Meditation is an ancient practice that dates back a millennia. Despite how long its been around, the practice is used worldwide for its brain benefits and overall well-being. All it takes is a little practice of clearing your mind, breathing, and a combination of mental and physical technique.

Its benefits have been seen to lower stress, manage anxiety, and some say that it even helps improve their health beyond that. One thing it is noted for is allowing the mind to become more focused so that it can adapt to changes and challenges more easily.

While meditation can be done in numerous ways for many benefits, one of the oldest is the ability to create a form of spiritual awakening and connection to what is beyond our understanding. Today you will learn the basics of how to create your own meditation space to start your journey of Spiritual Awakening and Oneness Through Meditation.

Uses of Meditation

Meditation is used to calm the mind and relax the body. Tension, stress and anxiety can be relieved by performing simple techniques. Aside from the inner peace that meditation brings, it can also improve the body’s general health. It is also a great way of improving your concentration. There are studies showing the relationship between meditation and the performances of athletes and other professionals. The studies suggest that applying meditation to their training routine can help them increase performance by building on concentration and focus.

Health benefits of meditation include better circulation, deeper levels of relaxation, increase in exercise tolerance among heart patients, normalizing blood pressure, reduction of anxiety attacks and muscle tension, relieving arthritis pain and among many other things.

Aside from the calming effect that meditation can bring, it is often said to be a path to awaken the spirit and start the journey towards spiritual awakening. Meditation has different schools. Each school has its own thoughts about meditation. There are also different techniques. There are meditative techniques which focus on a field or a background perception, while there are others which focus on a specific object.

With meditation, you get to listen to the inner self and separate from the pressures of daily life. Understanding the inner self leads to understanding of the higher self. This increases our knowledge and understanding of how the higher self unites with the universe. In meditation, you get the chance to tap in and see your life and problems from a different perspective. Getting in touch with the inner self will provide guidance towards happiness and fulfillment.

Meditation and Spirituality

There are religions and spiritualities which advocate the use of meditation to reach enlightenment. As mentioned, there are different schools of thoughts and focus that each adapts. But the method or the technique used is not as important as the underlying concept behind meditation. Meditation is about listening to the inner self and controlling your attention and focusing. There are so many distractions that it is very hard for some to focus their attention on what is important and keep their attention on fixed objects. When focused on a fixed object or field, oneness could be experienced and could take a person to a completely different state. This oneness is not easy to achieve though. In many spiritualities, this achievement may take years to accomplish.

When oneness is achieved, the person will experience bliss. Bliss is referred to as a natural state of the soul which cannot be experienced easily in daily life. During this meditative state, the mind expands its consciousness and understanding of nature and the universe. Destructive thinking and behavior brought about by the materialistic and fast-paced world can be let go and released. A deeper understanding and knowledge will be felt and the body will be in one with the universe. This, is what they say, can link us to the Supreme Being. Attaining this oneness could be compared to a spiritual awakening, where the body and the mind can fully understand what cannot be seen or touched in the material world.

3 Easy Steps to Making Your Own Meditation Room

Meditation rooms are not always rooms per se, oftentimes, they are just secluded nooks in someone’s home where one can go to to think, relax and meditate. Having a private meditation room, however, is not something that has to be exclusive to yoga practitioners. You too can have your very own meditation room which you can use as a place just to sit back and get away from the fast-paced and stressful daily life that most of us live. Your meditation room can be your own hideaway, where you can breathe freely and gather your thoughts together. Here are three simple steps to help you create your own sacred space.

1. Choose a Spot for Your Meditation Room: Quietness and isolation are the primary qualities that a meditation room must have. No matter how small your home is, it is possible to have a meditation room where you can have a bit of peaceful respite. Just find a place to set it up that is a little out of the way in your home. You can situate your meditation room in your own bedroom if you want. In fact, any corner that can be made secluded will do. All you need to do, if your meditation room is not a separate room in itself, is to partition it creatively so you would not be bothered if you are inside your nook.
   
2. Furnish the Meditation Room: A meditation room does not require much in terms of furnishings. The most essential piece of furniture is a comfortable chair that is wide enough for you to curl your legs in. And even with that, a chair is not that necessary. If space is a problem, a cushion can serve in its place instead. A bluetooth speaker or some other device to play music may be necessary. It helps a lot to meditate while listening to soft, instrumental music, or perhaps to record natural sounds like the singing of birds or the sound of the waves or falling rain.
   
   How your meditation room is lighted may affect how well you focus and concentrate in clearing your mind here. The lighting you ought to install in your meditation room is something soft and subtle. Stay away from the harshly glowing fluorescent bulbs when you light your meditation room.
   
   You do not have to decorate the walls. If  you are going to paint the walls a neutral color will work best. You do not need anything that can distract you from your meditation. To set and enhance the mood, however, you can put up shelves where you can place some scented candles or a vase of flowers or perhaps some crystals. A potted plant can help set the mood, too. These are all the decorations you can consider when setting up your meditation room.
   
3. Maintain the Meditation Room: Your meditation room is ideally the one place in your house, if not in the whole world, where you can get away to relax and to clear your mind of anything that is bothering you. The one thing that will defeat this purpose is if you leave clutter in your meditation room.No matter how busy you may be with your daily life, always find the time to keep your meditation room clean and free from clutter. Cleaning your meditation room may be seen as a form of meditation in itself. After all, the reason you have a meditation room is to keep your mind clear and unburdened.

Continuing the Journey

That path to oneness and alignment is your own to navigate. No one can tell you what the right way to meditate is, only offer suggestions on how to get there. It is up to you to find the method that works best. Setting up a meditation space is a great way to help start this journey. It gives you a place to focus your intention and add the needed items to reach that point.

Just remember, all it takes to meditate is you and your breathing. All other trappings are there to help you focus and, ultimately, are not needed. Taking time to slow down, breathe, and let your thoughts go is all that you will need. Were there any new tips, in this article, that you found helpful? If so, let me know in the comments below. Do you have a meditation space set up in your living space? If so, let us know how you have it decked out. Your inspiration and ideas may be just what someone else needs to get their practice going and to becoming a more centered and balanced person.