Tools to strengthen your meditation muscles

Meditation skills can be developed and improved upon without formal meditation practice. That’s right, you don’t need to repeat the mantra “Om Namah Shiva Ya” (X108) times a day. Well, not if you really don’t want to.

Of course, there are many benefits to formal meditation training. 🧘 But this requires commitment to regular practice.

Tools to sharpen your mind

There are many tools you can use to sharpen your mind that don’t require a lot of effort to get started. Below are five ways you can learn to strengthen your mind and soothe your soul.

These tools don’t take you long and can supplement a formal meditation practice or be used independently in their own right.

Guided meditation

Guided meditation involves being aware of mental images, or situations you find relaxing or therapeutic. You train your senses as much as possible: such as smells, sights, sounds and textures.

You would normally be led through this by a Youtube video or audio recording.

Focus on the breath

This is one of the most common approaches to meditation. In general, the easiest way to begin meditating is by focusing on the rising and falling of the breath. 🫁

And because your always breathing, it can be done anywhere at any time. For example, waiting in a queue at the supermarket or when you have a break at work.

This could also be turned into a formal meditation practice by setting a time and place to meditate. 🕰 🧘‍♀️

Body awareness meditation

The goal is to cultivate awareness into the body. Body awareness anchors your attention in your inner energy body.

And this moves your attention away from your thinking mind. 💭🤔 Your thoughts are repetitive and drain your vital force.

The key is to hold your attention in your hands 🙌 for a period of time, before doing the same with your feet, back, shoulders, head etc.

This slowly withdraws energy away from thinking and into the inner energy body.

Mantra-based meditation

Mantra-based meditations are typically words, phrases, or phonemes repeated. Take for example, the mantra: “Arut Parum Jyoti” which Yogi’s say strengthens the mind and body.

The “Arut Parum Jyoti” mantra is a way to access Divine grace, light and compassion. It is a calming chant to access limitless energy and intelligence.

Furthermore, you can turn this meditation into a visualisation. Shut your eyes and visualise white light coming down from the top of your head and pervading every cell of your body.

You can chant the mantra or listen to an audio recording on YouTube. Check out Dr Pillai chanting the mantra.