It is safe to say that over the past decade meditation has become one of the most popular and most effective relaxation and self-development methods. It is now practiced by people of all ages, faith traditions, lifestyles and social backgrounds.

• Doctors actively recommend it to their patients to help them cope with an increasing amount of work stress, to cure insomnia and even to speed up physical recovery.
• Vast psychological research continues to uncover new “mental” benefits of meditation: from enhanced focus and ability to quickly enter the state of flow to improved decision-making skill.
• Many active meditation practitioners, who take up this practice out of curiosity or for health purposes soon discover something that goes beyond simple stress relief. They gain greater understanding of themselves. Their relationships with people improve. They develop a more optimistic outlook on life and learn to handle effectively whatever comes their way.

And these are only a few of the benefits meditation has to offer. You can read the full list here.

If you are new to meditation or would like to make it a part of your daily ritual, here are 3 of my favorite Simple Meditations that I have personally practiced for more than 10 years now:

1. One-four-two breathing.

One of the simplest and most powerful meditations for both beginners and long-term practitioners is deep breathing exercise. In our hectic lives more and more people feel rushed, overwhelmed, and literally out of breath.

One-four-two meditation is a great way to slow down, relax your body and quieten an overly agitated mind.

Method:

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There is a strange paradox in our society, we spend our days trying to catch up with everything that needs to get done – finishing work projects, answering hundreds of emails, settling arguments and resolving problems, yet deep inside the only thing we long for is serenity, tranquility and inner peace.

Most of us impatiently look forward to the weekends and summer vacations, hoping to snatch a few moments of peace and quiet and restore our physical and mental energy. We look for tranquility in the outside world, waiting for all the conditions to be just right. But the truth is that real, unshakable, all-encompassing peace comes from within.

There is no need to wait for it, when you can grow it under your feet.

Here are 9 Essential Steps to Cultivating Inner Peace:

1. Meditate

In everyday life our thoughts determine our state of mind either adding to our happiness or causing a kind of mental unrest and frustration. While we can not always control our thoughts, we can consciously decide which thoughts to follow and which ones to reject. There are hundreds of different positive thinking techniques, but when it comes to cultivating inner peace and practicing awareness, there is nothing more effective and powerful than meditation. As little as 20 minutes of meditation a day will replenish your emotional resources and allow you to keep your cool when facing challenging situations.

2. Delegate your worries to the Universe

If phrases like “have faith” and “trust the Universe” sound somewhat generic to you, try the following:

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if just for half an hour a day, we could escape the big city noise, its traffic, its busy frantic life – where everyone is rushing somewhere, doing something, calling someone? If just for half an hour we could make time stop and stay in the ‘now’ – praying, meditating, letting ourselves soak in the surroundings, feeling a wave of peace, relaxation and absolute harmony wash through our body? If we did not have to worry about; picking up the kids after school, getting ready for a meeting at work, remembering to buy laundry detergent?

It sounds too good to be true?

It is our birth right to have our own piece of the world, where we can feel that way. This place is called a sacred space. And the best thing is that you do not have to climb to the top of the Himalayan Mountains or go deep into the wild to finally reach it. Your personal little sanctuary can be created right in your own house.

Here is a step-by-step manual to create your own sacred space:

1. Choose a place in your house that feels good.

No, I am not talking about the couch in front of the TV. I am talking about an area that feels peaceful. It can be a corner of your bedroom that is illuminated by the first rays of sunlight at dawn, a place in your living room that is not directly visible from the hallway or a sunroom overlooking a garden. For example, my sacred space is hidden in a little wall arch in my bedroom.

2. Do some cleaning.

It is strange how it works, but cleaning and decluttering the place for your sanctuary, actually clears away old negative energy and allows calming positive energy to flow freely throughout the space.

3. Create an altar space.

An altar is a spiritual focus point of a house that serves as an acknowledgment of your sacred space. It does not matter whether you believe in God, the Universe, Higher Powers, or Artificial Intelligence – building your home’s sacred space is not about religion. It is about bringing out the spiritual part in you. To me an altar is the focus point during my meditations, a portal that helps me to connect with divine energy, and a reminder of what is truly important in my life and what is merely the buzz of our busy materialistic world.

So how do you start building your personal home altar?

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