Finding Your Favorite Meditation Practice
Cassie Shortsleeve writes, “At times, meditation seems like a practice for someone else. While the benefits are clear — research has shown that monks who meditate for thousands of hours alter the structure of their brains and significantly decrease emotionally reactive behavior — it’s easy to think: “How nice for them, but who has that kind of time?”
Well, arguably, all of us need to. Last year Harvard research found that even those who had never meditated a day in their life saw benefits in five different regions of the brain from just 30 minutes of practice per day, over the course of eight weeks. And the payoffs are huge, meditation has been shown to relieve pain, lower levels of stress and anxiety, and boost brainpower.
Bringing some calm to your day doesn’t need to feel foreign, or far-fetched, or involve awakening your chakras. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a leading Buddhist teacher, and author of the new book Emotional Rescue, explains that the Tibetan word for meditation literally means ‘familiarization’: “Meditation is really just getting to know your own mind.”
