Starting Meditation

Thought I would do a quick guide for those who have never done meditation.
Meditation links the left and right side of the brain increasing the communication between the 'logical' and 'intuitive' aspects of ourselves. It slows down the heart rate and brainwave activity bringing about a gentle deep form of relaxation. Mental stress and anxiety are alleviated and muscles relax causing less pain.

It is always best to wear loose clothing and to close the curtains or dim the lights. You can use a little music to help you still your mind...nature sounds are best at first but be sure to switch this off when you feel relaxed. Lighting a candle helps focus your mind and burning incense will also have the same effect.
Turn off the phone and ensure that you will not be disturbed by others in the household. Set a time of 5 to 20 mins to start and stick to that.

Sit in a comfortable position either on the floor or on a chair. Take three deep breaths, exhaling fully then breathe at your normal rhythm. Feel yourself begin to relax and allow passing thoughts to drift away without paying attention to them.

As you breathe in,imagine you are becoming filled with a sensation of lightness and peace. As you breathe out, allow all tension and anxiety to flow out.
Follow the pace of your breath and feel yourself becoming more relaxed and peaceful. Be aware of your breath as a life-force that sustains you. Ignore any distractions that come into your mind and keep the flow of breath deep and easy.
Now find a word that means something to you...peace...tranquility...hope...love...whatever and repeat both with the in-breath and out-breath. You will feel the emotion associated with that word become infused into your being.
After a few minutes, return your full attention to your breathing. Take three deep breaths and bring your attention back to your body and your surroundings. Wriggle your fingers and toes and stretch a little. Open your eyes and remember where you are.
Sit quietly for a few moments and become aware of your everyday state of awareness. Put on some gentle music and enjoy the sensation of peace and calm before returning to your daily activities.


I will be showing meditations to help different situations later on but this takes practice to still the mind but the results are well worth it!
Enjoy

Here is a link to a good site covering meditations
http://www.freemeditations.com/

There is an exercise you can do to allow the Light to Grow!
http://www.freemeditations.com/free_...ion_light.html

I completely agree. Meditation has many properties that energise and relax you as well as inspire you like nothing else. Not only that, I had the most amazing 'dreams' if you can call them that while meditating. It's fantastic for both body and mind and very easy to do!

Admittedly, I've been out of touch lately and this has spurred me back into it.

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Originally Posted by little bird

Not only that, I had the most amazing 'dreams' if you can call them that while meditating. It's fantastic for both body and mind and very easy to do!

Admittedly, I've been out of touch lately and this has spurred me back into it.

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I one hundred percent agree with you on this. Meditation can be good for many things. The spiritual aspect is what turned me onto it. I have often felt the same way and have experienced those "dreams." I have always felt that it was an effect of my body connecting with my soul.

Meditation is the basis for every thing if you want to experience and understand the meaning of spirituality. If you only learn one thing, learn this. When we start that inner dialogue with self through meditation, all the doors will open and the world is your oyster.

One of the ways I share how I meditate is to talk about prayer. Most people are familiar with what it means to pray and meditation is a natural extension of prayer. Prayer utilizes our hearts and minds just as meditation does. Prayer also connects us to the Divine and thru meditation you connect to the Divine with in, you find your own divinity, your original self.

Meditation to me is simply learning to listen. My suggestion is that you not focus on letting go or clearing your mind, but rather focus on listening. Go into your quite place with in and simply listen to your heart, to your soul. Once you have learned to do this one thing you can begin to act with in your highest good.

I would also share something I believe to be very important....

Approach your spirituality with out preconceptions. Let go of a need for it to look a certain way or appear like any one elses ideas or experiences. Our imaginations are incredibly powerful things and when we walk into any thing in life loaded with the ideas and expectations our imagination is programed to facilitate those expectations. So instead of getting the true benifits, we've given ourselves something less than.

So many people hear, "Learn to love yourself more" and then walk away with a huge question... "HOW!?"

The communication with self you gain from meditation is the "how". Its the begining.

For those on a spiritual path, meditation is like taking your daily vitamins and minerals. You'll notice a change in how you feel almost imediately.

ok... well that's my two cents worth. I hope it helps.

Brother

Thanks very much brother, for your suggestions! I think the info you gave is worth much more than two cents!! lol
Please feel free to add any info you would like to on any of these threads...it all helps.
HUGS

Just picture yourself as an old phonograph record, with your current status going into meditation being on the outer edges, and the Core Truth being the extrememost center point you want to reach.

You projected yourself away from the Core to go about everyday living, which causes distraction. To get back to the Truth, you have to UNproject yourself back to it.

As the "needle" goes around and around, focus on not allowing it to "skip" and send you back "out there" again. Each time you meditate, don't try to force your way to the middle, because "skipping" your way to it is not going to get you there with any kind of genuine clarity. (Example: there are those who think they can become Conscious through drugs and hallucinations. That couldn't be farther from the truth. When you get to the Core, you need to be fully present, not hiding out somewhere off to the side.)

What happens to you when you meditate is that your neurons and neural pathways are increasingly able to align their connections with reality as you progress, (as opposed to conventional misinterpretation of reality), so just allow them to do what they already know how to do, and simply quietly observe without trying to influence them, which only sends you back out into projection and distraction. You must relinquish all control and simply observe. The truth knows what to do to get you there. It's like an elastic band that gets stretched out with distraction and lack of resolution, (forgetting), as opposed to only slightly stretched to live, all the while keeping yourself aware with devoted return (zen).

The more your neurons and neural pathways are allowed to free themselves (same dynamic as sleeping and the reason dreams happen), the more your awareness multiplies exponentially, because the more they are unmanipulated by you, the more they naturally gather and congeal toward truth, until they have resolved their own "issues" of entanglement and a higher process (multidimensionality) takes over.

Just picture a circle with a dot in the middle, and aim for that dot, not expecting to reach it until you've become experienced in pure observation meditation enough for it to happen naturally. Make your goal each meditation to simply move closer than the last time, to the Core.

Prayer "works" because while the behavior is different (prayer and talking vs meditation and quiet), the dynamic, or process toward the Core Truth (inner directed answer within oneself/inner dependency), often anthropomorphized as "God"/Deity (outer directed answer without oneself/outer dependency), is the SAME, physics wise. The more one focuses and quiets oneself, the more the natural alignment/elastic band tries to *return* to its original, most natural state. So, prayer and meditation are parallel physics. The more clarity is reached, the more the answers sought, within or without, appear through the clutter.

The truth is in the middle.

:Buddha2:

wonderfully said MystEerieUsOne :)

Reading over this thread reminded me of how important it is to meditate on a daily (if possible) basis. The trick is to practice...practice shutting out the mind's 'noise'...all those little thoughts that can creep in...."what will I do for dinner tomorrow?"...."Did I remember to lock the door leaving home this morning?" and so on.
It is this noise that distracts and practice makes perfect.
I also like what has been said here before about discussing it like prayer...it is a state of being, of mind and therefore one important thing to remember is it is not the words you say, or how you say it but your intention that carries the power to heal, to love, to care, to work magic.

Did a little 5 min meditation last night, which was seriously needed!!

It is truly amazing just how natural it is ... and one comes out feeling better, clear minded and purposeful all around. :) :giveheart

Well said Lorri. And right on Polly.
Meditation has a truly bennificial place in all of our daily lives.
First thought that comes to mind; Balance. ;)

I have meditated daily (more or less) since I was about 17. It has had a profound effect on me - I'm renowned for my general chilled-outness and sometimes when asked about this, I say that most likely meditation is the cause. Even 5 minutes is tremendously helpful. It takes us out of the mind and ego structure and brings us back to our natural balance.

Some things I've learned over the years is that meditation is a state of being, a state of openness and awareness. It's often confused with the 'doing' of a technique, but the technique is just a means to steady the mind. The technique itself isn't really that important, just so long as the person finds something that works for them, and I think different people seem to be better with different methods. The simplest is usually the best, such as awareness of breath like Lorri said.

I find that the greatest block is using meditation to chase after a certain experience, feeling or state. If there's any ulterior motive or desire to achieve some state, then we usually block ourselves. The mind and ego are slippery and can easily commandeer the process. The best meditation instruction I've found is by Adyashanti who writes of it in his book 'True meditation' and is simply to be in a state of accepting, non-striving and allowing everything to be. There's no motive, no goal, no agenda - just allowing everything to be, the mind eventually loosens its grip and we experience our true nature as an expanse of unconditioned awareness, free, ungrasping and non-manipulative of our experience. We don't have to 'add' peace and stillness to ourselves or strive toward them; they're already there. So liberating! I would be a complete headcase if I hadn't gifted myself with the ability to enter meditation. I recommend it to everyone!!

Meditation helps you to refresh you mind form stressful life and refresh your mind from thinking negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Also it provides effective health and meditation techniques for anxiety treatment, inner healing, stress reduction, and good sleeping habits.

Absolutely! I am actually planning to, when I get the chance, create an online meditation course including youtube videos. I've wanted to teach meditation for some time now. Ideally I like to spend 2 hours a day meditating where possible. I cut out other activities to do this. I incorporate qigong and Taoist yoga practises into this time as well, as well as 5 minutes of mantra chanting to begin with, as this balances the energies and gets things moving. Stay tuned :)

Right on Bluestar. I'm looking forward to your sharing.
I completely agree that meditation is vital to our lives. It truly makes all the difference at the core of our being.

Thank's for the information, Meditation truly helps us to be free form all negative thoughts and look up life in a positive way. It is also a way that we need communicate to our soul and makes our life feels better.

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Originally Posted by mxqigong

It is also a way that we need communicate to our soul and makes our life feels better.

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Very true indeed ... keeping the line of communication open with one's True-Self is paramount ... :)