We can’t control everything that happens to us in life, but as the old saying goes, the only thing we can truly change is our attitude. The mind is a powerful thing, but through centuries-old practices, we can learn to detach ourselves from negative emotions to better deal with personal struggles and grievances. For more than 2,500 years, Buddhist teachings have helped individuals work through loss, fear and anxiety. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of working toward a stable and calm mind, even in troubled times. The benefits of meditation not only help our minds, but also our bodies.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche comes from a long distinguished lineage of Buddhist meditation masters. “Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount,” he explains. To get started, he suggests creating a favorable environment to make it easier to practice. There should be a sacredness about one’s place of meditation. Mindfulness meditation is best undertaken in a place of silence that is not too disturbing. Some people create special alcoves in the home with candles, plants, yoga mats and fountains, where they can be at peace to meditate each day. Others retreat to their gardens, an uplifting place of respite. Another group of people prefer the company of other like-minded individuals at a special meditation center.
In the comfortable place set aside for mindfulness meditation, one should sit upright on a floor cushion or chair. Meditation classes teach us that posture is important to the flow of energy as it courses from the mind down the spine and back up again. Eyes should be open and cast slightly downward, but not staring. “It’s as if you had an overhead light shining over the whole room,” explains Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “and all of a sudden you focus it down right in front of you. You are purposefully ignoring what is going on around you. You are putting the horse of mind in a smaller corral.”
Relaxation meditation can help people who struggle with addiction, compulsiveness, stress, anxiety, depression, jealousy, negativity and anger. “Each meditation session is a journey of discovery to understand the basic truth of who we are,” explains mindfulness meditation instructor Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. “In the beginning the most important lesson of meditation is seeing the speed of the mind. But the meditation tradition says that the mind doesn’t have to be this way; it just hasn’t been worked with. What we are talking about is very practical. Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. And because we are working with the mind that experiences life directly, just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.”
Beth Kaminski is the leading expert in the field of anxiety or panic attacks and cure for anxiety disorders. For more information on tips to stop these attacks as well as treating panic disorder, visit her site today.