What are the reasons for starting meditation?

Most people , including myself , start meditation for problems related to stress and tension or when we don’t feel well.
We can not control what happens in our life and we become unhappy with the things around us. What happens is, we start fighting against our feelings, the situation, or the people we feel are causing the discomfort.
So that feeling can be channeled from small discomfort to a big disappointment.
This is one of the extreme cases, but if the person is quite sensitive, he/she can recognize these kinds of feelings and begin meditating, and start other activities to improve their health.

There are so many different types of meditation (Here are just a few).

VIPASSANA

It is a breathing/pranayama technique. You need only to focus on breathing in and out through your nose.
This is pure meditation according to Sr. Goenka, not to visualize anything, no image, thoughts or color. So if you are using an image your brain is busy holding that projection and according to him this is distraction that takes your attention away from the pure meditation.
Also this kind of meditation is very deep and it is focused on a deeper connection, sometimes you can do a silent retreat from 3 to 10 days.

VISUALIZATION
There are so many techniques and images that you can use with a visualization meditation. One that is very good to use is to lay down and visualize your body as an observer. Then doing a scan of the body from the crown of the head down to the bottoms of the feet. Next, visualize a ball of light coming from the palms of your hands and extending all over your body until this light is covering all of your body. Little by little start to see the light getting larger and brighter and see it starting to move from your body up to the sky.

TECHNOLOGY MEDITATION TECHNIQUES.

Nowadays there are thousands of applications that you can download to your laptop or mobile phone and use….I mean starting a meditation technique is
really great but on the other hand to go deeper you should unattach yourself from the things you are used to using all the time. I.E. phones and laptops.

 What are the main benefits?

Control vs non control paradigm. In one way we say you can control your mind….but the brain works in the opposite direction, as much as you try to control
your mind you often find frustration at not being able to.
The idea is to concentrate on your breathing and let it go og any thoughts coming into your mind, without judgement…it may take time some time to train
your brain, as an athlete trains their body. so as you train your brain you will be able to unattach from your thoughts.
So therefore the main benefits are:

•  Control vs non control of your mind.
•  Concentrating on your tasks.
•  Creating a relaxing feeling.
•  Unattachment of your feelings.
•  Let it go.
•  Observe, don’t judge yourself.