I was going to make only one video about meditation,
but when I stopped to think about
what I wanted to say, I realized
that there were many things to say, so I've
decided to make a series of videos about
meditation and the first one will
be: Why meditate?
Well, if you're like me, you
need to understand the why of things
before you start doing them, so
first, I'll explain the reason why
I meditate and why I think
you should too.
Everything has to do with
our monkey mind or "mente macaca."
And what does that mean?
We have 50 thousand thoughts every day
so, the monkey mind is an analogy for
what our mind does
all day long; that is, jumping from branch to
branch, or rather, from thought to thought.
Sometimes our mind is
so active that we can be extremely
tired, physically, but even so,
we can't sleep at night
because our mind doesn't stop. The crazy thing is
that we tend to be ruminating about the
past and/or planning the future too much,
so we end up not being able to
totally concentrate on the present. And in
some more serious cases, when our
mind is too stuck in the past,
that can lead to certain diseases, such as
depression, and on the other side, when
we are too stuck in the future,
that can lead to anxiety. And meditation
is a way to bring our mind to
the present, calming it.
Well, I started to meditate about 2 years
ago when I started having anxiety
attacks. I also had some
panic attacks and I was
having anaphylactic attacks which are very serious
allergy attacks. I still have allergy attacks, but
they are way less frequent and way
less serious.
And the worst thing is that the doctors
couldn't find the source
of the allergies, so I started getting more
desperate because I really
wanted to know what was causing
those allergies and they couldn't find it and
I had no diagnosis, so that was
increasing my anxiety even more,
one thing was feeding the other.
So, the breathing exercises and
meditation helped me a lot with the
anxiety and also, in terms of the
allergies, they helped me to accept a little
better the fact that maybe I'll never
find a cause for those allergies,
so the breathing exercises and meditation
helped me to feel more in
peace with myself,
even with all that was happening with me.
I think that maybe most
people (in the West) start meditating when
they are going through
difficult times, but meditation is not
only for relaxation.
The daily practice of meditation
also increases concentration and focus
and some people also use it
as a spiritual practice.
I think it's important to say that
a meditation is not
beneficial for you only when
you're actually meditating. So, for
instance, if you meditate for 10 minutes
every day, you're not going to be relaxed
only for those ten minutes, the
benefits of meditation extend to
your whole life and your entire day.
Some examples of the benefits of meditation are
that you become less reactive to
provocations, your patience increases,
you have more concentration,
so it's very good, for instance, when you're studying
because you're able to concentrate more,
you pay more attention to what you
are eating, so it's also a
good thing to do when you're on a diet
and there are many more great side
effects that appear in other
situations and not only in those
minutes you're actually meditating.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed
this first video about
meditation and that you feel
encouraged to start
meditating or to continue meditating. In the
next video of this series, I'll
talk a little bit about the different
types of meditation,
so...that video is probably going to take a little
while to be live, but stay tuned. And
if you liked this video, leave a
thumbs-up, subscribe to this channel and also
leave a comment below telling
me if you have meditated before.
Thank you for your time and attention and...
kisses! :)