How to meditate: 3 easy approaches for beginners
The problems of meditation
First of all, let’s start with the biggest problems that, as practitioners, we have to overcome in relation to meditation:
- The prejudice that, if a martial arts school teaches meditation to its students, it is not focused on fighting, it is focused on spiritual / mystical things – Wrong, a lot of Pro MMA fighters in UFC (who fight at the highest possible level) practice meditation and gain incredible benefit from it
- A lot of people do not like to stay idle, in silence and solitude – The fact is that meditation is a way of self-knowledge; when we are on our own and nothing disturbs our thoughts, we start to see what there is inside of us and the emptiness we could see, terrifies us
Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).
Why practice meditation? What are the benefits?
The benefits of meditation are endless but let’s focus on 2 of them:
- To become able to empty our mind in any situation – Let’s imagine, for example, to be able to clean our mind from everything negative in a second, no matter what happens outside of it (read also Breathing for immediate relaxation)
- To become able to recover mental and physical energies – Let’s imagine, for example, to use 1 hour of meditation to replace 3 hours of sleep, this would exponentially elongate our life and our possibilities (read also 5 regeneration practices to recover after training)
- …
How to start with meditation for those who cannot stay idle
Meditation is a fundamental part of high-level martial arts training and this article has been specifically written to give an “easy access point” to those people who:
- Cannot start
- Don’t like it
A note by Master Kongling – In particular, this article is a request of MunariMan, who said that even the first meditation method of our school (read Meditation method 1) is too hard for him.
The prerequisites
We have to:
- Find a place where no one will bother us, totally separated from our normal life
- We have to choose the right music (calm, relaxed and slow, without words), better if meditative
3 solutions to start getting closer to meditation
These are the most simple and accessible “bridges” to meditation:
- Stretching – Let’s simply focus on the best execution possible (read How to correctly perform stretching)
- Breathing – If we are focusing on slow and perfect breathing, we are naturally freeing our mind from thoughts (read Correct breathing)
- Hard Qi Gong / conditioning – The path to develop advanced skills like Iron Palm, Diamond Finger (etc.) requires a level of dedication that helps to empty the mind
Practicing these tasks we will understand that the necessary concentration will start to empty our mind; through them, we will be naturally used to meditation (the next step will be Meditation method 1).
Meditation: a contraindication
Another important tip is to not start meditation when we are in a stressful phase of our life: we should start when we are in an (as much as possible) normal mental state.
The reason is that meditation is mental conditioning:
- If we get used to connect it to a stressful situation, we will never gain its deepest benefits
- We have to start it as a daily practice, especially at the beginning
- As for weightlifting, we cannot think to immediately lift 500 Kg, it is a matter of gradual evolution
- …
A note by Master Kongling – Naturally this must not be seen as an excuse to postpone to the unfinished: it is simply a matter of avoiding the peaks of stress.
The point is that if we directly start by trying to reach the highest possible level (eg. trying to face a high level of stress) we will fail: let’s be gradual.
In-depth video courses
- Meditation: how to start – A step-by-step guide about our fundamental meditation methods
- Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu exercises – 6 Dragons Kung Fu’s basic martial conditioning path
- Mind self-control hacks – A path to mental performance improvement (in order to reach our goals)
- Breathing methods and exercises – Use breathing to gain specific results in life, combat and more
- Diamond Finger conditioning – How to develop the impact conditioning of one of the weakest parts of our body
- Back and neck pain treatment – A video course about how to resolve one of the most annoying discomforts
- Full body stretching exercises – How to work on our entire body in terms of stretching
In-depth articles
- A meditation mini-guide: how to start – The entire path of our school in relation to meditation (methods of breathing, concentration, etc.)
- Become the absolute zero – The use of an empty mind in combat
Questions
Reply in the comments and share your experience:
- What is the method you will try?
Author: Master Kongling
Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.How to master 6 Dragons Kung Fu?
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spaciba
January 26, 2020 @ 12:52 am
Tomorrow I will try, I am exactly the person you are describing!!
spaciba
January 26, 2020 @ 1:09 am
Tomorrow I will try, I am exactly the person you are describing!!
Master Kongling
January 26, 2020 @ 4:44 pm
😉 good
MunariMan
January 27, 2020 @ 12:36 pm
Thanks shifu! I am trying with stretching!
MunariMan
January 27, 2020 @ 12:52 pm
Thanks shifu! I am trying with stretching!
Master Kongling
January 28, 2020 @ 11:39 pm
Good!
redonda
May 29, 2020 @ 1:47 pm
Thanks for this video
Master Kongling
June 6, 2020 @ 4:02 am
😉
adamskinner
October 8, 2020 @ 12:15 am
Conditioning, thanks for this explanation shifu.
Master Kongling
October 21, 2020 @ 3:50 am
😉
moonprincess
November 18, 2022 @ 7:52 pm
Thanks again
Master Kongling
November 28, 2022 @ 12:37 pm
😉
docto
January 17, 2024 @ 4:57 pm
The first!
Master Kongling
January 19, 2024 @ 9:29 am
😉