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The Four Letter Word You Need For A Successful Meditation

successful meditation

By David Shields Published 3 years ago 5 min read
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image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/water-stone-nature-turkey-relax-2045469/

You’ve been there.

Attempting but not succeeding.

And the next time you want to try, you see yourself making excuses.

What most of you may see on the Internet, is, for example, a list of “10 Tips To Meditate” is a bit tedious for anyone to follow, when in fact, if you want to succeed you first meditation attempt you only need to remember one word.

SCAN.

You only need to remember the word SCAN to succeed in your attempt and/or teach meditation to others.

1. Sit

2. Close Eyes

3. Awareness of Oneself

4. Neutrality

This article will take you to a quick run-through of the essential that you need, to learn or teach others how to champion meditation attempts.

1. Sit.

Find a good spot around your home or anywhere that you plan to meditate. You can choose a well-ventilated area, or a dark corner, a soft-spot for you to sit or maybe even a hard but smooth, sturdy-levelled surface. Your choice.

But before sitting you need to look at this checklist first so you no longer have to find another sitting place and lose the mood for meditation.

• Find someplace with no distractions (or if you can tolerate distractions then good for you)

• Make sure that you have set this time aside as a time for meditation and nothing else.

• Put your gadgets on silent...You will only do this for a few minutes, surely that won’t hurt right?

• If it is your first time and you’re worrying that you might be too anxious or stressed for it, take a hot bath first to help you calm down.

• Maintain good posture

2. Close your eyes.

Well, this would be the easiest step. This will help you concentrate and keep your focus on yourself. Closing your eyes heightens your other senses and that is an advantage for you to practice mindfulness that you’ll need for the next step.

This step is how you disconnect from the world to focus on yourself, so you understand your present self. Understanding your present self can help you heal from your past, recognize developments, and be aware of what you are, to help you prepare a future that you want.

3. Awareness of oneself.

The best way to start this is to breath loudly throughout meditation, loud enough for you to hear your breath. Listen to how you inhale and exhale. This is the one thing that will keep you focused. Now ever since you closed your eyes and before you focused on your breathing, you may have had thoughts flooding you. Remember that it is okay for you to have those thoughts.

Mindful Meditation is not about keeping your thoughts at bay, but rather acknowledging that those thoughts are a part of you. You have to accept and come into terms that your thoughts do not simply go away just because you wanted to meditate. Now mindfulness during meditation can be fully achieved when you go back to focusing on your senses.

To fully practise self-awareness to yourself if you’ll try meditation teaching, here are some points to guide you:

• Always go back to what you hear and what you feel. This tip can help you move away from all scattered thoughts

• Acknowledge those flooding thoughts. These thoughts are not distractions. These are a collection

• Let yourself be open to an inner dialogue with yourself, remember that you have to have an awareness of the present.

• Talk to yourself about the present, what you hear, where you are, what you are doing, who you are at the present, what you feel at the moment (physically and emotionally).

• The key here is PRESENT. Meaning you don’t think of the past or anything related to future, you just acknowledge the NOW.

• Whenever your mind wanders and thoughts go around, filter your thoughts, keep only those that apply to the present moment and go back to listening to your loud breaths.

• If you feel sleepy, go back to focusing on your breathing. Inhale, exhale loudly— listen.

Mindful meditation is not all about making you calm. It is about putting you in the present moment. If you are anxious, then acknowledge that anxiousness while meditating, then focus again on breathing.

The inner dialogue while sorting your thoughts can help you understand your pain, lower stress, connect better, and improve your focus. Increasing awareness of your self intensifies self-acceptance and self-compassion. You do know how you can’t give something that you do not have.

4. Neutrality

Now being neutral means you will not judge yourself, no matter what thoughts comes to you. You will only acknowledge it. You let yourself be open to the experience of being kind to oneself. You will only observe what is current and if it is not what you wanted or expected, you just say, “Yes, I am that I acknowledge it”.

Normally, your mind might wander while you are meditating. You can always go back to focusing on your breathing.Now the key to ultimately focus on mindful meditation is the word SCAN itself.

• You look and observe at every sensation that you hear and feel,

• You examine your thoughts for the immediate person that you are

• Observe the emotions that you currently feel

• You inspect the blessing you have at the moment

• You view your life in the most honest and unpretentious manner

• You center your energy on the present, not what was or what will be.

Mindfulness is about being honest to ourselves, being curious of our inner thoughts and ultimately practising being warm and kind to ourselves—to hopefully be able to apply it to others too.

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