Lisa Shea - Five Minute Meditation: Mindfulness, Stress Relief, and Focus for Absolute Beginners

Table of Contents

Five Minute Meditation

Mindfulness,

Stress Relief,

and Focus

for Absolute Beginners

Lisa Shea

Content copyright 2015 by

Lisa Shea / Minerva Webworks LLC

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

~ v6 ~

Kindle ASIN: B00VP90YEC

SmashWords ISBN: 9781311367211

Note: I am not a doctor. Please always consult with your medical doctor before embarking on any substantial change in routine. Always listen to your body and stop if you feel any pain or discomfort.

INTRODUCTION

Meditation. Study after study trumpets how life-changing meditation can be for quarterbacks, CEOs, frazzled moms, time-burdened students, and everyone else in between. TV documentaries cover how meditation helps slow Alzheimers, reduce anxiety, ward off colds, and increase focus.

But who has time for it?

And, if we do carve out the time, who can keep their mind from leaping around like a playful monkey?

I am here to help.

My name is Lisa and Ive been meditating since I was a teenager. I know how hard it can be to concentrate. Even people who have been meditating for years still run into challenges with a monkey mind - a mind which gambols and leaps, which is easily distracted by the stresses of the day and the to-dos for tomorrow. I know the hurdles - and I know solutions which can get you through them.

I also know the vast number of rewards youll reap even just with five minutes a day. Five tiny minutes. Thats probably the time you wait for a microwave to heat up a snack or TV commercials to run their course.

Five little minutes.

If, over time, you can expand to more than five minutes, the results multiply. Your life changes.

Lets get started!

Note: The ebook version of this content should be free on all systems, to help bring meditation to all corners of the world. If your purchase required a payment, that will be donated to battered womens shelters.

MEDITATION BASICS

I could easily write an entire full-length book simply on what is meditation - its background, history, and many styles. Meditation means a thousand different things in a thousand different ways of life. However, you want something quick! So lets summarize.

Meditation, for our purposes, is a practice of stilling the mind. There is a wealth of ways cultures have worked to do this, for a variety of purposes. For our efforts, we are going to strive to gently be aware of our thoughts. Our aim is to learn to see our thoughts as they are, accept them, and let them move on. We strive to learn not to attach emotion or attention to those thoughts.

The more we can train our mind to focus, and to not be distracted by the normal electrical storm that happens in our brain, the more we can then use that same strength in our daily life. We can be strong in the face of random inputs around us. We can choose to focus our energies on whatever we care about at a given moment.

So thats our goal here. We will learn how to cope with / ignore / let go the troubling and distracting thoughts that tend to arise. We will train our mind to focus on whatever it is we wish to focus on at a given moment.

Training our mind in meditation is just like a quarterback practicing long-distance throws or a basketball player practicing free throws. Its like a pianist practicing songs. That practice helps the brain be ready for when its needed.

BUT ... BUT ...

I dont have time!

Five minutes! Its just five minutes. Everyone has five minutes somewhere in their day. Even the busiest person. And investing that five minutes then makes the entire rest of your day go more smoothly. You could easily gain back ten minutes ... or twenty minutes ... because all the other activities that you tackle throughout the day go that much easier. Its like oiling a cars engine before taking it out for a long drive. The oil will help the engine run smoothly so that it saves gas all day long.

I dont know what to do!

Im here to help. Ill give you the guidelines. If you get stuck, you can post on one of my sites and Ill lend a hand. And, in the end, its only five minutes. Just make it through the five minutes. Thats all that matters. Your trying for five minutes is the key. It might be hard the first day. And the second. But as you keep at it, itll get easier and easier. Youll get the hang of it. Its like most other things in life. Showing up is half the battle.

My brain is too scatt ... ooh! shiny!

I know many people who are easily distracted. They find that lack of focus causes them all sorts of challenges in life. Meditation helps them focus when they need that focus. There are times in life when its important to stay on track. Meditation is the key to achieving that goal. The key here is to hang in there. Yes, you have monkey brain! So does half the planet. All of us have random thoughts in our brains. Thats what brains do. You can - step by tiny step - learn how to let those sparkly thoughts drift on by. And the more you practice this, the better it will get in your daily life as well.

I just cant hold any routine

The things we tell ourselves have power. They trap us in ruts. I would have to guess that even people who feel completely routine-less still have some things they do. They go to sleep, eventually. They wake up. They eat food. They drink liquids. They use the bathroom. All you need to do is attach five minutes to one of those activities. Set your alarm for five minutes earlier and meditate in bed for five minutes. When you climb into bed, invest five minutes in meditating before you fall asleep. Heck, it could help you to fall asleep more easily.

My thoughts upset me

Let me first say, again, that you should talk with a doctor or medical person before undertaking a change, especially if you are having emotional challenges. This process is aimed at helping you be healthier and happier. So, with that being said, the reason most thoughts have power is that they are being suppressed or reinforced. For example, think back to your childhood. There are probably some images that stand out strongly. For each strong memory, there are probably thousands of other events that happened that you cant remember at all. Our brain is like that. Events can be strong or weak and its all about how our brain interprets them.

Think of it. That means that a thought that is strongly bothering you could simply be gone in the mists of time, if you simply release the energy you invest in it. It could fade into the background of your mind. Other thoughts - other happy, serene, joyful moments - could be the ones your brain settles on.

So a key here is to be patient. Trust in the process. Thoughts will come - and you will learn how to let them go. You will learn how to let them drift on by like a floating cloud, to become lost again in the vast, blissful sky of your mind.

PREPARING FOR MEDITATION

Youve probably seen serious meditators in TV shows or movies. They have just the right embroidered silk pillow to sit on, in vibrant violet. They wear the perfect combination of ebony leggings and jewel-toned top with a perfect silk-screened emblem on it. They fold themselves into an origami shape and settle into ultimate bliss.

Ignore that.

Your purpose here is to train your mind. It doesnt matter what you wear, as long as its comfortable. It doesnt matter where you sit. If you need to sit in a chair for health reasons, do it! If you have to lie down in bed, go for it. Sure, there are pros and cons of these choices. Youre more likely to fall asleep if youre lying down. You might be less comfortable if you sit cross-legged in tight, designer jeans. Thats why, over time, many meditators close in on similar choices of loose clothing and a raised, soft surface to sit on. But it is wholly up to you.