Adam ONeill - Meditation for Relaxation: 60 Meditative Practices to Reduce Stress, Cultivate Calm, and Improve Sleep

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ISBN: Print 978-1-64152-395-0 | eBook 978-1-64152-396-7

Contents

Welcome to Meditation for Relaxation. This book can change your life, if you let it. Thats not hyperbole. Meditation has been around for thousands of years, and its benefits have been documented, studied, and researched for half a century. The teachings of ancient Hindu and Buddhist texts and the many recent rigorous research studies agree: Meditation can improve your quality of life.

Although meditation has religious roots, the practice of meditation is not inherently religious, and it will not conflict with your faith or beliefs (or lack thereof). If you are new to this practice, think of it like this: As much as we rely on them for the amazing things we do and fascinating lives we lead, our minds also tend to control us. Our minds manage, often poorly, how we experience and react to the world. Chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and the myriad side effects of those conditions, including sleep deprivation, are often exacerbated by the ruminations, fantasies, and obsessions of our minds. Meditation lets us take some space from these thoughts and fixations in order to find more peace, clarity, awareness, and calm.

Meditation has been a part of my life since before I was born. My mother is a certified yoga teacher who has been teaching yoga and meditation for more than 40 years. She meditated and practiced prenatal yoga when she was pregnant with me. My mom practiced yoga, chanted, and talked about yogic philosophy and the benefits of meditation so frequently that my brother and I groaned and grumbled. To her credit, she never imposed her yoga or meditation practices on us, though she did encourage us to try them. When I was a high school and college athlete, Mom always told me to use the breath, her shorthand for tuning in to the present moment, to improve my mental preparation, focus, and performance. Despite her influence, I didnt find my own authentic connection to yoga or meditation until I was in my midtwenties.

At the time I was doing physical therapy for sciatica related to a back injury. At the beginning of a session, the physical therapist asked me to do a stretch I immediately recognized as a yoga pose. The therapist asked me to do another, and then another, each position nearly identical to the yoga poses with which Id grown up. These stretches were a revelation: Had I been doing them all along, they probably would have given me the flexibility, strength, and body awareness to have avoided my injury. If only Id listened to you, Mom!

In the following six months I thought a lot about why I hadnt practiced yoga and meditation. I thought about my brother, my dad, my uncles, friends, and teammatesall of the men in my life who could greatly benefit from yoga and meditation, but who would likely never try them. It eventually occurred to me that the word yoga as it was used in mainstream culture was not fully resonating with men. A lightbulb went on. In the 12 years since, yoga and meditation have become the primary focus of my professional life. Along with my cofounder Robert Sidoti, Ive been committed to making yoga more appealing and accessible to populations worldwide (not just men) with our company YFM: Yoga. Fitness. Mindfulness., where we offer video-streaming content via our website YFM.tv as well as our popular Broga (yoga for bros) classes. The best part of my job? Hearing from our members about the profound impact yoga and meditation have had on their lives.

One of the most powerful revelations meditation can bring you, and the one I hope to share with you here, is that you do not have to feel as stressed, anxious, worried, or exhausted as you do. As you engage with the practices in this book, youll develop a healthier relationship with your thoughts. By detaching from your thoughts, youll begin to let go of the obsessions and worries that often bog you down and stress you out. You may see shifts in how you go about your day, resulting in reduced stress. After practicing meditation for several consecutive days, or weeks, you may feel improvements in your general state of mind, including greater calm, freedom, control, and better-quality sleep.

I know meditation can feel a little awkward, uncomfortable, and challenging at first. This is totally normal and understandable. I share some tips to help reduce friction as you get started, but here is the number one secret: You simply have to give yourself the time to meditate. Make time for it, commit to the practices, and everything else will follow.

Lets get started.

Before we dive into the practice, lets take a moment to understand meditation and its proven benefits for relaxation, stress reduction, and sleep. I encourage you to spend some time with this section. In it, youll find important context, tips for getting the most out of this book, and the essential core principles of meditation. Without this foundational understanding, you may find the meditation practices frustrating or confusing, and thats the last thing I want. Having a basic comprehension of the simple principles of meditation will only make the practices and your experience more rewarding.