Meditation is becoming very popular, as more people become aware of its many benefits.
These include stress relief, better physical and mental health, and the ability to explore your mind's full potential.
Meditation can be a truly life changing practice, so why is it that many new meditators feel discouraged after trying it? If you've been meditating for a while, and finding that meditation isn't living up to the claims made for it, you might be thinking about giving up.
You're not alone: while people decide to stop meditating for different reasons, in many cases it's because they're frustrated with their inability to focus their minds.
Maybe you know what it's like - you sit down to meditate, and all that happens is that your thoughts swell around your head in an uncontrollable cacophony.
This is the famous 'monkey mind' in action, and it's extremely common.
It is the nature of the mind to think, and most of us have not learned any mind control techniques, so the focus and mental relaxation that meditation requires is a whole new skill to be learned.
It's not an easy skill to learn either for most, yet the reaping the benefits of meditation requires learning to get your thoughts under control.
While there are many different ways to meditate, most involve fixing your thoughts on something (such as your breath or a mantra), or trying to quieten down the mind altogether.
It is when you achieve this mentally calm, quiet and relaxed state that meditation's benefits begin to show themselves.
However, with traditional meditation techniques, it can take considerable time before the beginning meditator learns to establish any degree of mental control at all.
And most people don't have the time or the inclination to keep meditating every day in the face of this often formidable learning curve.
And so, they give up, and forever close themselves off from experiencing meditation's many rewards.
This is a huge shame, especially as there are some meditation methods which are easier for most people.
These include brainwave entrainment meditation, which involves listening to a special recording which incorporates repetitive sounds of specific frequencies.
Brainwave entrainment technologies such as binaural beats and isochronic tones have been shown to have a powerful effect on the brain.
Thanks to a natural phenomenon called the 'frequency following response', the brain has a tendency to match its own brain wave output to the frequencies of the sounds that its hearing.
Since successful meditation involves the production of lower frequency brain waves than in normal waking consciousness, listening to such a recording can make it easier to achieve and maintain a deep meditative state.
So if you're thinking of giving up meditation, it is really worth trying out a brainwave entrainment meditation recording first.
While using such a recording still requires focus and some mental effort on your part (i.
e.
, it's not a magical quick fix that will instantly transport you into a deep trance state with zero effort whatsoever!), you don't have to do all the work yourself, because the recording helps your brain to relax more naturally and easily.