Freestyle Meditation: Tailor Your Peace, Find Your Flow

Embrace meditation in a way that best suits you, breaking free from traditional constraints to explore a path of self-discovery and inner tranquility. Discover the transformative power of Freestyle Meditation, a unique approach that encourages you to tailor your peace and find your personal flow.

In this episode, we introduce the concept of Freestyle Meditation, showcasing how this flexible approach can be adapted to fit anyone's lifestyle and preferences. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or new to the world of meditation, you'll learn how to create a practice that resonates with your individual needs, incorporating elements that speak to you personally. 

From the benefits of mindfulness to the healing power of guided imagery, and the importance of finding your own meditation space, this video offers practical advice and heartfelt insights drawn from personal experiences. 

Discover how meditation can be a ritual that bridges the physical and spiritual worlds, and how starting with just five minutes a day can lead to profound changes in your life.

Join our community and continue your journey to inner peace and self-discovery at https://Kishar.org.

Follow our journey and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kisharspiritual.

For more resources and links, visit our comprehensive page: https://bit.ly/m/Kishar.

#Meditation #Mindfulness #Meditate #HowToMeditate #InnerPeace #SpiritualJourney #SelfDiscovery

Transcript

0:34

It's hard to be in or around the spiritual community without talking about meditation. Today we're going to give you the tools to empower yourself to be good at meditating to started meditating. Think of it as freestyle meditation. It can be whatever works best for you. It might include a little bit of this, a little bit of that. It could be using a specific meditation app. The idea is to demystify the practice of meditation so that you're open to it and ready to receive it so you know that you can do it, but it's that you want to do it and that you actually seek the practice out. Meditation changed my life when I came home after 12 years at war, I was completely lost. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what I was. And I was navigating the swamp of sadness. And my VA therapist introduced me to the concept of mindfulness meditation. She taught me about being present in the moment and that I could stop and take the world in, that I could get to know myself and not just know myself as in, like myself, but like that self with a capital s, that inner self. And I almost teared up a little when I was writing out my thoughts on this video for this part, because what she taught me was this great, powerful thing. And I also want to be fair to all of you and let you know that it wasn't this overnight thing for me. I wasn't healed enough or in a place where I could wrap myself around the practice of mindfulness meditation. When she was teaching it to me, I knew it was this great thing. I knew that it helped me, but it was also something that brought war back to me. And so my past got in the way and my trauma was in the way of kind of fully and embracing it. And I think it's okay to admit that it's okay for you to admit that and say there's things that blocking me from meditating, there's things blocking me from being able to focus like that. And so progress is you're able to progress and remember that this really is a beautiful thing and try and give it a shot. Meditation is a universal practice. It's been something that has been practiced by people worldwide for centuries, probably thousands of years. It transcends cultural, religious and geographical boundaries. And in our tech heavy world, this fast paced world that we live in is probably more important. And it's ever been. And it can serve as this grounding force that, keeps you centered. You can see personal transformation through this stillness. It offers this pathway to personal growth, self-discovery, and allows you to kind of explore the depths of your inner self with the power meditation. You can cultivate this peace and resilience. You can even discover a deeper sense of purpose. You might even touch on what your higher purpose or your Dharma in life is as you go through the practice of meditation. And meditation is accessible to anyone. You don't need special equipment and you don't need a specific location. You can do it regardless of your lifestyle or your resources, and you should be encouraged and know that all you need is a willingness to pursue a turn to the inward to what's inside of you. And you should know the benefits of meditation and that they span the mind, body and soul. It's like this holistic thing that reduces stress and improves your mental clarity. You have better emotional well-being and you have a stronger connection with both the things around you and those things inside of you. And even science shows us that there's health benefits to regular meditation and regular practice. Harvard even tells us that 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation in a day can change the actual neuroplasticity of your brain in a physiological sense. So you can actually see a direct response to this meditation, working. meditation isn't a destination. And as in almost everything, it's a journey. You know, we talk about life being a journey, but the journey is the whole point. The things that you see and experience along the way in meditation are themselves this pathway to deeper awareness and understanding trying to approach meditation with curiosity and openness. Your experience is going to be unique to you. It's going to be very personal and it's not going to be something that, you know, everyone experiences. So just be open to the fact that, hey, when I do this, it's going to be something that is deeply meaningful to me, but it might look different than it looked for this person over here. Before we move on, please subscribe by hitting the watermark in the lower right hand corner of this video. And if you think this video might help out your friends or family, please share it out with them Meditation is a type of ritual and ritual. Is this this maybe intimidating word and maybe you think, man, that's like dogmatic, that's religious. But all ritual is is this simple thing that acts as a bridge between our concrete real world and the spiritual world on the other side. So it's this thing that takes you to a place that you want to go, or maybe a place that you need to go, and rituals or habits and routines. It's something that is built for a consistent practice in your life. And so when you think about creating habits and routines, it can be this difficult thing. We you know, we know that We have a video on a subject of creating habits, and we're going to put that in the upper right hand corner of this video. You'll usually see more success when you're starting a new habit. If you replace one of your current bad habits with that new habit. And if you can stop for a minute and think about where you might remove something in your life, where it's not something that that helps you out in back is probably hurting you. And that's where you can plug in a new healthy habit or a new practice that you want to work on. Think of this as the do it your way philosophy. Take things that you learn from here and other resources on meditation that you may find and just go out and do it. You just have to find a way to start. And we have a good video on getting started taking that first step is a big deal. And remember, this is not it's not what you can do because you're really capable of doing almost anything. But think of it like, what will I do? So it's not what can I do? Because we may or may not do those things that we can do. What will we do? What are we willing to do to make a change in our life? And so that question, you kind of have to get an answer to that before you proceed. So it's one of those things you want to stop and think about. And maybe at first you just commit to 5 minutes a day for a full week and just do that and say, I'm going to meditate 5 minutes a day for a week. and if that didn't work, send me a message and we'll talk about it. You can do me on Instagram or shoot me an email. I'd like to help you out. So what does doing it your way look like? first find a quiet place. for some people, they might be able to meditate in places that aren’t so quiet. That's cool. Just find out where your place is and tell yourself, This is my meditation place. Make sure it's comfortable. I can't emphasize that one enough. You don't want to just be comfortable. You want to be at a place where you're not distracted, and so do whatever you need to do to remove distractions from this place. You can put your phone in the room, make sure there's no access to a television, or that television is off with the remote away from you. Figure out what feels right for you. For many of you find a space is going to be find a spot in your house, maybe your workplace. You're trying to meditate at work, and for some it's going to be tucked away, maybe even in a cozy place. Sometimes I go back into my closet and just sit in my closet, meditate, and for some of you, it might be a hike or a walk out in green space. It could be a forest or a park or next to a lake, places where we feel very connected to nature and kind of that oneness of everything. And then once we're prepared and say, okay, here's where I'm going to meditate, and we have to think about, okay, what's going to get in my way. You know, one of the things that can help set us up for success is figuring out things that will get in our way and being ready for them. And so I want to prepare you for several things that might get in your way as you start this process. And this is stuff that people kind of experience when they first start meditating. So this is common stuff and a lot of these roadblocks keep people from getting into it. So maybe someone starts and one of these roadblocks hit someone. They're like, Man, I can't do this. Or, you know, meditation is not for me. And they never kind of get to experience that better part of it because they never get past the initial phase. People talk about struggling with focus. You might find it hard to keep your mind from wondering and staying focused on the meditative practice. You could get frustrated with maybe a constant stream of thoughts and you can't like achieve this spot where you have this quiet mind. So my recommendation to you, if this happens is just don't fight it. Let yourself know it's okay that this happens. And so remove the resistance to those thoughts and let them happen and then gently bring yourself back to that focus. And that might not be an overnight thing and it might be something that takes several sessions to kind of work out. And that's okay. Just make sure you don't think that you will find all the success that you want or need overnight or immediately. There's also the idea that people have a hard time finding time and being consistent. We're all busy. You know, we have stuff that happens, life happens. But if you stop and think about it, we have more time than we think. And so just try and slow things down and see where you can visualize this meditative practice fitting into your life. Like literally stop and think, okay, here's my day, here's my week. Where does meditation fit in? And your motivation to do this may be strong at first. So maybe you're watching this right now and you're thinking, Man, I'm going to go meditate and make this happen. And then tomorrow something comes up or you don't feel the energy to start. So how do you find a way to remind yourself of why you wanted to do it in the first place? Tell yourself the benefits that come along with meditating. So I think there's an awareness and an intention that you have to have in order to kind of carry through with this. You kind of have to know why you're doing it and know that's going to lead to positive outcomes. And, you know, remind yourself of that. You might feel physical discomfort or restlessness while sitting in certain postures. So finding a position that works best for you, it doesn't have to be that traditional, cross-legged, you know, sitting straight up thing. it can be any position that works for you and you're just looking to to kind of get rid of any physical or mental resistance as you're as you're doing this. And if you're a bit restless, maybe just accept that and see if it goes away after a while. Don't not meditate because you tell yourself, I can't stop being restless and remember that again, some of this stuff's going to take a few sessions. So don't let one session define what you think. Meditation is forever, and it's a fluid and flexible practice. It's this living thing. So if you meditate a certain way and doesn't work, you're like, Man, I want to try it again. You do it again and does it work? Don't say, this isn't for me. I can't do it at all. Just change the way that you do it. Change the place that you're meditating, change the position that you're meditating and change how you're meditating. The type of meditation that you're doing. Look at all these different variables and say, Let me change it up and see what works best for me. Because again, it's this freestyle meditation. You're figuring out what works for me, what will I do, what am I comfortable doing, and all that's going to really help you get into the practice and, you know, give yourself a more peaceful life, a more calm life. And that takes us into what are your expectations for this and what outcomes do you think that you're going to see versus the reality when you start? So try to come in to the practice with fewer expectations in an open mind and then know that what others experience is not necessarily what you experience and kind of take notice about how it is changing you. Okay, I meditated in this happened, okay, and I meditated and that happened. I didn't like that. I did like this. And so maybe you can write that down. You might do journaling while you're meditating so that you're kind of taking records of all this stuff and you're able to kind of read it out to yourself, but look for incremental change and see the results that come along as you explore what works and what doesn't. And don't try and do too much at once from our practice. Make sure that it makes sense and that it's doable. You know, don't essentially bite off more than you can chew. One of the most important things to bring up here is that you should be prepared for emotional discomfort and consider how that's going to impact you when we're on this journey meditation and we're on the spiritual path, things can happen when the world gets quiet. Earlier I told you that one of the reasons I had a hard time meditating is because what we come back to me and my trauma will come back to me. And that's okay. So just know that we see things when it gets quiet and we start to see things that may have otherwise been drowned out by noise. And we're not talking about just noise, you know, real noise out in the world, this acoustic stuff that you hear. But we're talking about in the background noise, like your digital devices and all your relationships and finances and your job and that internal noise of your mind, that kind of races. And you're like, I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking about what happened yesterday. I'm thinking about what's going to happen tomorrow and all this noise happens. So when you sit down, you start to meditate, that noise starts to go away. And and then the absence of that noise, you may start to see things or hear things or feel things through all of your senses that you haven't heard in a while, or that you weren't necessarily prepared for. So prepare yourself for that and then it will be less surprising. Expect the unexpected and and know that you're going to, find some things, see some things, hear some things, and experience some things that are emotions or memories that you, you weren't necessarily aware have been there for a while. And think about how this might lead to your avoidance of meditation. So, okay, I'm not going to meditate cause I don't want that to happen. That's okay. You know, there's plenty of people out here that can't meditate because they've got stuff going on in their head or they've got stuff going on from the past. And maybe you need to seek out a support professional to help you through that. Or maybe you can work through that and still meditate. Really, that's going to be a personal decision for you. It's your own experience and so just keep it in mind. But if you want to meditate, don't let that stop. You. Be prepared for it. And that includes being prepared to feel vulnerable and emotionally exposed when you're trying to meditate, especially in the earlier stages of the practice, I think people would tell you that have a lot of experience with meditation, that that's not necessarily this uncommon thing that people have to do. We all have to kind of get over that, and that's okay. Some struggle with drowsiness, falling asleep during meditation. You might find it hard to meditate at certain times of the day due to dips in energy. And so plan around that and know that it's okay to fall asleep during meditation. I've fallen asleep during meditation. I know a lot of other people that have fallen asleep during meditation. And also think about if you're falling asleep while you're meditating that you might not be getting enough sleep each night. And I just want to tell everyone here that getting consistent sleep at fairly consistent times each day and night is really important to your overall health. So I just want to make a note of that. So be healthy out there, guys. through all these challenges that you might face. As you begin to meditate, you're going to figure out where your own balance is. And so to do what's natural for you and do what works Now, we've gone through all this. You might be asking, okay, so how exactly do I meditate? And this is a huge subject and I'm doing my best to get through it for you guys and let me load you up with a few types of meditation that you might like. The first is guided meditation, and I'm strongly recommending this for beginners. It's nice to have someone walk you through the process and you just have to tune in, follow some gentle instructions or prompts. sometimes it's just via audio cues, and sometimes it's also a visual component where you can kind of get fully immersed in that guided meditation. Both can help set the mood and really puts you in this relaxed and open state. Mindfulness meditation is the super popular meditation these days, and it's one of the healthiest types of meditation that you can do. Is this practice where you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and the things that you're feeling in the moment around you? And you do it without any interpretation or judgment. And I really found mindfulness meditation. It really sticks with you even after you stop meditating. So it kind of moves from that practice of meditating each day and it starts to move into being part of you and the things that you see and experience in the real world around you every day. And so it's really cool to have this thing move with you as you're going through your day to day breathing. Meditation concentrates slow, deep and consistent breaths to calm the mind and reduce stress. It's really a simple practice. It can be done anywhere. It's easy to learn. For the most part, this is more complicated breathing exercises, but it's it's ideal for beginners to start with breathing meditation and it really calm you down. progressive relaxation is also known as body scan meditation. You slowly relax each muscle group in the body and you keep moving up or down throughout the body and relaxing all your muscles. And it reduces physical tension and it can really promote a sense of calm and ease within you. Walking meditation combines meditation with the act of walking. It helps you focus on the sensation of walking, and it can be a good way to integrate any of the meditations that we're talking about into a more active lifestyle. And it's a great way to put yourself in green space, which is proven to have these great health benefits for you. And there's so many more that you could try out that I'm not going to list right now. It's just a huge list. Personally, I do mindfulness meditation. Like I said, sometimes I'll just go in my closet and do my pillows, meditation. You can even do bathing meditation. You can grab a bath pillow, maybe some candles, turn the lights off in the bathroom and throw in a bath bomb and just chill in the bathtub. And I find this a great way to meditate and to really call myself down and kind of center me and make myself more grounded is this awesome thing. there are tools to help you look for things that put you in the flow where you can feel the vibe, things that speak to your senses and help you see yourself. So essential oils and aromatherapy can help you calm down. Candles can set this peaceful scene for you. Incense can help help you get in the right headspace. And for a lot of people, music, vibration, singing bowls, epic music can be key to finding a more meditative experience if sometimes it's just embracing the emotion and drama and flow of life in a very meditative way. And it's about that question that you could ask yourself, How do I connect with myself? And for some it could be practicing art and bringing out creativity that might get you in a more meditative state. And any of these things can be combined with all these other things that we discussed today. Create your own experience, and there's mobile apps that can help you meditate, like Insight Timer, and you have tons of different options. If you do something like Inside Time, right? It has a guided meditations and it has all kinds of other meditations. It you know, you can walk through and it doesn't have to be a lonely practice. The practice itself is often going to be done alone. There are group meditations, but it also might help to discuss your spiritual path and journey with other people. See what works for them when they started meditating, maybe they can work with you and help you stay dedicated to that new practice that you want to do. Our community at Kishar.org has people who meditate and help one another. We offer instruction on how to meditate and we have daily meditation prompts. We even have guided meditations that are prerecorded, but just know that meditation empowers you to navigate life's challenges. You'll have this sense of calm and this centeredness when you face adversity. We all face adversity, and you can develop, enhance decision making. You'll be more creative, you'll have better emotional intelligence, and you're going to be less reactive to things. Think about how amazing that would be. I'm going to calm down and suddenly when things happen out there, I'm just going to stop for a second and not do anything. I'm not going to react immediately. And suddenly that's this this peaceful, calming thing for you. And don't worry about doing it wrong. There isn't really such a thing as a wrong meditation. And I had meditation music on while I was typing up my thoughts for this video that I'm doing right now. And I had my phone in a different room and I set myself up for success and there's something even meditative about that. So what do you all do to meditate and how do you get started? How do you how do you see yourself starting to meditate and what do you think will work for you? Let me know in the comments and I will absolutely respond to you please like this video. If you want us to keep making content just like this and until next time, I wish you peace on your journey.