Introduction to Meditation
Dear Mom,
I miss you!
I hope you’re doing really, really well. I finally found a quiet moment to send you a life update from my journey – and oh boy, do I have something magical to share. 🌟
You won’t believe what I discovered – I’m so excited to tell you! 😊
Imagine this: a vacation that requires zero planning. No flights, no bookings, no stress. No packing, no schedule juggling. And guess what? It costs absolutely nothing.
Yup, zero dollars.
But the best part? This vacation is already happening.
Right now as you read this.
You might’ve missed it – I know I did, for years. But now that I’ve found it… I just had to tell you.
Let me explain.
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This vacation is available to all of us at any given moment, it is our birthright.
It’s like taking a tiny trip right into the heart of life -
Into the heart of our own aliveness.
It is flourishing and smiling at you as you read this -
It is waiting with open arms for you to make space for it -
It is holding your hand and playing its sweet harmony of peace for you to pay attention.
No passport needed. Just a little pause. A deep breath. A moment to remember that you’re alive.
A moment to stop for a few seconds racing through life.
To stop doing and start just being.
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The vacation is called “meditation” and it empowers you to do just that.
Meditation is the mode of transport that brings you to this wonderful vacation destination.
It is the space between your thoughts -
it is the space around your thoughts -
It is the space your thoughts are made of.
It is a space that's kind and full of wonder.
I know this sounds crazy but you have to try it.
I’ve been visiting that place more and more. And the more I go, the more I feel at home.
Life is so peaceful here, I feel nourished, free, and it seems there is so much to discover!
And the coolest part? There’s no right or wrong way to do it. You can sit or lie down or even stand. You can close your eyes or keep them open a little. You just breathe, feel, notice. That’s it. You’re already there. Relax into being the silent witness of whatever shows up - likely many thoughts - without judgement.
It is totally up to you how often and how long you wanna be vacationing. I find that already 30 sec opens the door to this healing space that's always here.
And don’t forget to put on a little smile 🙂
It's vacation in the end and there is nothing to achieve or do.
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Love you so much, Mom.
I wanted to share this because I really believe this kind of inner vacation could change everything. For all of us.
With a heart full of love, Mathis
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“I felt the need for a great pilgrimage so I sat and went inside for 3 days, that's a great pilgrimage” -- Diane di Prima
Benefits of Meditation
If you made it this far – thank you.
In my opinion, you learned about the most priceless journey a human can do - the one within. Interestingly, by going within we actually empower ourselves to go beyond and tap into perspectives larger than the usual consciousness that is confined by our ego.
When we meditate we essentially study life and our human experience as it is - we step into the role of a curious scientist who observes the nature of our existence, which to me speaks to the world of wonder I was telling my mom about.
By being this curious, kind, and non-judgemental observer, we can see the observed for what it really is - instead of what the judgemental mind thinks it is. This process serves an awakening to our essence, which is the same essence that is in all of life.
When we experience this sense of being connected to everything and everyone, we are automatically connected to a way of being that is curious, calm, peaceful, kind, compassionate, courageous, creative and inspired.
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Imagine the range of benefits for your life and career when
- you can make conscious decisions from that place
- you can learn and collaborate with others from that place
- you can navigate challenges from that place
- you can show up to a job interview like this
- you can lead and build a team from that place
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“Between stimulus and reaction is a space - in that space is our power and freedom”- Victor Frankel
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Meditation trains our mind to be calmer so we can discover and connect with that space, which ultimately empowers us to consciously choose a wise response instead of unconsciously reacting.
That space is characterized by not thinking, and by focusing our attention on the breath or the body, we give our busy mind a welcome break and learn to use it as a tool born out of that space instead of being caught in reactive thought patterns from past and external conditioning. You learn more about some general meditation guidelines below.
"Who is your enemy? Mind is your enemy. No one can harm you more than your own mind untamed. And who is your friend? Mind is your friend. No one can help you more than your own mind, wisely trained—not even your own mother and father."- Buddha
Research
As I am also a passionate UX Researcher, I added a few sources to some scientific meta analysis highlighting the myriad of benefits of a meditation practice.
Millett, C. E., Whitfield, K., & Brown, S. J. (2021). Mindfulness enhances cognitive functioning: A meta-analysis of 111 randomized controlled trials. Psychological Bulletin.
- This very large meta-analysis generally concludes that mindfulness enhances cognitive functioning, including aspects that contribute to cognitive flexibility, such as attention control and the ability to shift between thinking modes.
Zell, E., & Strickhouser, J. E. (2020). The Effect of Meditation on Health: a Metasynthesis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
- This "metasynthesis" provides an even broader overview. It aggregated data from 28 meta-analyses and found a medium-sized effect of meditation on overall health, encompassing both mental and physical benefits.
Kirby, J. N., Tellegen, C. L., & Steindl, S. R. (2019). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of meditation on empathy, compassion, and prosocial behaviors.
- This meta-analysis explores how meditation impacts social-emotional outcomes, finding small to medium effects on self-reported and observable pro-social behaviors and emotions like empathy and compassion.
Tips for cultivating a practice
Alright, now that you are very keen on trying meditation and cultivating a regular practice, let me give you some initial building blocks for how to practice.
- Getting distracted is normal. Keep in mind that it is natural to get distracted by thoughts, feelings or sense perceptions while you practice meditation. That happens to all of us, it is human, so don't get discouraged or think you are not doing it right. Once you notice that you were totally lost in thinking about tomorrow or whatever, treat it as a moment of celebration. Why? Because you awoke to the distraction and can make a conscious decision to direct your attention back to the present moment.
- Choose an anchor to focus on. In the beginning, I recommend you anchor your attention on something that's easy and comfortable to notice about the breath or body. Why? The breath and body are naturally in the present moment and therefore they are a great alliance for your mind to settle and get more calm. Essentially, by intentionally taking attention away from thinking, your mind gets to rest. Again, that doesn’t mean your mind won’t produce thoughts, it will, that's what it's meant to do. However, you can use your anchor to let go of the thoughts, direct your attention back to what you are observing until you notice a distraction and repeat.
- Set an intention and cultivate attention. Setting an intention gives you focus and clarity on the “why” and it actually does do that on a neurological level by priming your neural pathways, which makes it more likely for neural reactions to occur that support the intention. An intention can look like “connecting with stillness”, “gaining clarity” or “practice observing + allowing”. It is completely up to you. Cultivating attention refers to the way you are observing. It is powerful and helpful to remind yourself of the quality of your attention you want to embody. I recommend you cultivate an attention that is kind, open, curious, generous, forgiving, and non-judgemental. Think of yourself as a student of life who is simply meditating to learn about the human experience - not too judge it - simply to see it for what it is. The goal is not to achieve anything, the goal simply is to be with everything that is here now, everything that arises and goes.
- Make it a comfy experience and start small. Meditation does not mean you have to be in a certain position. You can meditate in a range of different ways. I invite you to find whatever works for you. I invite you to experiment. Perhaps you want to sit on your desk chair and take 2min to connect with the breath and body. Perhaps you would like to lay down or sit on a cushion. Or maybe you would like to walk around the block and connect with the sensations of walking and breathing. It is important to note, the goal is not to meditate as long as possible, the goal is to develop a daily practice. I recommend you start with only 2min for the first 2 weeks and then evaluate how you want to proceed. It is entirely up to you and over time you will make it an enjoyable habit you look forward to and don't want to miss your daily vacation.
- Use habit-forming insights from psychological research to build a routine. From research in Psychology we understand very well what helps us to form a new habit. Research emphasizes the importance of positive reinforcement, tracking of progress, and avoiding an all-or-nothing mindset. It may also be useful to stack the desired new habit to an existing one (e.g. after brushing teeth). Check out this link to learn more.
And again, in parallel to vacationing you are training your mind to become your best friend like the Buddha said. Think of it as training a puppy: You don’t get mad at the puppy when it runs away, instead you gently remind it to stay and try again. It’s the same with your mind, and the more you practice, the more you are the master and the mind becomes a powerful tool supporting you in creating your dreams.
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Guided Meditation to get you started
To get you started, I wrote up a small meditation script that you can use to guide yourself through a 2 min meditation. Alternatively, you can use meditation apps with a lot of beginners material like headspace or insight timer.
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Guided 2 min Meditation:
Begin by setting an intention for your practice and by establishing a comfortable posture in which you are both relaxed and alert.
Remind yourself to cultivate an open, curious and non-judgemental attention - simply noticing what is here and what arises. Perhaps you start noticing your surroundings before directing your attention inward.
If it feels comfortable, close your eyes completely or half way.
Direct your attention to your body, if there's any obvious tightness or tension in the body that you can easily release, do so in your own way that feels comfortable.
Now bringing your attention to the fact of your body breathing. Noticing that it is always breathing, quite naturally.
Begin noticing where it's easiest to feel the breath.
It might be a coolness you feel in your nostrils on the in-breath, or air flowing out of the nose with the out-breath. It might be the rise and fall of your chest or belly, or it might be the sensations of the whole body breathing.
Wherever you find the breath easiest to feel, or most pleasant, resting your kind and gentle attention there.
Let yourself experience the next 3 breaths like this.
If you find it hard or unpleasant to focus your attention on the breath or body, you can give your mind a small task to label what is happening, for example:
- in-breath: “I am breathing in”
- out-breath: “I am breathing out”
- in-breath: “I am here”
- out-breath: “I am now”
- in-breath: “Smile”
- out-breath: “Release”
- in-breath: “Calm”
- out-breath: “Relax”
Pick whatever resonates with you and let yourself experience the next set of breaths.
As you feel each breath, invite the mind to calm and the body to relax.
Continuing with this relaxed and calming attention on the breath. Each time the
attention wanders and you notice, gently bringing it back. Like training the puppy. No judgment. Simply a kind return.
Fully here, awake and at ease.
And then you can slowly slowly open your eyes - perhaps take a little stretch - notice the visual sense and what happens with your attention when you open your eyes.
Honor yourself for practicing and share a little smile with life 🙂
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Pro Tip
A mini-meditation for when you only have a couple seconds or minutes is 1 conscious breath. Always available to you:
Focus your attention on a long deep in-breath.
Notice the pause.
Focus your attention on a long deep exhale.
That's it, you did a mini-meditation. And you helped yourself to become conscious and you are ready to show up awake for whatever is now.
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Invitation:
I invite you to a challenge: Meditate daily for the next 2 weeks and reflect on the experience. How has it served you? What has changed? What do you like about it?
Building a meditation practice is part of the mentorship I offer.
I am a meditation and mindfulness teacher in certification training and if you feel stressed, overwhelmed, restless or frustrated with your career (like many of my friends in tech) -- I’m here to help.
Even if you've tried meditation before and it didn’t “click,” maybe it just needed a different approach. One that’s simple and tailored to you – not another thing on your to-do list.
If you have any questions or need help, reach out.
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PS:
If you like to check out what David Lynch has to say about meditation, check out this video: