Meditation – BOXROX https://www.boxrox.com Competitive Fitness Magazine Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:26:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://image.boxrox.com/2020/12/favicon-100x100.png Meditation – BOXROX https://www.boxrox.com 32 32 How Can Meditation Help Athletes? https://www.boxrox.com/how-can-meditation-help-athletes/ Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:30:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=198228 Meditation is a technique that can be very useful in the mental preparation of athletes or people who exercise regularly.

At this point of the story we can consider that the benefits that meditation has for the wellbeing of a person are very clear. This millenary technique allows to find a physical, mental and spiritual balance becoming a basic element to eliminate stress, anxiety or the worries of the daily life, favoring the inner peace.

Woman-MeditatingSource: Dane Whetton on Unsplash

Meditation is also a key component of one of the most popular techniques in modern society, mindfulness, keeping focused on the present and on what we are doing every minute. So, we could say that meditation has always been present but one of its benefits has gone unnoticed by most people.

Until now. And the fact is that meditation is a technique that can be very useful in the mental preparation of athletes or people who exercise regularly.

Among other aspects it improves concentration and can even raise the athlete’s performance. Thus, some studies suggest that the regular practice of meditation for several months ends up generating a change in the brain’s process to focus attention, memory or perception.

Although it may sound  strange to us, and we do not see many places where meditation is applied as a support method for sports performance, meditation can help athletes and there are many international elite athletes who have taken advantage of the benefits of meditation to make a qualitative leap in their results and those of their teams. Fraser, Jordan or Bryant are some of the names of these athletes who use meditation as a tool to improve performance and calm the mind.

One of the main defenders of the presence of this technique in training and locker rooms has been Phil Jackson, legendary NBA coach, who has used meditation for years with his players.

The advantages that meditation can have for an athlete go beyond physical activity and become part of their daily life. Here are some of the benefits why it is good to consider incorporating meditation as a parto of our sports routine.

Meditation can help Athletes: Concentration

With meditation you train the focus of attention on a specific factor, something very necessary in sports. Training the mind helps to keep the brain focused on the activity. In CrossFit you will be able to concentrate on technique, have a better strategy and a better rep count, without getting distracted. But whatever your sport, you will be more focused during its practice.

Say goodbye to fear

Fear is an integral part of sport – losing, getting injured, failing – so much so that it can cause mistakes by blocking us. Meditation calms the amygdala, the area where fears are generated. And it is certainly that extra push that many of us need to remove the limitations o our heads. 

Woman in MeditationSource: Motoki Tonn on Unsplash

Meditation is the perfect tool to prepare us for the moments when we do not achieve good results. It helps to overcome failure and clears the mind to look for possible solutions to problems. With success it also helps us to know how to handle it. It will also help us to make an exercise of studying and detecting our weak points and to learn how to improve them.

Stronger and healthier

Meditating daily helps strengthen the immune system and reduces the risk of illness and injury. In addition, this mental practice helps with cognitive health, decision making and mental clarity, aspects that can deteriorate with age.

Meditation can help Athletes: Stable emotions

Meditation is responsible for stabilizing the emotions of athletes and helps them to take control of their moods, vital when competing. Always being under pressure causes stress to arise. It is uncontrollable but can be reduced by meditating for a few minutes before the big event that produces this feeling.

Relaxation and meditation make us find our weaknesses and we can work on them to improve them. Along the same lines, visualization is another tool with the best results for athletes during meditation, a training beyond the physical. For example, imagining a new snatch PR or the trajectory of the bar in a heavy jerk.

Sleep performance

One of the first things that are affected in our lives when we have too much stress is sleep. When we don’t get proper rest, we don’t perform as we should during our workouts. Lack of sleep can reduce our level of focus and accuracy and can lead to injury.

Rest is very important for athletes, so that they can perform properly and not be distracted from their goals. Meditation helps to slow down the mind and improves the quality of sleep.

Sport definitely requires that the whole organism is in function of the corresponding task and the mind plays a valuable role, since it not only makes it possible to focus attention on what is being done, but also plays a leading role in the processing of emotions. In this way, the intense practice will have the expected effect at the moment of the event or competition, since an athlete dominated by anxiety may not reflect all the previous preparation and, on the contrary, the result will feed the anxiety for future occasions, becoming like a snowball, a bigger and more difficult to control feeling.

person does morning meditation by the beachSource: William Farlow on Unsplash

So if we have convinced you and you think that meditation fits you and your training routine, there are several options to start practicing it. Disciplines such as yoga work on flexibility and muscles through concentration and breathing.

It is a good way to get started. When you go on your own, in addition to wearing comfortable clothes, think about choosing a pleasant environment free of interruptions or loud and abrupt noises. When meditating, breathing is your best ally.

Put all your attention on it. Repeating a word or short phrase – a mantra – with each breath helps to override other thoughts in your mind. As you get more practice, you will see that there are a multitude of meditation techniques you can use to boost your athletic performance.

If you liked this article you will also like: Meditation For Sport: Why and How to Understand the Power of Your Mind

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The 5am Morning Routine that Will Change Your Life https://www.boxrox.com/the-5am-morning-routine-that-will-change-your-life/ Sun, 10 Dec 2023 14:30:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=195104 A 5am morning routine that will change your life? Is that possible? Yes it is.

We know, sleep is imperative for many reasons. Not only it resets your body, gives you energy for the following day, but it is also when your brain is creating synapses and fortifying memories and your muscles are repairing and getting stronger and bigger.

Needless to say that sleep is one huge contributor factor to a person’s well-being and health. But that doesn’t mean you cannot wake up at 5 in the morning to being a routine that could positively impact your life. That is what Mike Diamonds did, anyway.

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Dr. Mike Diamonds is a retired medical doctor who is now an online fitness coach and a YouTuber. He has close to a million subscribers on his channel and he usually uses his own body transformation as an example of how to help people become their better selves. He is also the creator of the website Sculpt by Science.

For an entire year, Diamonds took on the challenge of adopting Dr. Andrew Huberman’s morning routine. If you’re not familiar with Andrew Huberman, he is a neuroscientist and tenured Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

It was Huberman’s morning routine that Mike did it religiously for an entire year and decided to share the insights in a video he uploaded. Below you will find the key takeaways from his 5am morning routine that will change your life, should you choose to follow too.

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The 5am Morning Routine that Will Change Your Life

Before we get into the results and what Mike’s learned, let’s rewind 11 months, where Mike stumbled upon Huberman’s video. It hit him hard. Ever felt like the person you are meets the one you could’ve been? Mike was in that mental paralysis, screaming for help. Huberman’s wisdom became his lifeline, and he shared the journey on YouTube—1.4 million views later, here we are.

Now, Huberman’s routine, in a nutshell. First off, rise and shine at 6:30 a.m. No need to religiously follow the 5:00 a.m. club; just ensure it’s early. The golden hours from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. are your secret weapon against distractions—no texts, no social media. Time to execute the game plan.

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But how does one pull off waking up early? Simple. Set goals the night before, write them down, set an alarm in another room, and voila! You’re up, no excuses. Now, the game-changer—salted water instead of your beloved morning coffee. Delaying caffeine intake by 90 minutes syncs with your body’s natural rhythms, making that java jolt more potent.

Next up, soak in the morning sun. A 15-minute walk not only fuels your vitamin D but sets the tone for an energetic day. Combine this with intermittent fasting, a powerhouse for fat loss, muscle gain, and overall metabolic awesomeness.

Now, Mike’s personal favourite—fasted workouts. Caffeine becomes your workout buddy, and trust him, it’s a game-changer in a caloric deficit. But let’s talk cold showers. Tough to stick with, but the energy rush, muscle recovery, and immunity boost make them worth it.

is caffeine bad for youSource: Pixabay

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Into the focused work zone. Dr. Huberman’s golden 90 minutes of distraction-free productivity. Turn off the phone, avoid the internet, and tackle your most important tasks. Break your fast with oatmeal or just find your flexible rhythm.

“It doesn’t have to be done in the order Andrew Huberman has done them, but including them into your day-to-day routine will be super effective and having this level of flexibility will be to your advantage,” Diamonds says.

Sometimes, Mike break his fast accordingly, sometimes sooner and sometimes earlier. “But I’ll make sure that I’m always eating in an 8-hour window period and that I’m fasting for 6 hours […] because those are the hours that work for me.”

In the end, it’s not about a rigid routine but incorporating these gems into your day. So, what’s your take? Have you tried any of these tips? Wake up at the crack of dawn, fasting ninja, or cold shower warrior?

Give it a go and you might inspire the next in line.

Watch the video below for more information from Mike Diamonds himself.

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7 Benefits of Meditation https://www.boxrox.com/7-benefits-of-meditation/ Tue, 23 Nov 2021 19:05:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=151767 Sometimes you need to step back, stay quiet, clear your mind, and relax. However, there are many other benefits of meditation. BOXROX have compiled a list of 7 benefits of meditation so you can set your goals clearly.

Although it is generally accepted that meditation can help your general wellbeing, there are benefits of meditation towards sports performance. Click here to find out more.

For How Long Should You Meditate?

“For as long as you can” is the easiest and fastest way to answer the question. However, most people do not have a lot of spare time to meditate – plus, it is not like you can just sit down and meditate straight away as there are some preparations needed.

Online there are varying answers to how long you should meditate, but you should do it consistently to be able to see results. A minimum of 5 minutes should be the goal. Research showed that practising 12 minutes of meditation tends to work well with most people. On the other end, up to 40 minutes can also give you some benefits of meditation.

Source: Matteo Di Iorio / Unsplash

How Often Should You Meditate?

This question is also incredibly important. If you meditate for 2 hours, but only once every few months, the benefits of meditation will not appear. Frequency is as important as consistency.

Just like working out your muscles, you need to be consistent and practice regularly to reap its benefits.

Some researches show that people practising meditation every day start seeing results in 4-8 weeks.

1. Reduce Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

When performed on a regular basis, meditation will help to alleviate stress and anxiety levels, a staple in today’s modern society. According to a Harvard research, meditation will also help people who suffer from depression.

2. It’s Good For Your Heart

A research published in the US National Library of Medicine concluded that one of the benefits of meditation is intrinsically connected with the prevention of cardiovascular diseases by impacting your blood pressure and your heart muscle.

3. Increase Your Concentration Skill

Today the society seems to need more of everything, and also faster, which can be a daunting experience. By focusing on yourself and clearing your mind, you will practice and strengthen your ability to concentrate on tasks that matter.

Read More: 5 Significant Benefits of Morning Meditation

4. Better Sleep

People who do not get enough sleep are depriving their bodies of the most essential component of surviving. If your body does not get the rest it needs, you will not be able to retain the information you got through the day and also will not have the energy to continue at the same pace the next day.

This can be terrible if you are trying to get fitter, as your body needs proper sleep to build muscle.

When meditating on a regular basis, you will find it easier to relax and thus will get to sleep faster and more profoundly.

5. Boosts Your Immune System

Not only do you get to sleep better, but mindful meditation will also help you fight off viruses and bacteria more efficiently by increasing your immune system. That is what research from 2003 found.

“We also found significant increases in antibody titers to influenza vaccine among subjects in the meditation compared with those in the wait-list control group.”

6. Alleviate PMS

Another research showed that one of the benefits of meditation is to relieve headaches, cramps, hot flashes and water retention – symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.

7. Reduces Binge Eating

Binge eating became a problem for some people during the pandemic. Meditation can help with that.

A 2013 research published in Eating Behaviors concluded that mindfulness meditation “effectively decreases binge eating and emotional eating in a population engaging in this behaviour.”

Read More: 5 Valuable Reasons Why You Should Consider Meditation

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5 Significant Benefits of Morning Meditation & 4 Videos to Get Started https://www.boxrox.com/benefits-of-morning-meditation-and-videos/ Mon, 08 Nov 2021 10:05:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=150268 Morning meditation can be an excellent way to start the day. It can provide freshness and a positive outlook to the day ahead, as well as get you into in feeling energised.

After waking up from deep sleep, mornings are a time where our brains are free and ideas can flow, but we don’t usually give them the space to.

It is very common for people to hit the snooze button or simply scroll through their phones as soon as they wake up. By doing so, you’re adding distraction to your morning and you might be missing out on the brain’s true potential during the start of the day.

Requests, interruptions, and unexpected surprises are likely to greet us when we scroll through our phones first thing, yet most of these things, as urgent as they may feel, can usually wait another hour.

Your creative brain is the most awake in the mornings, but you have to train it to be okay with less stimulating activities when you start your day.

This is where morning meditation comes in. By having an activity to turn to you can remove other temptations. Focusing inwards while acknowledging how you feel and what you want can have a huge positive impact not only on the day but your life in general.

Start your days grounded, refreshed, and energised by setting the conditions for a successful day.

woman does morning meditation

If you struggle with early rises or would like to tap into the world of meditation, here are our tips for getting started with morning meditation, the benefits, and how to incorporate it into your routine.

What is morning meditation?

Morning meditation is the practice of bringing attention and awareness to your inner self and the circumstances surrounding you in the mornings with the aim to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

“When we start our day with a morning meditation, we are giving ourselves the best opportunity to be fully aware, fully awake, and fully alive before ‘doing’ anything,” writes the popular mindfulness and meditation app headspace.

“You can almost think of meditation as a morning stretch for your brain.”

Morning meditation doesn’t have to be completed at 5am. You can practice it whenever you wake up and make it part of your routine, whether that is before the sun rises or after 10am.

Read more: 5 Valuable Reasons Why You Should Consider Meditation

5 benefits of morning meditation

Here are five benefits of meditating in the mornings:

  1. Can help produce more alpha waves – A study found that meditating in the morning can help boost the production of alpha brain waves. Alpha waves are produced when the brain is relaxed and not processing much information – such as first thing in the morning – and are beneficial because they may help boost inspiration, make you more creative and possibly even help treat depression. While meditating at any time of day can be advantageous, this benefit is especially applicable for morning meditation.
  2. Decreases stress and regulates emotions – Meditating in the morning can help you get into a positive headspace. “Meditation alleviates stress and anxiety by reducing cortisol and epinephrine, which helps to regulate blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing patterns,” Dr. Kristen Willeumier, a neuroscientist whose research focuses on neurobiology and neuroimaging, told Well+Good.
  3. Helps you become more focused and productive – Meditation “serves to create a whole-brain synchronization that enhances creativity, learning, focus, and attention,” Dr. Willeumier told Well+Good. While the purpose of meditation isn’t to make you more productive, it certainly helps or brains to bring sustained attention with clear intention to tasks throughout the day.
  4. Provides clarity of thinking – Taking the time to look inwards through meditation can promote perspective taking. Studies have also found that meditation can bring structural changes to areas of the brain responsible for cognitive and emotional processing.
  5. Enhances learning and memory processes – meditation can increase the grey matter in your brain, which is associated with improved working memory and can help in skilled decision making.

Related: Meditation For Sport: Why and How to Understand the Power of Your Mind

How to start a morning meditation practice

If you are new to meditation, a guided practice is probably the best way to start a morning meditation routine. Just like a muscle, the mind can be trained.

While meditation might seem hard or uncomfortable at first, especially if you’re not used to spending time acknowledging your thoughts and feelings, the more you practise the better it’ll feel.

  1. Start by finding a comfortable place where you can practice meditation.
  2. Choose a time and make meditation a priority.
  3. Sit comfortably and somewhere where you can be relaxed but keep your back straight and wear something comfortable.
  4. Begin your meditation with a handful of deep breaths to arrive in the moment and find calm.
  5. Lightly focus on something in front of you and follow the meditation.
  6. Be consistent and grateful for allowing yourself the time to acknowledge your thoughts and feelings.

“By creating a regular morning practice, we are cultivating peace of mind and happier relationships where we are kinder and less judgmental of ourselves and others,” explains headspace.

Mindfulness meditation is defined as a fully present attention to everything experienced in the moment – whether that’s physical, emotional, spiritual, mental or perceptual – and accepting each aspect with compassion.

You’re not trying to control the mind, but to create the right circumstances which allow you to observe the behaviour of the mind and slowly start to understand it.

man practices meditation in the morning by beachSource: Benjamin Wedemeyer on Unsplash

Clearing obstacles to morning meditation

Mornings are usually the one part of the day where you encounter the least distractions or excuses, which makes them an ideal time to meditate. Besides, meditation can be done pretty much anywhere, regardless whether you are at home in bed or travelling abroad – you can always take this habit with you.

  1. Time: you always have time for the things you choose to prioritise. Morning meditation doesn’t need to take hours and hours, even five minutes can be enough. If you care enough, you can make time for it.
  2. Restlessness: your mind might feel like it’s full of clutter and ready to get on with all the tasks that need to happen, reluctant to pause. It’s normal to feel frustration while meditating when you first start, so try to shift your expectations and focus on incremental improvements.

If you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing, a beginner’s guided meditation is probably the best place to start.

Guided morning meditation

This 10-minute morning meditation can be your guide to starting your days grounded, refreshed, and energised.

Try this 10-minute guided morning meditation to start your days with inner peace and relaxation.

This 5-minute meditation practice is intended to bring energy into your day.

Mini meditation. Your morning meditation can be as short as 1-minute long. Try it out:

Let morning meditation become the foundation to your days.

Read More: 7 Benefits of Meditation

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Meditation Quotes for Calm and Focus https://www.boxrox.com/meditation-quotes-for-calm-and-focus/ Tue, 02 Nov 2021 19:05:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=149890 These Meditation Quotes will help you to learn from others how to achieve a quiet, calm and focused mind.

They are drawn from a wide historical and geographical spectrum of writers, thinkers, activists and many other disciplines.

If you are unsure when you should meditate, check out the benefits of morning meditation.

Scroll through and enjoy.

Meditation Quotes

“The Way to do is to be.”

Lao Tzu

“Sometimes you need to sit lonely on the floor in a quiet room in order to hear your own voice and not let it drown in the noise of others.”

― Charlotte Eriksson, You’re Doing Just Fine

“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.”

― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”

Voltaire

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”

― Thich Nhat Hang, Stepping into Freedom: Rules of Monastic Practice for Novices

person meditates by the beach meditation quotesSource: William Farlow on Unsplash
Calm your mind

“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view.

When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn’t matter whether it’s been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.

The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before.

It’s never too late to take a moment to look.”

Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“In meditation we discover our inherent restlessness. Sometimes we get up and leave. Sometimes we sit there but our bodies wiggle and squirm and our minds go far away.

This can be so uncomfortable that we feel’s it’s impossible to stay.

Yet this feeling can teach us not just about ourselves but what it is to be human…we really don’t want to stay with the nakedness of our present experience. It goes against the grain to stay present. These are the times when only gentleness and a sense of humor can give us the strength to settle down…so whenever we wander off, we gently encourage ourselves to “stay” and settle down. Are we experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What’s for lunch? Stay! I can’t stand this another minute! Stay!”

― Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times

“I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”

― T.S. Eliot

Meditation For Sport: Why and How to Understand the Power of Your Mind

“I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.”

― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Meditation Quotes

Woman smilingSource: Audrey Fretz on Unsplash
Happy and relaxed

“Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”

― George Mac Donald, Wilfrid Cumbermede, Meditation Quotes

“If you don’t have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain’t getting them.”

― Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

“You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when I feel like it. I certainly don’t use logic when I do it. Logic’s the first thing you have to get rid of.”

― J.D. Salinger, Nine Stories, Meditation Quotes

“When somebody plays music, you listen. you just follow those sounds, and eventually you understand the music.

The point can’t be explained in words because music is not words, but after listening for a while, you understand the point of it, and that point is the music itself.

In exactly the same way, you can listen to all experiences.”

― Alan Wilson Watts, Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation

“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”

― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Meditation Quotes

“The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain, and the fleeting joy.

It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner.

In all this movement you must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river.

You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim.

And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.”

― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Meditation Quotes

“Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. ‘I am that I am’ sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the words ‘Be still’.

What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself.

Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up the notion that ‘I am so and so’. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that?”

― Ramana Maharshi, Meditation Quotes

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”

― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

“Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.”

― Amit Ray, Meditation: Insights and Inspirations

“Exercises are like prose, whereas yoga is the poetry of movements. Once you understand the grammar of yoga; you can write your poetry of movements.”

― Amit Ray, Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style

“Self-observation is the first step of inner unfolding.”

― Amit Ray, Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style, Meditation Quotes

“Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.”

― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Meditation Quotes

“I’m simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I’m saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”

― Osho, Meditation Quotes

“One thing: you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not find a ready-made path. It is not so cheap, to reach to the ultimate realization of truth.

You will have to create the path by walking yourself; the path is not ready-made, lying there and waiting for you. It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they don’t leave any footprints.

You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left behind.”

― Osho, Meditation Quotes

“Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false centre.

That false centre depends on others, so you are always looking to what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable; you are always trying to decorate your ego.

This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself…

Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all.

You don’t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem— then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you— it is irrelevant!

When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are.

Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.”

― Osho, Meditation Quotes

“Sit still with me in the shade of these green trees, which have no weightier thought than the withering of their leaves when autumn arrives, or the stretching of their many stiff fingers into the cold sky of the passing winter.

Sit still with me and meditate on how useless effort is, how alien the will, and on how our very meditation is no more useful than effort, and no more our own than the will.

Meditate too on how a life that wants nothing can have no weight in the flux of things, but a life the wants everything can likewise have no weight in the flux of things, since it cannot obtain everything, and to obtain less than everything is not worthy of souls that seek the truth.”

― Fernando Pessoa, The Education of the Stoic, Meditation Quotes

“The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people.

But the man who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, comes to know the invisible companionship of God.

Such a one is alone with God in all places, and he alone truly enjoys the companionship of other men, because he loves them in God in Whom their presence is not tiresome, and because of Whom his own love for them can never know satiety.”

― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Meditation Quotes

Meditation Quotes

Find out why you should consider Meditation with these five reasons.

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Meditation For Sport: Why and How to Understand the Power of Your Mind https://www.boxrox.com/meditation-for-sport-why-and-how-to-do-it/ Thu, 28 Oct 2021 18:05:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=149420 Meditation can help you perform at your best. Its benefits are many, from obvious ones such as the ability to learn how to deal with pressure and expectation, to more obscure ones such as improved recovery through better sleep or higher quality training though increased motivation.

There’s an incredibly interesting link between our physical performance and our mental strength; with the line of our physiological boundaries and our ability to mentally challenge of overcome them a blurry one.

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5 Valuable Reasons Why You Should Consider Meditation https://www.boxrox.com/5-valuable-reasons-why-you-should-consider-meditation/ Sat, 18 Sep 2021 15:05:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=144337 Meditation is an ancient art that first originated in India in 1500 BCE. Ever since, meditation has gained more and more popularity among people. The thousand-year-old practice of calming the mind can offer multiple mental and physical benefits, which is why you should consider meditation.

You have most likely already heard about the multiple health benefits of practicing meditation daily, even if only for a short period, the positive developments can be profound.

People turn to practice meditation for multiple reasons like spiritual growth, alleviate physical ailments, a means of relaxation, ease the symptoms of anxiety, reduce stress, etc. Daily practice of meditation besides offering multiple mental benefits, also helps improve your general well-being.

Meditation has multiple mental and health benefits, discussed below are five valuable reasons why you should consider meditation daily. Other than these major five benefits, practising meditation daily can also help you gain the energy required to spend the rest of your day in a positive mood.

why you should consider meditationSource: Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

5 valuable reasons why you should consider meditation

1. Helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression

In today’s modern world mental health illness is a very common problem among many people. The hectic life schedule coupled with extreme competition have made people incredibly busy. It often becomes tough to maintain a work-life balance and as a result people can be more and more overstressed, anxious, and depressed.

Prescription medicines can help treat these states, but they can come with multiple side-effects that may interfere with your overall health and well-being. For some people, meditation can be a better option: simple breathing can help relax your nervous system and make you feel better.

Mediation techniques, when performed on a regular basis, can help alleviate much complicated chronic psychological conditions like anxiety, stress, and depression [1, 2, 3, 4].

2. Helps protect your heart and reduce cardiovascular disease

Our daily life and unwanted work tension result in an increased secretion of stress hormones that can further lead to increased blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Bringing yourself to a relaxed state of mind through practising yoga, followed by breathing techniques, can reduce the level of stress hormones and reduce your risk of stress and tension-related diseases such as stroke, heart attack, and high blood pressure.

Even 5-10 minutes of meditation a day can show significant results.

According to researchers, patients with coronary heart disease who did mediation daily reduced their risk of stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure, hypertension, and even death [5, 6, 7].

Besides doing meditation, combining your diet with additional supplements can help you get the most out of your routine meditation and breathing techniques.

3. Helps improve concentration and prevent memory loss

The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that helps regulate various acts such as decision making, cognitive behaviour and personality expression, but this part reduces with age and with it the brain activities that are regulated with it.

However, engaging in routine meditation techniques can help reduce these age-related changes to some extent. If meditation is done regularly for a prolonged period, the thinning of the prefrontal cortex can be reduced. Hence problems like memory loss and concentration will stay at bay [8, 9, 10, 11].

Whether your purpose is to reduce mental stress and anxiety, alleviate the symptoms of certain physical ailments, or maintain a sharp mind even at an old age, doing regular meditation can help you achieve all.

Getting started with meditation may be a bit tricky, but with the right guide and instructions from experts and finding the best time of the day to meditate – as explained at Healthcanal.com – you may enjoy the many benefits of meditation.

4. Helps improve sleep

Experiencing sleep disorders and not getting the required hours of undisturbed quality sleep is a common problem among many young adults. A good night’s sleep is extremely necessary to repair the damage caused to the body tissues after a whole day of activity or training.

Meditation For Sport: Why and How to Understand the Power of Your Mind

essential restorative yoga posesSource: Jared Rice on Unsplash

A minimum of seven hours of sleep is also extremely necessary to promote overall health and feel fresh, but many of us often face difficulty in getting these seven hours of restful sleep. This as a result can increase the risk for diseases like diabetes, heart disease, inability to make decisions, lack of concentration, bad memory, etc.

Studies have shown that people who practice meditation regularly get better quality sleep than those who don’t. Breathing techniques involved in meditation can also help you fall asleep faster, besides improving the efficiency and quality of your sleep [12, 13, 14].

5. Helps enhance your immune system

Engaging in mindful meditation for a few minutes every day can also help enhance your immune system besides just improving your emotional and mental well-being.

Researchers suggest that negative thoughts and mental stress can interfere with your immune system to fight illness, hence engaging in meditation techniques can help improve immune function [15, 16, 17].

Why you should consider meditation

Meditation has innumerable benefits to offer if practised regularly. We recommend you practice under expert advice if you’re only starting out. Above mentioned are the most valuable reasons why you should consider meditation as an accessible tool to improve your health.

5 Significant Benefits of Morning Meditation & 4 Videos to Get Started


Note: All content within this article is provided for general information only and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional.

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The Sound of Silence: Should You Learn to Train Without Music? https://www.boxrox.com/should-you-learn-to-train-without-music/ Sat, 31 Jul 2021 21:05:00 +0000 https://www.boxrox.com/?p=139396

When the buzzer sounded at the Aromas Farm to announce the start of Event 1 of the 2020 CrossFit Games; there was no cheering, no commentary, and no music. A notable difference from the thundering sound of the colosseum a year prior.

For some of the athletes this was incredibly off-putting; suddenly you're left with your own thoughts, and all you can hear is your laboured breath and that of your competitors.

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