Meditation For Dummies

Description

Meditation For Dummies is written by Stephan Bodian. This book is about Meditation.

About Stephan Bodian

Stephan Bodian is an internationally known author, psychotherapist, and teacher. He leads regular intensives and retreats and offers spiritual counseling and mentoring to people throughout the world. His bestselling app Mindfulness Meditation (with Mental Workout) has been praised in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

About the Book

This book Includes What Meditation Is, and what Isn’t, Why Meditate, Where Meditation Comes From, Laying the Foundation, How Your Mind Stresses You Out and What You Can Do about It, Relaxing Your Body and Calming Your Mind, Preparing for Meditation, Effort, Discipline, and Letting Go, Meditation in Action etc.

Meditation

The great thing about meditation is that it’s actually quite simple. Just sit down, be quiet, turn your attention inward, and focus your mind. That’s all there is to it, really (see the sidebar “Meditation: It’s easier than you think”). Then why, you may be wondering, do people write so many books and articles about meditation — including detailed books like this one? Why not just offer a few brief instructions and forget about all the verbiage? Say that you’re planning to take a long trip by car to some picturesque location. You could just jot down the directions and follow them one by one. After a few days, you’d probably get where you want to go. But you’ll enjoy the trip more if you have a travel guide to point out the sights along the way — and you may feel more secure if you carry a troubleshooting manual to tell you what to do when you have problems with your car. Perhaps you’d like to take some side trips to scenic spots or even change your itinerary entirely and get there by a different route — or a different vehicle!

In the same way, you can consider the practice of meditation to be a journey of sorts — and the book you hold in your hands to be a travel guide. This chapter provides an overview of your trip, offers some alternative routes to your destination, explains the basic skills you need to know to get you there — and points to some detours that may advertise the same benefits but that doesn’t really deliver.