Now You Can Gauge Your Meditation – Brainwave Monitoring Devices

I received an email recently from one of my readers inquiring about methods to monitor mental activity. This prompted me to create a post on brainwave monitoring devices. Having personally tried a few of these gadgets, I can attest to the fact that current technology allows us to closely track our brain states, particularly during meditation sessions. This enables us to gauge the effectiveness of our meditation practices.

I recall a time when I used to read about costly devices capable of measuring the level of mental activity, whether one’s mind was busy or relaxed. Being deeply interested in spiritual pursuits, I often wished for a tool like this to assess the efficacy of my meditation and relaxation techniques.

This is a common concern among individuals engaged in meditation or mindfulness practices: the need to ascertain if they are following the correct approach. Traditionally, there has been a singular method to gauge the effectiveness of one’s meditation: ensuring that the number of thoughts during the practice is fewer than what one typically experiences in everyday life. It’s a straightforward criterion for evaluation.

Nevertheless, a challenge arises from the heightened state of awareness during meditation. In this heightened state, individuals become conscious enough to observe the frequency at which thoughts arise. Paradoxically, it may seem as though the “monkey mind” is even more active during meditation, primarily because one is not typically aware of how restless the mind can be in everyday circumstances. Due to this reason, people start to get discouraged that they are not meditating properly or they begin to think that meditation is working counterproductively for them. Continue reading

Understanding the Alpha State of Mind for Better Meditation

Knowing the alpha state of mind and being able to detect what this specific brainwave state feels like can help you in a myriad of ways if you are interested in meditation. The knowledge about your brainwave patterns allows you to harness the true potential of your mind because the changes in your brain activity result in a corresponding impact on various different qualities of your mind.

To achieve an optimal meditation experience, you need to have both relaxation as well as heightened focus. This is where aiming for the alpha level of brainwave patterns becomes pivotal, as it enhances the key qualities of your mind that are necessary for a successful meditation session.

We enter this state unknowingly at various times during the day, it is not something that we can achieve only by using a special technique or audio tools, a lot of brainwave entrainment audios are now being promoted by using the promise of helping people reach the alpha level of minds. I am not saying those audio tracks don’t work(I am not in much favor of the binaural beats though) but what I want you to understand is that this state is not new to us, even when we are immersed in a pleasant peaceful music or thoughts of a beautiful vacation our brain generates alpha brainwaves. That’s why I am now going to talk about this mental state in detail so that you will be able to have a better idea about what I am trying to tell you here. Continue reading

6 Physical Health Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation Practice

People are well aware of the psychological benefits of present moment awareness but do you know there are numerous scientifically proven physical health benefits of mindfulness meditation as well?

Thousands of research works have shown how being mindful can be helpful for your mental and physical well-being. A lot of people are now making this meditation a part of their lives due to the positive results they have seen by practicing this method regularly.

I have written numerous posts on mindfulness practices, I have been encouraging people for a long time to do this meditation because it is simple, and practicing present-moment awareness has improved my life in various ways.

One crucial thing that we all need to understand is that our mind and body are connected, all our bodily functions are controlled by our subconscious mind, so when you start to do something that gives you inner peace it gets reflected in your body.

Ancient spiritual knowledge has always focused on how a person’s energy is responsible for various physical symptoms in their body, our body even stores various memories and emotional traumas, this is why hypnotherapy is now widely used to treat various past emotional issues of a person, doing this may also solve many other health problems that a person might be having.

These talks can be difficult to understand for people who have a strong logical mind but when we talk about the things that have been proven by science it becomes acceptable to everyone, that’s why in this post I am going to enlist some health benefits of mindfulness meditation that are based on various studies. But before that, let me give you a brief overview of this method. Continue reading

Is the Pineal Gland Really the “Seat of the Soul”?

Some spiritual teachers and philosophers have focused on the importance of the pineal gland, and many people have written a lot of things about the spiritual relevance of the pineal gland and it is also believed to be the third eye by a lot of people.

Renee Descartes has known to have called this particular gland the seat of the soul whereas many people believe that the activation of the pineal gland using some techniques can help a person to achieve certain qualities. In this post, I will be talking about this subject from my perspective which has formed from the knowledge I have gained from various sources.

It will not be fair to discard the significance of the pineal gland in one’s mental health because this gland produces melatonin which is a hormone that plays a vital role in regulating the sleep cycles of an individual. Apart from the production of melatonin and the importance of this gland in regulating sleep cycles, all other claims are based on speculations. Continue reading

How to Quiet Your Mind During a Meditation Session?

If you are trying to find some effective tips or ways to quiet your mind during a meditation session then you have landed at the right place. It does not matter if you are new to meditation or have been meditating for a long time, this can happen to anyone. Although beginners are most commonly troubled by this problem that their mind keeps jumping from one thought to another frequently, even those who have been meditating for years can face this problem depending on their life situation and emotional health.

No matter what meditation you prefer, if you find yourself getting lost in random thoughts frequently then any form of meditation will not be providing you with good results which can be very frustrating because the very reason we sit to meditate is to achieve serenity.

What you need to understand if this is happening to you is that not being able to focus properly while meditating is not a big problem and this does not mean that you cannot meditate, the mind chatter that takes up all your attention when you are trying to concentrate is a part and parcel of our spiritual journey.

Here I will be sharing with you a few tips that will greatly help you to stop your mind from wandering when you sit to meditate, the points that I am going to enlist below will help you make gradual progress with your meditation practice, and these meditation tips will also motivate to stay consistent with your efforts, that’s why I request you to come back to reading this post whenever you feel you are going off track. Continue reading

Why Do I Fall Asleep While Meditating?

This is a common question among begginers, but even if you have been meditating for a long time, falling asleep during meditation is something that can happen to you also. In this post, we will be looking at the reasons why you might be falling asleep while meditating.

Some people fall asleep during meditation, some fall asleep after meditation whereas many others are meditating to get better nights of sleep. We all are wired differently and we all face unique problems in all areas of our life, this holds true when it comes to meditation also.

However falling asleep while meditating is so common that I have seen a hall full of people snoring after a meditation session I was enrolled in, most of them were meditating for the first time but I know that this can happen to anyone so there is really nothing to worry about.

I have seen people quit meditation and some of them use this as an excuse to not meditate, they say “meditation is not for me, I can’t meditate because I feel sleepy when I try to sit in silence” but that’s not true, meditation is for everyone (one of the psychology today article has enlisted more than 20 reasons why you should start meditating today) and it is perfectly alright to fall asleep during meditation, in fact, there are many reasons why this might be happening to you and that’s why we will be looking at various causes which might be why you are not able to complete your meditation as you might be either asleep halfway down the session or you are just trying to stay awake throughout the session. Continue reading

3 Best Lucid Dreaming Techniques

In this post, I will be talking about the best lucid dreaming techniques that you can use to get good results as a beginner or you can also include these techniques for having frequent lucid dreams if you are already experienced as a conscious dreamer. These 3 techniques are most used by lucid dreaming experts because they have found that primarily only these methods are highly effective in inducing lucid dreams whereas many also prefer to combine these 3 basic techniques with many other processes to get customized results.

Most of the methods you will ever get to learn related to lucid dreaming are different versions of these 3 basic methods, people make slight changes to these 3 techniques and give them new names but as a lucid dreamer you should know that the basic methods from which the other techniques have evolved are always the best.

Although I have written about the techniques that I am going to provide you here individually in different posts, here I will be giving you a brief introduction to those methods and you can explore those methods by navigating to the posts in which I have talked extensively on each of the methods. Continue reading

Root Chakra and Manifestation of Wealth

You might have heard it already or you might be hearing it for the first time but there is a very strong connection between the root chakra and the manifestation of wealth in a person’s life. The root chakra is not the only chakra that affects the financial situation of a person’s life but it is one of the important energy centers which needs to be balanced if one wishes to be good at attracting financial abundance into their life.

Your root chakra or the Muladhara is the energy center that shapes the relationship that you have with the physical world, so finances being one of the primary components of a person’s physical world, gets deeply affected when someone is having a blocked root chakra.

There are various ways in which an imbalanced root chakra might affect a person’s life but struggling to make money or being unable to manage finances properly is a clear symptom of a blocked root chakra. It is worthless to take actions that have no proper direction towards becoming wealthy, a proper mindset and emotional preparedness are the two main factors that decide how much fruitful a person’s efforts are going to be when it comes to the area of making money. The primary purpose of money is to provide security and root chakra, among the 7 chakras is the energy center that is responsible for how secure a person feels in their life. Continue reading

Everything You Need to Know About Root Chakra

There are 7 main chakras that are the energy centers or the focal points in the body which regulate the flow of energy throughout a person’s subtle spiritual body that is believed to be present around our physical body, among these chakras is the first chakra that is also known as the root chakra, base chakra or Muladhara and we will be giving you an insight on everything you need to know about root chakra. The term Muladhara is derived from ancient Sanskrit texts where the early information about the chakras is present, in Sanskrit, Mula means root and Adhara means base or foundation whereas chakra means wheel, so we can deduce that Muladhara is a wheel-shaped energy center present at the base of our energy body.

The root chakra’s primary function is to maintain our materialistic aspects of living and it is what provides us with the power to survive in the physical world. It is what connects our spiritual world to our external world and that is why it provides us with stability in life. Also, this particular energy center is responsible for the animalistic nature present in us which is also essential for our survival. Continue reading

5 Reasons Why You Might Be Feeling Tired after Meditation

You actually don’t need to worry if you are feeling tired after meditation, many times people drift off while meditating and a momentary lethargy is perfectly alright when you have tried to sit in silence for a while.

The truth is that often people don’t know that they are tired as their mind is too active to discern it and when they give all those thoughts a pause, their body might get the essential attention from them, that perhaps could seem like a tiredness that wasn’t there before.

People who are new to spiritual practices worry a lot when they feel like taking a nap after meditation because that might seem like a counterproductive thing since many books and people emphasize that meditation should make you feel more energetic.

That’s true, meditation does make you feel more energetic and active as a person, but it is not an immediate effect.

What meditation does is that it calms down your mind chatter and due to that you may realize a need to take some rest. The tiredness here is not something caused by meditation, you just gain the awareness of what your body is trying to communicate. Continue reading