Not the meditation type? Do you find it boring? There are other options that preserve the essence of meditation - that is, quieting your mind and living in the present moment, training your mind and becoming more aware of yourself.
Meditation has many benefits for the body - this has been known since Hindu practices thousands of years ago. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to meditate.
Unfortunately, for many, it just doesn't work - no matter how hard they try. This does not mean that you should completely give up on meditation and work on yourself - it is completely normal that it does not work for you or that you simply do not like it. Meditation will not always be pleasant.
There are other ways to quiet your mind without meditating. These are exercises you can do if meditation just isn't for you.
Grounding exercise
Sit upright, feet facing forward. Close your eyes and relax. Imagine the roots extending from the last vertebra of your spine reaching down to the ground and sinking deep into it. Be aware of your hips, focus on them, imagine letting down the roots.
There are various relaxation exercises. Photo: Conscious Design / UnsplashThere are no rules to how this root can look - it has to look exactly like you think. Imagine the roots going down into the center of the earth.
The goal is to calm down and feel connected to the ground, as you are part of the earth. Try to keep this feeling as long as possible. At some point you will lose concentration, repeat.
Anxiety exercise
While performing this exercise, it is recommended to either sit on a chair or in the Turkish position on the floor. First, pay attention to the crown on the head.
Notice the white light coming through the crown into your head, clearing your anxious thoughts and making your mind calm. Then imagine this white light coming from your third eye to your eyebrows, clearing your energy and connecting you to your intuition.
Let this light pass through every part of your body. Let it stay longer on the parts where you need healing, where you feel pain. Be aware of this pain and imagine white light passing through the body. Clear anything that blocks your energy.
Let yourself go. Photo: Sage Friedman/UnsplashThen you will begin to feel love, love for yourself, for the world, you will feel safe, confident, calm. When the white light passes through your stomach, you will feel your self-confidence increase, you will feel strong and stable.
As you descend towards your hips, you will feel creative, happy, fulfilled. It is important that the white light passes through the back of the spine, as this is one of the points in the body where anxiety accumulates. Bring it down over your thighs to your fingertips.
Focus on your breath
We definitely don't pay enough attention to the way we breathe. How we feel can be directly related to our breath, which means we can use our breath to calm ourselves. There is one simple breathing exercise called 4-4-8.
As you inhale - count to four, hold your breath, count to four. And when you exhale, then lengthen the exhale until you count to eight. Repeat as many times as you feel you need. After this exercise, you will feel relaxed, as if you are breathing more easily.
