Meditation

What is meditation ?

Meditation is a mind training practice that promotes mental well-being. In this sheet, you will discover what meditation is, its main principles, its history, the different types of meditation, its benefits, some practical advice, and finally the opinion of a specialist.

From the Latin “Meditare” which means “to contemplate”, meditation is a practice that consists of training the mind so that it frees itself from negative and harmful thoughts. Obviously, many thoughts are useful for managing one’s life or solving practical problems. But the mental mechanisms are such that they constantly produce often deleterious thoughts. The objective of meditation is therefore to ensure that these thoughts no longer have control over us, and to free us from our negative ruminations which prevent us from moving forward in our lives.

Meditating is therefore using certain techniques of concentration and relaxation in order to concentrate on oneself and thus silence one’s inner hubbub. It’s a parenthesis in our noisy stressful daily life at an infernal and too fast pace: it’s being able to land, stop and observe what’s going on inside us…

The main principles

The practice of meditation is all about training yourself to maintain your attention and keep your mind from getting carried away by the thoughts that keep popping up. That said, it is above all not a warlike activity where you have to fight against thoughts. Instead, we resort to the “gentle will”. It is an activity of letting go where one accepts that thoughts pass by, like clouds or the horses of a carousel, without allowing oneself to be captivated by them.

Meditation is also a spiritual practice, indeed, many people say that meditating serves above all to be truly in touch with oneself and ultimately with “the whole universe”.