't appear very quickly if I am totally honest. Meditation results take time, and before you start feeling truly present in your day-to-day life, you might require months or years of meditation. It's just like exercising, building muscle, or eating clean foods: it takes time and patience, and consistency.

Like anything worth pursuing in life, meditation takes time to truly feel the benefits. But remember, as I've said before, it's a lifelong journey, so all of this is a question of time before we start to feel the effect of our months or years of hard work. The difference might feel subtle at first, but it becomes real when the time passes.

Meditation is one of the keys to great mental health, and I recommend it to everyone out there. Try it, do it, try to sustain it for a lifetime, and with patience and consistency, results will come, and your life will improve as will your mental health at the same time.

Spirituality and meditation

Meditation is indeed linked to spirituality. Some do not believe that they have a soul, but if you're interested into spirituality, this part of the article might seem to be very interesting.

The ideas promoted in meditation are spiritual concepts like enlightenment, self-realization, and the pursuit of inner peace. It's being at home with yourself, with your soul, it's being one. And spirituality might seem "guru-esque", it might even seem like some "religious fanatism" and all that stuff, but in reality these ideas are not always linked to religion.

I'm not going to dive super deep into spirituality because myself I'm not that deep into it. However, spirituality and meditation are linked, and that's for sure. It has been used by Buddhists and a ton of traditional monks to discover spirituality over thousands of years. It can help you become more authentic, living from your core, living from your soul. It's being at home with yourself. Now, if I was you, I wouldn't be dependent on meditation for this (following your purpose, social connections, and living a life authentic to your values certainly help) but it's a nice tool to have in your arsenal.

Science and meditation

As I've said earlier on, meditation is a real scientifically-researched practice to improve your life. Let's try to dive into the science of meditation to better understand how it impacts us. I'll try to stay simple because science isn't really easy to understand.

An article published in the National Institutes of Health, named "Regional Brain Activation During Meditation Shows Time and Practice Effects: An Exploratory FMRI Study†" found out that "Meditation involves attentional regulation and may lead to increased activity in brain regions associated with attention such as dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)"

The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex is responsible for memory, planning, and tasks. The anterior cingulate cortex is responsible for decision-making, impulse control, emotions, reward anticipation, and attention allocation.

You can therefore see that meditation activates two very important parts of the brain, especially the ACC because it's responsible for impulse control and decision-making: it is the seat of willpower.

You see, there is a medical term called neuroplasticity. According to Wikipedia, neuroplasticity is "the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization".

In other words, neuroplasticity is like changing the form and size of a plastic. It's the ability of the brain to change basically. And studies have uncovered that when specific parts of the brain are used repeatedly in individuals, like muscle, it grow. In fact, studies have shown that certain parts of the brain of monks are more developed than the average modern human being, and studies have also done the same on mathematicians for example, and they discovered that mathematicians had some parts of the brain bigger than your average Joe.

In other words, the more you use a part of your brain, the more it grows. This is why, if you discipline yourself daily to resist temptations, your ACC (Anterior Mid Cingulate Cortex), the seat of willpower, will increase in grey matter (in size).

This wonderful ability of the brain highlights an important truth: if you "work out" your brain, it grows. Just like a muscle.

Therefore, this means that if we train our brains to meditate, engaging the ACC and the DLPFC regularly or daily, this might help induce size growth in these parts of the brain, which means more benefits for us.

Now way more scientific studies need to be conducted, but this is a true scientific phenomenon: when you train a part of your brain, it grows. And so when you train your ACC and DLPFC through meditation, it grows. And so the benefits (increased willpower, mood, etc) grow too. This is why Buddhists are naturally happier and more positive, they have different brains at different development stages compared to us that are favorable for positive thoughts and mindfulness.

So basically, the more you meditate, the more you're slowly improving the regions of your brain responsible for emotion, willpower, mood, discipline, memory, etc.

Now, science is hard. You need to prove exactly that it works through thousands of studies with perfect conditions for it to be true, but due to the sheer amount of scientific studies on the subject, and their positive conclusions for the vast majority, let's go with the basis that meditation induces changes in brain structure that can positively impact the life of meditators.

Conclusion

Meditation is one of the greatest self-improvement habits you can do. It's important to train your brain and this practice has so many benefits that not practicing it is stupid. Really, meditation is a habit we should strive for on a daily basis, even 5 minutes at first, before being able to meditate for 10 minutes and so on if possible.

Trust me, meditation is worth it. The changes might be slow and the progress barely felt at first, but with time, like anything, meditation will become one of your best allies in life.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you next time.

By the way, are you interested in losing weight? Well, I got what you need! Here is the weight-loss course I made! It's an effective and no-nonsense course to long-lasting sustainable weight-loss, used by a 16-year-old to lose weight, change his life forever, and keep the weight off!

On top of that, not only is it cheaper than most courses and it provides EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WEIGHT-LOSS, it also has 12 FREE BONUSES, such as habit trackers, workout plans, guides to losing weight on vacations, bulking up after weight-loss to gain muscle or even optimizing your testosterone. For FREE.

If you're interested, click on the button below.