What is Meditation?

Good question! Do you know, most people don’t! Read on to find out.

In the simplest way: meditation is focusing on now. Not yesterday or tomorrow, not even a second ago. One could say it is an art of concentration and relaxation that can be easy to do, but hard to master.

What most people don't understand about meditation is that it can be done anywhere and at any time; also, it isn’t just sitting down and clearing your mind, it’s concentrating in the moment and focusing on one thing.

Although I don’t meditate often, I do like the concept, because it’s applicable to our daily lives. I recently went on a meditation retreat (inspiring this post) with a few other people, and with us was a Buddhist Monk. He said he meditates all day, every day. Which is amazing! Meditating is very difficult; even for only 5 minutes it’s hard to concentrate and focus. Like I said: meditation isn't just sitting down and clearing your mind, and the Monk showed me that it’s possible to meditate throughout the whole day by doing simple things, like controlling your breathing or being aware of everything that you are doing.

The meditation retreat was basically a 24 hour crash course on learning how to meditate. We stayed from about 3 pm to 2 pm (the next day). We meditated for multiple hours and we spoke with our accompanying monk, where I learned a lot about Buddhism, not only in Thailand but Buddhists from other Asian countries, such as Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). 

Meditating while standing up.

Click here for more info about the retreat.

If I'm studying or writing a blog post, meditation can help me (or you… anyone really) focus on what I am doing, so it can get done quickly and correctly.

I’m not the kind of person that likes to only do one thing, I like to have many projects at the same time… which isn't always a good thing, especially when I’ve got limited time. But the retreat showed me a few things that I think are great life lessons, and if you are ever in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I definitely recommend the mediation retreat because it’s a great learning experience!

You can learn about mediation by researching it on Google, or by taking yoga classes (yoga is a form of meditation). Or you can check in your community if there are any meditation related classes or communities.

Leaving the retreat.

Lars Wagoner is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

Photos courtesy and copyright: http://monkchat.net/