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meditation and senses

Meditation and Senses: Taking Your Practice to The Next Level

 

As it happens in most relationships, there is a love hate connection between meditation and senses too. Of course, as in every other situation, it’s up to us to do the math. Will the love define our practice, or will the hate pull us back? For sure only love would take our meditation routine to the next level.

 

Meditation and Senses

 

Why is it a love hate affair? Just think for a minute of yourself meditating. Sitting still, counting your breaths, being completely absorbed in the process. Picture the same scene, plus a loud unexpected sound that disrupts, annoys and breaks your concentration. Everything you have done previously, all your effort, is now dust in the wind. You have to pull yourself together again and try to reach one more time that special state of consciousness.

 

Usually, especially for beginners, it could be quite difficult to succeed and very frustrating. This is the hate part. And it feels exactly the same regardless of which sense betrays us.

 

But think again: if senses are our weakness, if our lack of concentration could be linked to the outside world’s stimuli through senses, isn’t it possible to make everything work the other way around? Isn’t it possible to enhance the connection between meditation and senses in our favour?

 

3 Ways to Enhance Meditation Through Senses

 

The sight, the smell and the hearing could be our assets in meditation. Usually, through these 3 senses we receive the disrupting information especially when practising spiritual meditation, which is a completely silent technique. That’s why the beginners might find this type of meditating quite difficult. But we could turn the dices in our favour by using long-time proven useful tools.

 

Tools for the hearing

 

Cymbals or singing bowls are traditional meditation instruments. Their sound usually marks the beginning and the end of a meditating session. But it could be also a meditation in itself: you can meditate while listening to the cymbals sound (there are lots of recordings available on the Internet).

 

By listening to the cymbals sound every time at the beginning of the meditation, you help the mind switch from noisy to meditating mood. Like a ritual, you are actually creating a pattern.

 

By practicing it constantly, the mind learns to calm down because it’s that time of the day dedicated to letting everything else go.

Try our favourites, the Tibetan Singing Bowl Set

 

meditation and senses singing bowl set

 

Certain music works the same way. Usually low frequency music can be used as a support in meditation, it’s proven to be effective for stress release and relaxation. Some sounds can be used even to alter the frequency of our brainwaves activity. So, in case you find silent meditation too difficult, you still have the choice of a music meditation session. It’s very effective and no less valuable than the spiritual one.

 

Tools for the sight

 

Most of us meditate with the eyes closed, but this doesn’t mean some of us can’t see. Our thoughts create mental images which, unless we are talking about a visualisation meditation technique, disturb us from concentrating on the breathing. It happens usually to very creative people, with great power of visualisation.

 

Without intending to, they can recall mental pictures of stressful scenes that happened during the day. Or they can transform feelings of hate, anxiety or fear into images.

 

The result is the lack of concentration during meditation and, sometimes, an increased feeling of restlessness. To avoid these situations, we can practice meditation with opened eyes, focusing the sight on a spot, a candle’s flame, for example.

Our favourite is the classy collection of chakra 7 candles.

 

meditation and senses

Tools for the smell

 

The smell is less disturbing than sight and hearing during meditation, especially when practicing at home, in a safe place. But we can use the power of smell to induce a state of relaxation to our mind.

Burning incenses during meditation is both a purifying ritual and a pleasant way to settle in a spiritual mood.

We love these White Sage incense sticks

 

meditation and senses incense White Sage

 

Meditation and senses are strongly linked. Forced to be quiet, our mind will always look for ways to escape the silence, using the senses as the link between us and the noisy world outside. But it is up to us to determine the way this relationship goes.

 

 

SparkYourBloom Today And Everyday!

 

 

Radiana is an editorial and marketing content strategist and creator. She is inspired by the people she has been working with during her 20 years long publishing journey, as well as the people she meets while traveling and those part of her yoga practice.All her projects are driven by her passion and her commitment, becoming a member of each community she engages with.