How to practice meditation in daily life

When stress chokes us, we are like a mountain surrounded by clouds. To meditate is to allow the wind to clear the sky and reveal its blueness. This poetic metaphor belongs to Marc de Smedt, our guide to the world of meditation.

Mark de Smedt is passionate about spiritual quest, but he doesn’t need to be a religious person to meditate. You can simply “incorporate meditation into your daily practice to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”

This will help us take care of our spirit in the same way we take care of our body: showers for cleanliness, gymnastics for strengthening muscles.

From zen to tantra, from yoga to tai chi, the techniques are varied, but they are all based on the same thing: correct posture or movement, working with the breath, being present in the moment. Here we are only talking about meditation in stillness, which is easy to practice at home.

“This kind of meditation is easier than it seems,” says our expert. “Many deprive themselves of the benefits it brings because they set the bar too high.”

It’s not about suffering two hours a day in the lotus position, but about giving yourself two or three times a week – and in a position that we can endure! – 15 minutes of calm. If you practice meditation regularly, it allows you to improve self-awareness and be more harmoniously present in the world around you.

Therefore, the slogan of this session will be: “Try it.”

Do not try to strictly comply with what we offer you here. Better go find your own path until you find what suits you best.

“The body knows what it needs,” says Marc de Smedt. Let him find the right time and position that he feels grounded in, a breath that allows him to recover. Search. You don’t have to achieve anything, it’s just about being. Here and now.

1. Take the time

It all depends on what you expect from meditation. You can meditate in the morning to start the day better; in the evening to get rid of accumulated tension, or in the middle of the day to replenish energy halfway.

When we understand well the process of meditation, which, in essence, is a return to ourselves and our conscious breathing, we can meditate anywhere, even in the subway or office, and at any time – while eating, preparing it – if we feel that we need to get together.

Ideally, set aside a specific time, such as 10 minutes before breakfast, and try to stick to it. Don’t shorten your sessions when they are difficult for you, and don’t lengthen them when they are more enjoyable. Learning perseverance is part of our task.

2.Create an environment

Try to always meditate in the same place, preferably in silence, sitting facing the wall. Try to avoid anything that can distract your eyes or occupy your thoughts. You can create a more soothing atmosphere by laying out a carpet, lighting a candle or incense.

Choose loose and comfortable clothing that you can always wear for meditation, and don’t forget to take off your shoes. You can also choose quiet music without words to accompany you.

3.Relax your body

Before you begin your meditation, you can take some time to relax. Lie on your back, stretch, yawn. Breathe through your nose with your eyes closed, calmly and deeply. Relax your belly, let it expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale. Be aware of the points where your body touches the floor: heels, calves, buttocks, shoulder blades, back of the head, elbows, palms.

Focus on your toes, imagine how they straighten out, feel their tension, relax them. Do the same for each part of the body, going up along the legs, waist, back to the back of the head, then down from the shoulders to the toes.

Let your joints and muscles relax. Feel yourself floating in space. When you are ready, open your eyes and look at a point on the ceiling. Get up.

Before and after meditation, do “gasho”: put your palms together at face level and bow as a sign of concentration and respect for what you are doing or have just been doing.

4. Choose a pose

In the Buddhist tradition, one usually meditates in the lotus position, or zazen. Sitting on a hard, round zafu cushion, cross your legs, keeping your knees near the floor, your left foot resting on your right thigh and your right foot on your left, soles facing the sky. It was in this position that the Buddha, motionless as a mountain, attained enlightenment.

But do not try to twist into a “lotus” if you do not have enough flexibility for this. Just remember that the posture should give your body what you are striving for on a mental level – stability, directness, openness.

You can also choose a half-lotus, when one foot rests on the shin of the other, a pose of happiness, when the sole of each foot is between the thigh and shin of the other leg, or a blessed pose – the ankles next to the pubis, the soles of the feet are pressed against each other. You can simply kneel down on a zafu or sit on a chair without leaning back and placing both feet on the floor.

In any case, make sure to keep your back straight by arching your lower back slightly, straightening your spine and freeing your solar plexus.

Slightly bring the chin to the neck, relax the shoulders. Place your cupped hands on your belly, in the hara energy zone, three fingers below your navel. The back of the left hand lies in the right palm. The thumbs in a horizontal position are in contact with the tips. Thus, your hands take the form of an egg, a symbol of the origin of life.

After a while, you may feel that your muscles have cramped. Usually, the discomfort goes away on its own as the muscles relax. If it doesn’t go away, change position.

5. Listen to your voice

Thoughts randomly swarm and disperse? To stop this mental process, mantras are used in the yoga tradition. This is the repeated repetition of a sound in an undertone or to oneself (the famous “om”) or sacred words (“Shri Ram, Jaya Ram”).

The mantra is recited on the longest exhalation possible. Its symbolic meaning and the strength of its vibrations help to free the mind and leave a sense of peace in it.

The Zen tradition also includes koans designed to take our intellect off the beaten path. A koan is a paradox or riddle, for example: “The donkey looks down the well, the well looks down the donkey. You don’t have to run.”

But while mantras lead to the dissolution of thought, koans, on the contrary, force the meditator to reach the limit of his thoughts and stumble upon a wall. In both cases, the mind gets a rest from the daily hustle and bustle.

5. Direct your gaze

The eyes are half closed, the gaze is directed to a point at a distance of a meter in front of you, but does not cling to it. Close your eyelids enough to direct your attention inward while remaining connected to the outside world.

At first, if your gaze will often turn to surrounding objects or a light source, it is better to close your eyes completely. If you feel sleepy, open your eyes fully to restore your waking state.

6. Focus on your breath

Breathing is the second foundation of meditation after posture. The Anapana technique, “watching the breath,” requires one to concentrate on the “gate of the nostrils,” the triangular area between the tip of the nose and the upper lip. In this way, you become aware of your breathing and allow it to be as it is, sometimes free, sometimes intermittent, until it slows down and becomes easier.

In Zen meditation, the focus is on exhalation: we try to exhale towards the arms and hara area to overcome our tendency to breathe only from the tops of the lungs. Spreading in the stomach, the breath relieves tension and restores a sense of harmony to us.

By practicing the ability to concentrate on breathing, we can overcome distraction of thoughts. This exercise both calms and teaches our mind to gather and strengthen.

7. Clear your mind

Working with postures and breathing is designed to discipline the body and focus on our mind. One of the most ancient Indian Buddhist techniques, vipassana (“piercing gaze”), aims to rediscover the true nature of our mind beyond illusion. In it, you must allow your thoughts to emerge, without forcing or holding them back, without condemning or approving.

Just watch what appears to you like frames from a movie appearing and disappearing. Let dark thoughts fill your mind and then leave you like pus drains from a wound. Embrace grief, anger, fear, or shame.

Try to learn from them by thinking of an antidote to whatever brings you pain: compassion for hate, joy for grief, and so on. Soak up this feeling. If the exercise is too painful, focus on the breath again until your mind is ready to continue the exploration.