The First Noble Truth teaches us that all beings who are not yet enlightened will experience suffering and discontent. This can cause many problems in life, such as anxiety and depression. While it’s not possible to eliminate all sources of stress, we can learn to eliminate discontentment by using certain methods found on the Eightfold Path, as discovered and declared by Gotama Buddha, if they are taught and understood properly. One of the spokes on the path’s Dhamma wheel is Right Concentration, which is cultivated by Breathing Mindfulness Meditation. Right Mindfulness is also cultivated through Breathing Mindfulness Meditation.
Anyone Can Learn to Meditate
Meditation is often seen as a spiritual practice, but it can also simply be a method for calming oneself down and focusing. Anyone can learn how to meditate, as it’s a rather simple process. It’s easy to learn how to meditate for short periods of time to alleviate stress
You can learn Breathing Mindfulness Meditation from a Teacher for free here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFuun1phKgQnONxfSSspFXY2WxjHBPij4
Meditation as a Daily Practice
If you make meditation a part of your daily routine, it can help make you more resilient and less likely to experience discontentment. To develop a daily meditation practice, it’s recommended to have it be a part of your morning and/or before bed routine, just like brushing your teeth.
Using Meditation to Calm Down in the Moment
Another way to use meditation is to meditate whenever you need to calm down. You might encounter a stressful situation that will leave you feeling anxious, but using meditation can help you regain control of your emotions and move forward with peacefulness and evenness of temper. This is the time to practice the Enlightenment Factors of Tranquility, Concentration, and Equanimity through meditation.
Meditation Advice
When meditating, try to find a quiet place where you can spend thirty minutes. The basic idea is to catch your thoughts as they wander and try to maintain focus on only the breath. Every time your mind wanders, recognize it, catch it, and bring the focus back to the breath with awareness of any sensations felt in the body. Remember to breathe slowly, subtly, and deeply while relaxing. The slower and longer the breath, the more focus it will require to maintain it. Meditation is essentially training your mind, so think of it as a training regimen.
Chanting while meditating is optional. You can simply focus on breathing and relaxing. Chanting is only recommended to begin and end sessions for focus and concentration.
After each meditation session, you should feel significantly better than you did before. Consistency is key, and significant results have been documented from those who average two sessions a day for a minimum of two months. To produce the best results, it’s recommended to work up to two to three sessions per day, each lasting 30 minutes or more. The Buddha chose to meditate in the morning, midday, and evening for this exact reason.
May you be peaceful, safe, well, and freed from all suffering and discontent.
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May you be peaceful, may you be safe, may you be well and may you be freed of all discontentedness and the suffering causes.
~Coach Nick
Nicholas Gerace 