Month: September 2019

In this post today, I am sharing with you a very powerful mediation called as the Alpha Brainwave meditation. This meditation can give you a very deep relaxation in a short duration of 7-10 minutes.

I recommend people to do this daily at their workplace for 5-7 minutes after their lunch break. It can give the mind and body a fantastic level of relaxation from workplace stress and mental fatigue.

To give you a bit of background, our brain operates at different frequencies ranging from 0.5 Hz to 40 Hz or even more, depending on the degree of activity of the body or mind. These frequencies can be measured using an EEG by probes attached to the head and body.

At an alert and active state the brain operates at Beta frequency band which is from 15 to 40 Hz. If we start relaxing ourselves then the frequency will get lowered into the Alpha range which is from 7 to 14 Hz. Relaxing below that will get one into Theta which is from 4 to 6 Hz and below that is Delta i.e 4 Hz and below indicating extremely deep sleep.

The picture below shows the frequencies.

The Alpha Brainwave meditation, in just 7 minutes can give very deep relaxation equivalent to 2 hours of Nights sleep. To achieve the Alpha state we simply must relax ourselves to the alpha zone (7-14 hz) and then maintain our awareness at that state without allowing our brain to go down to Theta level where we would fall asleep.

Just follow the steps below and in 5 minutes you will be in the Alpha state. You might ask how you’d know that you are at alpha. There’s a way to figure out that out too. At the alpha brainwave state, our eyelids get locked. So, once you reach a fairly deep level of relaxation, just check (don’t forcefully open but just check) if your eyelids feel locked or heavy. That is an indicator of successful entry into alpha.

Then you can stay in the alpha state for 5-7 minutes and follow the simple 10 count process to get out from alpha to beta state.

The moment brain frequency cones above 14 hz, eyes would automatically open.

Steps are as below:

1. Sit on a chair in a relaxed way with your back completely resting on the backrest, feet firmly on the ground and hands on thighs. Neck should be straight and eyes gazing at any point on the horizontal plane.
2. Keep breathing normally and close your eyes. Surrender the entire weight of your body to the chair and floor through the backrest and your feet.
3. Starting with a count of 30 in your mind, with every exhale, count down one number and keep relaxing your body parts one by one from toe to head. Keep relaxing as you count from 30-29-28-27 with every exhale and do this till the time you reach zero.
4. Keep relaxing your toes, feet, ankle, calves, knee, thighs, hip, abdomen, back, shoulders, hands, (palms, wrist, fore and hind arms, ) head region, forehead, eyes. Have a  gentle smile on your face.
5. By this time you would have reach down to a count of 0. Keep relaxing yourself for 1 minute more every time you exhale. Now your brain would have already reached the Alpha zone.
6. To check if you have reached alpha, check if your eyelids feel heavy  or locked. if this happens, it is a proof that you have reached Alpha. Be here in this zone for 5-7 minutes. let thoughts come in and go out as the want. don’t interact with those thoughts. be a spectator/ witness to their entry and exit.
7. Now is the time to get out from Alpha back into Beta. Simply start counting from 1 to 10 min your mind, every time make some gentle movements of your legs, hands, head etc. by the time you reach 10, you’d be close to Beta. then rub your palms together and check if your eyes open. If they open it means you are back to Beta. in case they don’t open, just rub your palms again and move them over your face till eyes open.
8. You are back to beta and may continue with your day. Hope you enjoy this experience.

Alpha meditation is also used for manifesting things by visualization. However, I will write about that in another post.

Have a nice day ahead.

In my earlier posts, I have suggested some easy methods for achieving a state of stillness by completely silencing the mind. Some people who try these but are still not able to achieve a still state of the mind, come to me asking for further easier methods. In such cases, I recommend the Moment to moment mental commentary method which according to what I have experienced is the easiest method to achieve a mindless state especially for people who find it very difficult to sit at one place and meditate or keep their mind still.

In this method, there is no need to sit at one place, instead we can go ahead with whatever we are doing but have a commentary of what we are doing, running silently in the background. (Not loudly .. but in our mind). Along with this commentary, we also need to maintain awareness of the body and the actions that we are performing. I have found that it is helpful to become mindful and aware of our actions. It helps us to access the now by becoming anchored to the actions that we are performing. It is helpful if we slow down our actions a little bit by about 10-20 %  or more while doing this.

Also, it helps to disassociate our real self i.e. the witness deep within from the Body which has a name and identity. For instance, my name is Sachin, which is the name that my parents gave to this body of mine when it came into existence. However, the real me, the one who’s been eternally present, who’s wearing this body of mine like a clothing, and who’s been witnessing everything my body does, is different from Sachin. This spirit doesn’t  have any name and form. This spirit was there before this body came into existence and will remain after this body ceases to exist. So, the idea is to become aware of the fact that our real presence is different from this body of ours that is in action. it can actually watch the body silently from the background. Now let’s understand how to do this.

As I get up from my chair, I say in my mind.. ” Sachin is getting up from the chair”  then as I walk up to pick up the newspaper, I say .. “Sachin is now walking” then .. Sachin is picking up the newspaper, Sachin is reading a news related to India’s win in Olympics …   and I let the commentary go on silently in my mind . Then if I go to the kitchen to toast some bread, I say Sachin is putting bread into the toaster, Sachin is applying butter to it, etc… Basically, I am anchoring myself to the NOW, the Present moment. And when we anchor ourselves to the NOW, the mind simply disappears. It cannot exist in the Here and Now.

After a few minutes of doing this, the commentary will become very silent and will fade into our awareness. we just are deeply aware of each action but are not saying it in my mind. Just let this continue for a while and you’ll feel a deep sense of silence, stillness and calmness in my body. Gradually, you might feel as if you are floating (This will take time. Don’t expect this if you are doing it for the first time) .

Everyday spend 5-10 minutes doing this moment to moment commentary awareness meditation and you will start realizing a very deep change happening within.

I suggest that you do this at a time when you are at home and not at your workplace. Choose a time when you don’t need to interact with anyone face to face or phone.  It becomes too challenging that way. Do it when you are with yourself at home or having a morning walk or while shopping.

Try this and let me know if you need any support from my side. Have a nice day ahead !!