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How To Meditate

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How To Meditate For Beginners – 4 Important Techniques

How To Meditate For BeginnersMeditation is the practice that serves to educate the mind and become more conscious in your daily life and career.

Meditation restores the connection with your inner true self, which in turn provides clarity and peace of mind.

It helps you to understand our own life in a better way and also provides you with a harmonious way of life with your surroundings.

Getting started in meditation as a beginner is a decision that will bring you many benefits in all the areas of life. With the current turmoil in society that is always going faster and faster, many times we get mentally and physically fatigued and become unbalanced. Meditation will help us maintain our balance and perform better in the tasks of everyday life.

Like everything in life, in the beginning, it will require a little more effort to keep focused attention to achieve a daily meditation practice. But the important thing is to always keep exploring meditation methods and keep practicing every day, for at least 10 minutes. Over time it will become increasingly simple and you will feel what this practice of meditation can bring to your life.

There are different techniques and exercises to meditate, you just have to find the one that best suits your lifestyle, the place you choose and the time you will spend meditating. Every day you spend a few minutes meditating, you can get the great benefits that meditation offers everyone. So in the following article, I will explain how to meditate for beginners and the four important techniques to use in your daily meditation practice.

What are the benefits of meditating as a beginner?

Meditation Techniques For Beginners

Meditation brings many benefits to the practitioner. Every time we meditate we improve our mental, emotional and physical health.

Meditation serves to optimize memory, relieve stress, depression, anxiety and also helps lower blood pressure. Develop empathy towards people and increase emotional intelligence and happiness.

When you learn how to meditate and make it a habit, the ability to concentrate increases, thus preventing our mind from wandering and getting distracted easily.

It is also used as a tool to treat addictions as in the case of Mindfulness meditation techniques. When we meditate we can also boost our immune system, which makes us less vulnerable to getting sick.

So, how meditation can help us to deal with both our physical and our mental health?

These are some of the great benefits of the practice any beginner can enjoy:

Greater tolerance to pain

Meditation can make us more tolerant of pain. Just ten minutes of mindfulness meditation could be used as an alternative to painkillers, according to pain meditation techniques research by Leeds Beckett University. 

Leeds Beckett University. “Meditation could be a cheaper alternative to traditional pain medication, study suggests.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 June 2017.

Results of the study suggest that a single ten-minute mindfulness meditation session administered by a novice therapist can improve pain tolerance, pain threshold and decrease anxiety towards pain.

“The mindfulness mediation was led by a researcher who was a novice, so in theory, clinicians could administer this with little training needed. It’s based on traditional Buddhist teachings that focus attention and awareness on your breathing.”

Reduce negative thoughts and feelings

Reduce and finally eliminate the negative thoughts and feelings that often overwhelm us, such as hate, resentment, greed, among others. It will help us to feel comfortable with ourselves, therefore relationships with others will improve considerably.

You can clarify our ideas for smarter decisions

By giving us mental clarity, meditation helps us make smarter decisions. It will help us to better fall asleep when we start in meditation and have a more relaxed and deep rest. Meditation mainly serves to improve our quality of life and performance in the activities of our daily routines and increased creativity at work.

Basic Meditation for Beginners: how does it work?

Your Meditation JourneyA basic beginner meditation will begin with attention to breathing. Start by choosing a quiet place where you can meditate without interruption. It can be in your room, or in a garden, where you feel most comfortable. The important thing is that it is harmonious and that you can go there every day to meditate away from those who don’t meditate.

The best thing is that you choose a time of day in which you can spend for practice every day. It is recommended that it be in the morning when you wake up before you start your daily activities, and/or at night before going to bed.

Avoid any distractions, turn off all electronics, ask your family and friends not to interrupt you during your meditation time. Put on comfortable clothes, preferably baggy. Use a blanket if needed, it’s very important to be warm and comfortable when meditating.

Use an appropriate body position, it is recommended that you learn how to meditate sitting if possible. You can lay down if you have health problems or you have been meditating for some time. You can use a meditation cushion for your comfort as well.

Start by closing your eyes and focusing your attention on your breath, inhale and exhale slowly feeling the air move gently in and out through your nose. Try one minute with a timer, then the next day try five minutes increasing each day up to twenty minutes in the morning and evening.

The power of your breath

Mental chatter and distractions will surely arise, let the thoughts manifest but don’t give your attention to them. Let them come into your mind and leave your mind by focusing only on your breathing.

When you get distracted remember to put your attention back on your breath. In this way, your help self to always be attentive in the present moment.

After you learn to stay focused and alert to the present, without paying attention to your breath then you will be prepared to continue with more advanced meditation techniques. The important thing in achieving results is to be consistent and spend at least a few minutes every day to practice the meditation method.

How can you start to meditate?

My recommendation is that you do not rush your meditation journey, but meditate with constancy.

To start meditating, you have to have a daily time, even just five minutes to dedicate it to your daily meditation.

It will be your personal time, try to always meditate at the same time, that will help you integrate it into your lifestyle. 5 minutes to start with is more than enough.

You wouldn’t deny yourself at least 5 minutes of your day to change your life, right?

The important thing in meditation is constancy, you have to develop this important habit on a daily basis.

This is the only way you will achieve constant and permanent results to begin to perceive greater mental clarity, better energy levels and enjoy all the benefits of inner peace and happiness.

Once the mind is calm you can stop focusing your mind on the breath and you can start a visualization to live the life of your dreams. Through this visualization you can create the reality you desire and want, intentionally programming your future with calm and precision, generating the many rich details of your desires.

This meditation strategy improves attention and makes it easier to have a clearer and quieter mind, which will be reflected in your life.

How to meditate correctly? The four essential techniques to meditate effectively

To meditate correctly we have to keep in mind the following techniques so that your meditation is successful and you can enjoy the benefits for your mind and body.

1. Body Technique

Body position must combine two aspects: stability and staying awake, so doing it lying down is not recommended unless for health concerns, unless you already have some experience in meditating.

The posture should allow you to remain still and at the same time attentive for as long as possible. It is essential for proper meditation.

2. Emotional Technique

We must allow everything that appears in your consciousness to flow freely. Accept every feeling, emotion or thought as it is, without choosing or rejecting. Just simply return your focus gently on your breathing.

3. Mental Technique

Do not take sides with or against anything in your mind, no matter what it is. Do not judge your own feelings, sensations or thoughts. Don’t say, “This is good, this is wrong.” If judgments and assessments appear in your mind, be aware of the judgments and assessments that have emerged and let them be without giving them importance.

It is important to know that controlling of your mind is essential to obtain all the benefits of meditation. It will get easier with practice, just keep at it and don’t give up on yourself. Believe and feel the knowingness deep inside you that you deserve this experience in your life!

4. Spiritual Technique

It’s a true fact that only the true seekers of Spirituality become the masters of their destiny. Knowingly or unknowingly many individuals who have a materialistic goal in life travel the path of Spirituality and become successful in life.

It isn’t a happening by chance… all was the result of a law. These highly acclaimed people unknowingly tread the path of pure Spirituality and accomplish their goals in their life.

Without Spirituality, the life of an individual is like a rudderless boat going round and round in the unfathomable sea of life. It’s Spirituality, which teaches every individual the real value of life. being spiritual isn’t being religious alone. Spirituality teaches us the core values of life. It teaches the real essence of us!

Spirituality has no relationship whatsoever with religion. Following a religion means following the dictates of a successful spiritual master. One who has already covered the journey and has become capable of mankind to its logical end.

At its core, spiritual meditation is the mindful practice of connection to something that is greater, vaster, and deeper than the individual self. It may seem paradoxical, but the path to that connection passes through honest self-reflection.

One of the best ways I know to initiate this process of awakening to the Truth of who we are is to let go into the stillness of deep spiritual meditation.

These are the first steps to learn how to meditate for beginners. Remember to always live your meditation practice as a journey with commitment, patience, and kindness towards yourself. Your future meditation session goal should be a pure moment of bliss, a moment where you can be yourself with no masks, no stress and where you can learn to be the best version of yourself and carry that into your personal life and career.

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How To Meditate: Five Easy Steps To Begin Your Journey Of Mediation

How To Meditate: Five Easy Steps To Begin Your Journey Of Mediation

In this age of hyper-connectivity when we are wired in 24×7, the mind and body crave peace and quiet. But to disconnect even for a short while and investing that time in rejuvenating the mind and body seems like a tall task to achieve?

What if you miss an important text or email, what if the call you are expecting comes right at the moment when you decide to disconnect? If thoughts like these are clouding your mind, meditation is just the thing you need to calm your frayed nerves! If you are finding it difficult to begin, don’t worry.

In all, meditation is a relatively risk-free practice and its benefits are well worth the effort (or non-effort remember we’re relaxing).

Studies have shown that meditation does bring about beneficial physiologic effects on the body. And there has been a growing consensus in the medical community to further study the effects of such. Among the documented benefits of meditation are less anxiety, decreased depression, reduction in irritability and moodiness, better learning ability and memory and greater creativity.

That’s just for starters. Then there are slower aging (possibly due to higher DHEA levels), feelings of vitality and rejuvenation, less stress (actual lowering of cortisol and lactate levels), rest (lower metabolic and heart rate), lower blood pressure, and higher blood oxygen levels

So start now in creating your health and well being…start meditating today!

Here Are Some Easy Tips To Get You Started:

1. Do not overthink. Just begin

Do not think of meditation as a tall task. You do not need a grass mat or pristine clothing to practice mindfulness. All you need to do is get started. You can meditate, literally anytime and anywhere. All you have to do is have the willingness to benefit from the art of meditation. However, if you are looking for guidance on the time of the day best suited to meditation, we suggest early morning. When you wake up refreshed, you are in the best frame of mind. A short meditation session soon after you wake up is likely to bring about success.

2. Make it a daily habit

Like every good habit, such as eating right or exercising daily, meditation requires consistency to be able to bring about benefits. Thus it is very important to practice meditation on a daily basis. It may seem artificial for the first few days, but it is only a matter of time before it seems effortless and natural.

3. Nothing is wrong when you meditate

When you first begin meditating in all earnest, you will find a lot of thoughts coming and going. There is nothing wrong with this. Do not get discouraged if you are easily distracted at first. Just concentrate on your breathing and you will find yourself being able to meditate effortlessly eventually without getting distracted.

4. Take small steps

Do not be too ambitious by setting up a target of 45 minutes sessions right at the beginning. If you are too ambitious, there is a good chance you will get distracted and quit. Instead, begin with a goal of 5-10 minutes daily and increase your session spans gradually.

5. Don’t get caught up with your progress rate

You may have read about the many benefits of meditation and thus in your mind, you have built up certain expectations of how it may benefit you. However, after a period of time, you may find that the changes that you had been expecting have not come through for you.

However, this does not mean that you have not progressed. The progress of meditation is often hard to define in timelines. The key lies inconsistency. Be consistent and willing. You are bound to find changes in due course of time.

Why You Should Learn How To Meditate

When the topic of mindfulness is mentioned in tandem with the word meditation, for some reason it conjures up some people in a faraway retreat in white clothes and natural surroundings practicing mediation. Meditation, however, does not need you to do any such thing.

Meditation is all about getting in touch with your body, thoughts, and emotions. You can thus choose to meditate just about anywhere. Even if you have five minutes to spare and spend that meditating, you would be in better touch with your own self.

In this fast-paced life, perhaps you are so busy fending for your family, that you have forgotten the real you. As time goes by and you brush away the many emotions, small and big that you experience in the course of life. Over time you feel low on energy and emotionally depleted.

As a result, there are likely to be repercussions on the home or the work front, as you gradually realize that you are no longer in control of your body, mind or spirit. And that is not a happy feeling. This is where meditation comes in handy.

If you are still wondering is it really worth it to learn how to meditate, here are some good reasons to ponder on:

Meditation generates positivity

Meditation is known to enhance the flow of constructive thoughts and positive energy. There is enough scientific evidence to prove the pre-frontal cortex of the brain (the part that is associated with the feeling of happiness) is more active in individuals who meditate even for a few minutes each day.

Helps you deal with stress, anxiety, and depression

In the fast-paced complicated lives that we all lead today stress, anxiety and depression have become our day to day companions. By focussing on the moment and “being present” or “mindful” as it is said, you can deal with feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression deftly. Mediation provides you with the tools to remain calm even when situations around you are stressful.

Meditation helps you tackle insomnia

Another modern-day malady that most of us experience is that of insomnia. Nearly 6 out of 10 people worldwide are presently suffering from some sort of sleep deprivation at the root of which is stress and anxiety. Meditation that helps you tackle stress and anxiety as mentioned before, will also help you fall asleep faster as it triggers the relaxation response.

Thus as you can see, meditation has numerous benefits. So if you have been skeptical about meditation, now is the time to dispel your fears and get started.

A Quick Beginner’s Guide To Meditation

You may have heard your friends or relatives wax eloquent about meditation and its benefits at various times. Switch on the television, and you perhaps have some celebrity telling you how daily mediation helps them course better through the journey of life. All of this has you intrigued to the point of trying out meditation yourself. But as a rank newcomer, you are left wondering how to meditate for beginners!

First up, congratulations on your decision to learn meditation techniques for beginners. Meditation is all about being present here and now and you are going to be able to witness all the benefits first hand.

Eight Basic Steps Of Meditation

Now let us take you through the eight basic steps of mediation that you can build on, as per the guidelines you choose to follow:

Step one: Find a quiet place in your home or office at any part of the day and settle on a comfortable chair, cushion or bench.

Step two: Check your posture. The key is to keep your back straight, wherever you choose to sit.

Step three: Breath! (Sounds, hopelessly simple we know!) but breathe mindfully. What you need to do is feel your physical presence as you breathe in and out.

Step four: Do not be concerned about modifying or rectifying the respiration process. Simply feel the breath up to your belly and enjoy its ebb and flow.

Step five: When you first begin to meditate you are likely to notice a sea of emotions rushing into your mind. Do not try to brush them off. Instead, let them arrive and acknowledge them with kindness and invite them to relax along with you.

Step six: If you feel that your mind is wandering to some inane task or thought (which it will often do at first) gently bring it back to your breathing and help it relax.

Step seven: Enjoy a moment of gratefulness of being able to become one with your soul. You can even chant a small prayer at this stage in your mind to make you feel the connection you are attempting to establish with your higher being.

Step eight: Once you are done, take a moment to stretch and relax before you pick up tasks for the rest of the day.
While meditation is no magic trick that will solve life’s problems all at once, it will certainly help you be better prepared to handle with calm and ease whatever curveball that life may throw at any point.

Meditation Postures For Beginners

When you think meditation, the first image that conjures up in your mind is perhaps of the Buddha, the enlightened one sitting in a full lotus position or that of a yoga instructor sitting effortlessly in padmasana. If you are just about getting started with meditation, do not aspire to get into the lotus position right away, for it may be frustrating and may cause more harm than help.

Here is some help with mediation postures you can experiment with when you are first embarking upon the path of meditation.

Meditation postures for beginners

Pay attention to your back

When you are setting out to practice mindfulness, the first thing you need to bear in mind is the back. The basic tenets of meditation say that your back should be straight and your shoulders should be back in a manner that your chest is out and you are breathing normally. When you are starting out, make your back as straight as you can, albeit comfortably.

It may be a good idea to imagine that a gentle giant is holding a tuft of your hair right above you to help you straighten your posture! Straightening of the back is the first step towards finding alignment in one’s body. When you maintain a straight back, a good flow of energy is facilitated up and down your spine. This can help reduce feelings of drowsiness or agitation.

Basic Meditation Postures

On the floor – If you are sitting on the floor, try beginning with a kneeling posture. You can progress to the cross-legged and lotus position as you begin to get more comfortable. We recommend that the knees be slightly lower than the hips.

On a chair – If you choose to begin your meditation by sitting on a chair, that is a great way to begin to. When seated on a chair, try and sit as close to the edge of the seat as possible to prevent yourself from leaning behind.  Your feet should be flat and touching the ground and your legs must be joined, but not crossed. You can rest your hands on your thighs. The most important part of meditation is to focus on breathing. Thus ensure that your shoulders are drawn back and your chest is out to ensure natural breathing.

What to do with your eyes – One of the most commonly asked questions about meditation is what is to be done with one’s eyes. Should they be open or closed during meditation? We say it completely depends on your own self.

Some people prefer keeping their eyes open to focus on an object to practice mindful seeing along with mindful breathing. For others, closing one’s eyes seems a better way to shut out external influences completely to concentrate on the journey within.

Meditation can bring about profound changes for you too, as well as assist you in achieving overall wellbeing, peacefulness, clarity and balance, and a deeper personal connection to your spirit and yourself. There are over seven billion people on this planet so your experience will be different from everyone else, but that is a good thing. You are completely unique and deserving of your own personal lifechanging meditation journey.

If you’ve never tried meditation before why not try it today, you might thoroughly enjoy the benefits it can bring.

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7 Simple & Effective Tips to Successfully Manage Stress & Anxiety

7 Simple & Effective Tips to Successfully Manage Stress & Anxiety

The increasing level of stress and anxiety in the general society is a very serious and imminent problem that has to be addressed effectively. Stress and anxiety are affecting people of all ages and most of all it is affecting the future of the world. In normal conditions, stress may not be that bad of a thing. Stress is actually our body’s natural response to dangerous and difficult situations and stress can help us solve such problems.

However, when people start to stay stressed for long periods of time and become anxious, it takes the form of chronic stress. Chronic stress is a very serious disease that has to be taken seriously. Stress is a very harmful epidemic that has swept all over the world, and its effects such as anxiety and depression are increasing rapidly and exponentially all over the world.

Stress causes your body to not work in its optimal state, and it also lowers the effectiveness of our natural immune system. This makes us a lot more susceptible to different viral and bacterial diseases. Stress also causes many serious problems like anxiety, depression, and diabetes. Stress is known to be bad for the heart, and it can diminish our cardiovascular health.

There are many ways to counter stress and reduce anxiety. Today we are going to tell you about some amazing natural stress countering methods that you need to check out. 

Massage Therapy

Getting a nice and relaxing massage from a qualified massage therapist can have a very positive effect on your mind and body. If you are feeling very stressed or anxious lately, then you should make an appointment with a good massage therapist. Massage can stimulate the chemical nervous system of our body and work to reduce stress levels.

Also, not only are they relaxing, the whole environment of spas is designed to be mentally peaceful. Most of the time, you will have some peaceful music or sounds playing in the background, and the amazing smell of scented candles also has a very significant effect on reducing your anxiety and keeping you calm.

Massage therapy

Stress Countering Foods

You should improve your diet and start eating healthy if you want to counter stress. There are many foods that have amazing nutrients and minerals that can help in reducing stress. You should make sure to add these foods to your diet.

Regularly eating these foods as a part of your diet will allow you to be less susceptible to stress as well. These foods can increase the levels of hormones like serotonin and dopamine in our body, and they reduce the creation of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

Oranges, spinach, fish with omega-3 fatty acids, black tea, nuts like pistachios and almonds, vegetables and dark chocolate are some of the most common stress-reducing foods that you should add to your diet.

Stress countering foods

Cannabis

Cannabis is one of the most effective natural stress countering remedies, and it can make even the most severe amounts of stress vanish immediately. Cannabis is also legal for medical use in the majority of American states. So, you should smoke some marijuana in the evenings to counter your daily stress.

If you want to smoke some weed during the day, go for some high CBD Sativa strains. These strains won’t make you lazy, and they will actually increase your mental activity and make you more creative. These are also many amazing Indica strains available in the market that are great for stress relief.

If you aren’t a smoker and prefer not to try it, don’t worry we’ve got you covered. Cannabis edibles are also available in certain stores if you’re looking for the best place to buy edibles online in Canada, click here.

Cannabis

Natural Stress Countering Supplements

Many times our bodies are more susceptible to stress because of the deficiency of certain nutrients, and that can lead to anxiety. You should start using some natural stress countering supplements to reinforce your mind against stress. You should use natural supplements like Kava Kava, green tea, lemon balm, theanine, and omega-3 fatty acids.

These supplements are available in herbal stores around you, and you can also get them online easily. These supplements are completely natural, and they don’t have any side effects like pharmaceutical stress countering meds.

Natural stress countering supplements

Aromatherapy

Another simple and effective stress and anxiety countering method is aromatherapy. In this method, different essential oils and scented candles are used to counter stress through peaceful and calming scents. Our sense of smell has a very prominent effect on our chemical nervous system. Different aromas can release hormones in our body, which control our central nervous system.

One of the best and most effective essential oils for stress relief is lavender. The scent of lavender essential oil is known to help many people in decreasing their stress levels. This is a very easy stress-reducing method that you can employ while you are at work. Consider lighting a lavender-scented candle on your working table to reduce daily stress.

Aromatherapy

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an amazing and very old treatment method that has been scientifically proven to have many medical benefits. In this method, very thin needles are inserted into the pores of our skin to stimulate the release of certain hormones.

As acupuncture can control the release of hormones, it can also help decrease our stress levels by releasing stress countering hormones. Acupuncture is super relaxing, and if you are feeling stressed or anxious lately, make an acupuncture appointment and check it out for yourself.

Acupuncture

Meditation and Breathing Exercises

To avoid stress and stay calm and composed in stressful situations, you need to have a strong mind. One of the most effective ways to strengthen your mind and relax is to do some meditation. Meditation and mindfulness are scientifically proven methods of stress relief, and many different studies indicate the same.

You should start getting up early in the morning and do small sessions of meditation, this will help you stay calmer during the rest of the day, and it will also improve your mental strength, making you less susceptible to stress over time.

Meditation and breathing exercises

You should also consider learning some breathing exercises. Even simple breathing exercises like taking some deep breaths is very effective stress countering technique, so consider learning and practicing some yoga to learn more about breathing exercises and how to use them to calm down and decrease your stress levels.

If you’ve gone through the above-mentioned list you now know a few ways to counter stress and anxiety. Know that different things work better for different people, try to go through all of them one by one and stick to whichever one suits you best.

Author Bio:

Currently a student of English Literature, in her final years, Carolina Martel is passionate about writing her thoughts in words. She takes up writing projects in her leisure time to accompany her studies. Generally, she understands the essence of writing on every topic but especially those that relate to her field. She regularly writes at https://shadedco.com/.

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How To Meditate: 11 Power Meditations You Can Learn

How To Meditate - 11 Different Power Meditations You Can LearnMeditation sounds simple. But it takes discipline to remain still in body and mind. You have to block out the world around you and quiet your thoughts.

You also need to practice at least 10 to 20 minutes a day to get the most out of your meditation.

What is power meditation? A Power Meditation lets you become more awake and more purposeful about your actions. It teaches you how to respond, rather than react, to situations in your life.

While both are true, they only begin to scratch the surface on the deep history and meaning of meditation.

Controlling your attention as you meditate can help you feel more relaxed and at peace. And this peacefulness often lasts far beyond the power meditation itself. So when stress appears hours later, you have the means to redirect it.

To put it simply, meditation is an overall thought process that influences all of the actions one takes on a daily basis. It’s a way of life because meditation goes beyond one single action or activity.

It’s about transforming the power of the mind and the way you think, to become aware of yourself and your surroundings while separating your consciousness from the struggles and activities of your life.

Moreover, there are many, many different ways to practice meditation, with each having a different goal and effect on the body and the mind.

The Health Benefits Of Meditation

There are literally hundreds of benefits of meditation, for body, mind, spirit, and emotional health. One of the most significant health benefits of meditation is that it brings about a sense of calmness and relaxation that leads to a proven reduction in stress levels.

When the body experiences stress, anxiety or fear, it releases special hormones that cause a physical reaction in the body. While not harmful in normal doses, long-term exposure to these hormones can cause serious health risks. Meditation helps to mitigate these effects by training the brain to better control and limit the release of the hormones.

By reducing stress levels through meditation, it is possible to lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease, stop damage to the digestive system from the overproduction of acids, and maintain a more balanced immune system.

Meditation can also help to strengthen different areas of the brain, slowing the loss of brain mass typically associated with aging and increasing mental agility and memory.

It can also help battle the effects of addition, increase your ability to focus and fight off the effects of depression.

11 Types Of Power Meditations

The first step in understanding the true nature of a power meditation is by realizing that there are several different forms it takes, across different religious and spiritual boundaries. Some of these methods of meditation have been around for thousands of years, maybe even longer.

By examining the unique methods and practices of each type of meditation, you can identify key similarities and draw connections between the actions and the positive effects they bring to the mind and body.

Om Meditation

Om Meditation is one of the oldest and most basic forms of meditation. It incorporates the use of the mantra “Om” to guide you through the process of clearing your mind, regulating your breathing and entering into a calm state. A mantra is a word, phrase, or sound repeated over and over again to help reinforce a specific thought or belief.

In the case of Om Meditation, the mantra used is the sound that the world makes when it is in rest. It stands in contrast to all other sounds, which occur from two or more objects interacting.

It is meant to encourage a sense of universal peace, and help you focus on entering a state of simplicity and freedom. When you are able to free yourself from the thoughts that occupy your mind during normal consciousness, you gain access to a higher level of clarity, which enables you to better see the world as a whole and understand your place in it, as well as the deeper reasons behind different occurrences. It serves as the basis for most forms of meditation.

VIDEO: OM MEDITATION | 10 Minutes | OM MANTRA MEDITATION MUSIC

OM – The most well known and universal of the Bija mantras it is the sound of creation and causes energy to gather and flow upward and outward. Everything in the universe is pulsating and vibrating – nothing is really standing still!

The sound OM in this track vibrates at the solfeggio frequency of 528Hz which is also known as the Love Frequency, Miracle Tone, Frequency of Transformation. It’s known for its powerful transformation effects on the human body as it helps to return human DNA to its original, perfect state, followed by its beneficial effects of an increased amount of energy.

It also helps in balancing and tuning Solar Plexus Chakra which helps in more Self Confidence and Self Esteem.

When we combine these 2 powerful sources of sound and vibration, what we get is totally miraculous. VIDEO SOURCE: Meditative Mind

Primordial Sound Meditation

Another one of the most basic and traditional forms of meditation, Primordial Sound Meditation also focuses on the use of a mantra to enhance the practice. It draws on the Vedas, ancient Indian texts that are the oldest written teachings of Hinduism.

This form of meditation utilizes a Vedic mathematical formula to determine the exact sound the universe made at the time of your birth, which is your primordial sound.

When you meditate, you repeat this sound as your mantra to help you connect with the world around you and attain a higher level of awareness while simultaneously existing in a calm, restful state.

VIDEO: Primordial Sound Meditation
with Deepak Chopra

VIDEO: Guided Primordial Sound
Meditation: Chopra Center Mantra

This four-part guided meditation was developed by Deepak Chopra and is the foundation of the Primordial Sound Meditation methodology. It includes components of self-reflection, self-awareness, transcendence, and intentions for mind, body, spirit, and emotions. 

Kundalini Yoga Meditation

Meditation and yoga are deeply intertwined, with each sharing a common origin in the spiritual traditions of India and the surrounding region. Kundalini Yoga, as the name suggests, focuses on special moves within the standard realm of yoga positions that enhance the meditation process, with the end goal of unleashing kundalini energy.

This energy is believed to be one of several forms of spiritual Shakti that exists within the body, manifesting as a coil that sits at the base of the spine.

By entering into specific poses and creating a serene mental state, Kundalini Yoga seeks to uncoil that energy and raise it up through the body, reaching the mind where it helps bring about enlightenment.

VIDEO: Guided Kundalini Yoga Meditation

Mindfulness Meditation

While many different forms of meditation seek to bring about a specific state of mind, or rather an absence of specific ways of thinking, Mindfulness Meditation doesn’t actually try to change you. Instead, it places the focus on enhancing your awareness, making you more mindful of your surroundings, your actions, and everything else in your life.

It typically consists of sitting on the floor or on special meditation mats, though different practices and traditions include different seating patterns. Ultimately, the way you sit doesn’t matter as much as your stillness and awareness of your body. Mindfulness Meditation also includes a focus on steady, regular breathing that is purposeful rather than absent-minded.

VIDEO: Guided 10 Minute Mindfulness Meditation

Finally, Mindfulness Meditation requires you to become aware of your thought process and all of the information around it. Rather than attempt to get you to stop thinking altogether, this type of meditation is about reflecting on your thoughts and how they fit into your life as a whole.

By relaxing and allowing yourself to address all of your thoughts, you become more self-aware and more present in all of your thoughts and actions.

Reflective Meditation

This type of meditation is similar to Mindfulness Meditation in that is also focuses on analyzing thoughts rather than ridding your mind of them completely. The key concept here is that you focus on one specific thought or concept, with the end goal being to cultivate and strengthen that concept within your life.

By reflecting on every aspect of a concept, especially as it relates to you and your current circumstances, you train your mind to focus on achieving that concept and looking at the world in that way. For example, you can use Reflective Meditation to focus on something as broad as happiness, starting out be entering into a standard meditation pose and focus on what happiness really means to you.

VIDEO: GUIDED REFLECTIVE MEDITATION – Seeing Your True Self

See your true potential, beauty, and brilliance by using this guided meditation to strip away old beliefs. Remove the blocks of your old thinking and discover the person you always have been but may never have truly seen before — an amazing, wonderful human being. MP3 Download version of this audio here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thehonestguys79

As you reflect on the concept of happiness, you will start to think about the different things in your life that make you happy, such as your friends or family members. This leads to examining the ways in which your life does not include happiness, which in turn allows you to identify the specific people or situations causing the blockage.

This process helps you to focus more on the good things in your life and less on the things that cause stress, as you are training your mind to emphasis the positive and joyous over the negative.

Chakra Meditation (heart-centered meditation)

Chakra Meditation involves inward reflection and self-evaluation to align the chakra in the body, which are different forms of energy that together compile the whole of your existence and your perception of yourself. The belief system behind this form of meditation states that there are seven different chakras that comprise the different elements of your being, chief among which is the chakra of the heart.

Chakra Meditation that focuses on repairing and realigning this energy is known as heart-centered meditation and is meant to increase your confidence, compassion, and acceptance. The meditation practice involves the same starting point as other forms of meditation, wherein you need to focus on your breathing and mental awareness in order to enter into a state of reflection and openness.

VIDEO: Meditation: Awakening Your Heart Center

It’s time to connect with your inner heart space. In this wholesome Heart Center Meditation, Christie Sheldon guides you to pure, loving consciousness by peacefully awakening your heart center.

This guided Heart Center meditation will have you beaming, “I love! I love! I love it!”

In this video, Christie Marie Sheldon, one of the world’s leading experts in energy healing and intuition coaching, wraps you in a bubble of pure, loving energy and teaches you how to breathe light into your heart. By awakening your heart center, you infuse even your subatomic particles with vitality and compassion.

You’ll come out feeling full of love, calm, revived, and able to tackle any challenges that may lie in your way.

ABOUT CHRISTIE MARIE SHELDON:

Christie Marie Sheldon, a fully realized intuitive healer, and the author is the #1 in-demand author at Mindvalley and is committed to using her gift to help people eliminate their energy blocks, raise their vibrations, manifest their ideal realities, and receive instant healing from the Universe.

Over the past 18 years, Christie has spoken on radio shows, seminars, and has conducted over 30,000 private consultations for clients (some of whom are renowned political and business leaders).

The most distinct element of Chakra Meditation is the emphasis on recognizing and understanding that you are not an individual separate from the world, but rather a component of the world at large. By shifting your consciousness away from this exclusionary perspective, and opening your heart and your emotions towards the view that you are in harmony with the universe, you can achieve higher levels of calmness and self-confidence.

This meditation allows your heart chakra to heal and grow, so that it may become more in line with the other chakra. This enables you to achieve a greater level of emotional and mental balance in your life, as it leads to you feel less isolated and less like you are at odds with your surroundings.

Visualization Meditation

Visualization Meditation also carries some similarities to Reflective Meditation, though instead of focusing on an overall concept or feeling, it involves focusing on an overarching concept, idea, or belief. It is a powerful form of meditation because it can lead to significant and impactful change in your life, but it is also one of the more difficult forms of meditation for people to get into. This is because many people view Visualization Meditation is a passive process, akin to daydreaming in that its focus is on thinking about doing something. While Visualization

Meditation does involve a great deal of thinking about action, it is not solely about though. Most people fail at Visualization Meditation because they never take the next step in the process, which is translation the thoughts developed during the meditation into reality.

Think of Visualization Meditation as a dedicated time to explore your desires, beliefs, and convictions. It requires you to identify something that you want in your life, such as earning a promotion at work or winning the love of a particular person, and examine how it would affect your life.

By devoting more of your thoughts and consciousness to this desire, you can understand it at a more intricate level, which allows you to determine if it is something you really want. It also allows you to formulate specific plans to bring this desire to fruition, as the reflective process and time spent exploring the reality of the matter helps you identify obstacles.

VIDEO: 5 Minute Guided Visualization Meditation To Manifest The Life of Your Dreams

If you do not know exactly what you want, then you will not get exactly what you want. This visualization meditation is 5 minutes which can seem very short but it is short on purpose. This way you can do this every day, even on those days that you do not have time. It also forces you to decide what you want in a short amount of time. If you are not certain of what you want out of life, the time is now to decide.

Visualization Meditation forces you to open your mind to a concept, understand it intimately, and prepare yourself to perform the actions necessary to really bring it to life.

Vipassana Meditation

Vipassana Meditation has its roots in the oldest practices of Buddhism in India, first appearing over two millennia ago and passed down across the generations of practitioners. The main concept being Vipassana Meditation is gaining an understanding of the true nature of the things in your life, particularly in terms of how your body and mind function together and interact with your surroundings.

It is a type of intensely introspective meditation, as it is built around self-evaluation and self-discovery on an extremely intimate level. It uses many of the common practices found in other types of meditation, such as rhythmic breaking and the use of mantra, to help clear the mind of noise and excess thoughts, forcing it to focus on itself and address all unresolved issues by exploring the interconnectedness of life.

When practicing Vipassana Meditation, you must be open to looking at yourself and thinking about why you are the way you are. Though it is possible to practice Vipassana Meditation with the intent of understanding a specific aspect of yourself, such as determining the origin on a phobia or recovering from a singular traumatic event, it is most effective when embraced in a holistic manner.

As you think about the way your mind and body connect, and the way you feel about specific aspects of yourself or portions of your life, you can look beyond the surface of the matter and begin to see the true nature of the situation.

VIDEO: 10 Minute Vipassana Meditation

Vipassana Meditation can help you to understand the characteristics of yourself, such as why you feel jealous of a coworker or why you are attracted to a specific person. It also helps you think more openly about the actions of others, such as identifying that you were passed on for a promotion because another employee is objectively more qualified for the position.

Zen Meditation (Zazen)

Zen Meditation, also known as Zazen, is the core practice of Zen Buddhism, which is one segment of the religious practice of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is most common in Japan, dating back thousands of years and placing its emphasis on achieving a balanced and enlightened state that allows you to think about everything in your life more clearly.

Zen Meditation includes several specific actions and steps to begin, starting with sitting on the floor, either directly on the ground or using a small pillow known as a zafu. Once seated, you need to assume one of several different sitting positions.

The Full Lotus position, which involves crossing your legs in front of you and placing each foot on the thigh of the opposite leg, maybe one of the most visually familiar poses when it comes to meditation. The main purpose of each pose is to create stability so that you can sit for extended periods of time and focus on your breathing and mental clarity without letting your mind drift onto your body.

As you continue to sit and embrace the process of Zen Meditation, you will slowly begin to slow your mind and allow your thoughts to pass freely. The goal is not to stop thinking, but to stop judging.

Zen Meditation is about eliminating the typical judgments and preconceived notions you have in regard to all things, as this inhibits your ability to think clearly and reflectively. Thinking judgmentally also stops you from entertaining certain thoughts or concepts, which impedes your ability to be open-minded and achieve greater mental clarity.

VIDEO: Zen Meditation Instruction (How to Meditate)

Zen Meditation Instruction from Yokoji Zen Mountain Center (http://www.zmc.org). Instruction is given on how to sit zazen (seated meditation) in various positions – full lotus, cross-legged, using a chair; also tips on breathing and how to go in to and out of meditation periods.

During a session of Zen Meditation, you allow your thoughts to pass through your mind however, they manifest, never actively directing them, stopping them, or otherwise interfering.

This process helps you to address deeper issues preventing you from thinking clearly, and encourages a more profound and unified view of life. In essence, it teaches you to stop getting in the way of your own mind and experience more mental and emotional peace.

Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental Meditation is a more recent form of meditation that first came into popular practice during the 1950s when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began a series of tours across the world to teach it to large groups of people.

Over time, the practice was adopted by numerous celebrities, while it also became the subject of multiple scientific studies to monitor its effects on the mind and body. It includes a specific structure and methodology, which beings with sitting in a relaxed position and closing the eyes to help enhance the mental presence within the reflective state.

It draws on the long history of traditional meditation, as it also uses the mantra as a means to encourage reflectiveness and ease you into a deeper state of awareness and mental relaxation. However, Transcendental Meditation requires you to speak the mantra silently to yourself rather than out loud, as other forms of meditation do.

Transcendental Meditation also only lasts for approximately 15-20 minutes each session, with sessions only occurring twice a day. During these meditative periods, Transcendental Meditation encourages you to allow your thoughts to flow freely through your mind.

VIDEO: An Introduction to the
Transcendental Meditation Technique

http://tm.org John Hagelin, Ph.D. speaks about the Transcendental Meditation technique.

As you repeat your chosen mantra in your mind, you bring a greater sense of unity to your body and overall mental state. This allows your mind to let go of the negative, stressful, or otherwise harmful thoughts that fill it during other times.

As you focus on the power and relaxation that the mantra brings, you are able to focus on other aspects of your life and identify the root causes of your unhappiness. Though it is often practiced as part of a religious system for many Buddhists, Hindus, and other sects, Transcendental Meditation also allows for a secular reflection period that encourages self-improvement.

Yoga Nidra Meditation

Despite its name, Yoga Nidra is not a form of yoga, as most people understand it. Rather than being about a specific set of stretches and actions, Yoga Nidra is about maintaining the highest amount of mental and physical relaxation possible.

It is a type of meditation that focuses on turning the majority of the senses inward in order to create a high level of self-awareness, rather than directing all conscious and sensory awareness on the outside world.

The main difference between Yoga Nidra and other forms of meditation is that it relies on a set of external auditory commands, such as instruction by a yogi or a set of recordings, to guide you into the state of relaxation.

As you take control of your breathing and your thought process, you slowly disconnect your senses from the world around you and shift them onto yourself, so that you may become more aware of your own feelings and thoughts.

Yoga Nidra helps you achieve what is known as a “yogic sleep” state, which is similar to the feeling you might experience as you are drifting off into sleep. While you are in this state, you are more in tune with your mind and better able to experience your thoughts in a pure and enlightened state, all while staying conscious and in control of your body and mind. It is a long-standing practice in Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as other forms of religions that incorporate meditation as a core tenant.

VIDEO: Yoga Nidra 20 Minute Guided Meditation

Yoga Nidra is the ultimate relaxation technique for releasing stress and tension held in your body. Experience a deep level of relaxation, with this easy to follow meditation and allow your body to restore and balance itself.

This form of meditation is meant to show you the power of the mind when not distracted by the outside world through the external senses. It encourages you to let go of stresses and free your mind of any harmful thoughts that would otherwise prevent you from achieving a calm state of awareness.

The Bottom Line On Meditation

  • Meditation is something everyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health for any aspect of their life.
  • You can do it anywhere at any time, without special equipment or memberships just by being open and learning a few simple techniques to get you started.
  • Alternatively, meditation courses and support groups are widely available online and in most large cities.
  • There’s a great variety of styles too, each with different strengths and benefits. It’s important to explore meditation and find a method that works for your life.
  • Trying out a style of mediation suited to your personal goals is a great way to improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it each day.

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How To Meditate: 5 Ways To Deal With Intrusive Thoughts

How To Meditate - 5 Ways To Deal With Intrusive ThoughtsBy Deborah Kukal, Ph.D.

“I can’t meditate! My mind won’t stop, my thoughts are racing – it makes me want to give up!”

Meditation can feel like a thought-wrestling rodeo. But you’re not alone – intrusive thoughts are normal, even for experienced meditators.

I laughed out loud when I first encountered that truth. I was reading The Cloud of Unknowing, a classic meditation book from the 13th century because I was pretty sure I “wasn’t doing it right.” And I discovered that the writer – a venerable monk (or nun? It’s anonymous, after all!) who spent hours each day in meditation, over years of practice – was dealing with intrusive thoughts.

What a relief! It’s the same today. Father Thomas Keating, the Trappist monk who developed Centering Prayer, recognizes intrusive thoughts as a normal part of quieting our minds and hearts. He says “acknowledge the thoughts; then smile, and refocus”.

But how do you “refocus”? What exactly can you do when your mind is full of ideas and plans, thoughts or worries, and they just won’t quit?

5 Ways You Can Move Your Thoughts Into Deeper Meditation.

1. Get ready.

The first part of effective meditation is preparation. Spend 20 minutes writing your thoughts and worries before you start to meditate. Just get them down on paper – no fancy writing, no looking for answers, and no censorship from “what I should think”. Write down thoughts as they come, no matter how irrational and crazy they may sound. In fact, the crazy ones are especially helpful!

And then – wad it up and throw it away! Your right brain has released the thoughts, so they don’t need to circle any longer. Your left brain has processed the words, giving you some distance and a different perspective. Your brain knows what’s important, and will deal with it. The rest is irrelevant. Trash it.

Now your mind is ready to meditate.

2. Get friendly.

Even when you have prepared, thoughts will come. No worries – no fighting them off. When we fight with our intrusive thoughts, we end up focused on the very stuff we’re fighting. Welcome them, let them move on by, and notice what comes up next.

And smile. Remind yourself you are normal. Thoughts happen with meditation. It means you’re doing what you need to be doing. Good work!

3. Get intentional.

Notice your breathing. Become aware of where it happens, how it feels. Move into it. Be intentional with your breathing. Do 2 or 3 rounds of 4 x 4 breaths. Breathe in for 4 counts. Hold for 4 counts. Release for 4 counts. Rest for 4 counts. Notice how it feels. Then try a couple of rounds of 4-7-8 breathing. (link to 4-7-8 article) Breathe in for 4, hold for 7, release for 8. (Just don’t do too many of those, or you may find you’ve fallen asleep!) And just be.

4. Get spiritual.

Want to open your mind to more spiritual experience? You can lift up and release each thought to the mind of God, and deepen your meditation. As you notice a frustrating, frightening or distracting thought, lift it up. And as you do, offer your thought and yourself into a larger truth.

“I lift up my thought to your truth.”

“I open my mind to your wisdom.”

“I release my heart to your love.”

See how it unfolds. Meditation can take you deeper than you’ve ever been before.

5. Get support.

Guided imagery lets you relax into meditation with someone who will show you the way. As you learn to meditate, or any time your peace is disturbed, guided imagery helps to focus your thoughts and deepen your meditation. Try it. The experience may surprise you. And it will be different every time.

More and more, as you begin to refocus, you’ll see intrusive thoughts as a natural part of your meditation journey.

And you will move deeper into the home in your heart.

Meditation Tip: Meditating With a Chattering Head

It’s the first day of meditation class. The group is sitting in a circle, and people shuffle and twist in their seats as we prepare to turn out the lights. Finally, one person shares his fears. “What if I won’t be able to do this-what if I can’t make my thoughts stop?” Others look relieved that they’re not the only one. “I can’t calm my mind–I’m just too distracted!”

My students are not alone. Even the anonymous monk who wrote The Cloud of Unknowing, a 14th century classic on meditation, talks about dealing with intrusive thoughts. The monk (or maybe it was really a nun… I’ve always wondered…) was a meditation expert. He (or she) meditated every day, all day long. Even so, intrusive thoughts still happened.

Mind chatter. It just is. Our minds buzz and flit, even when we don’t want them to. It’s how we’re made.

But even though you know it will happen, you can still learn to calm your mind. You can learn some steps to help your thoughts quiet. Sure, there will be times when your mind is full of busyness. But it can get better. For a few moments, more and more each time you meditate, you can find a place to rest. You can find this in your own space. In your own peace.

Your body knows how. You just need to set it free.

Begin by noticing your breathing. When thoughts come, breathe into the muscles in your face. Let your breath gather up the tension, and then release. Notice how your breath feels in your sinuses. Let your breath move all the way up your nose and through your mind… gathering up thoughts and releasing them.

And then begin to notice your body.

Notice where you feel the warmth… and where you feel cool. Notice where you feel relaxed… and where any muscles feel tense. Breathe through the tense muscles, gathering up tension and releasing it… and notice how it feels now.

And now, just notice your thoughts going by… like leaves moving down a stream. Notice them from the grassy bank, where you are resting. Notice them moving past overhead, like the clouds moving by… some of them stormy… some soft and small… and notice any blue patches in between.

And begin to pay attention to the clear spaces too… They’re there. Small at first, and then longer-and you forget to notice them, and your thoughts drift, and you watch them go by… And now, you’re meditating.

This is one way, one path to quieting your thoughts. We’ll look at others, in other articles. But this path, of breathing, and releasing, noticing and noticing again-this will be useful to you all thorough your meditation.

Even when you’re as experienced as that anonymous monk! (Or nun…I really do wonder…)

Dr. Deborah Kukal is a licensed psychologist with a broad sense of her home in the world. She is Board Certified in Health Psychology, and she writes on health, sleep, spirituality and meditation, as well as life enrichment, travel, and current events.

Discover resources for healthy living, including guided meditation experiences to enrich your own life. They’re free and downloadable, at http://www.thehomeinyourheart.com.

The home in your heart. Where mind and body touch one another.

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How To Meditate: Change Your World With Meditation

How To Meditate - Change Your World With MeditationBy Suesie Kendall

How to Meditate Effectively

Meditation is a skill that can be learned like any other. Of course, as with anything, when you first start it isn’t easy! You need to persevere to let it become a habit.

The good news is that it is a very pleasurable, happiness-inducing activity so it shouldn’t be too hard to keep on practicing. Once you have found the way to get yourself into a relaxed meditative state you will be able to induce this state in times of stress and deal with any bad situation more calmly.

First, you should ask yourself “Why do I want to meditate?” It may be as simple as wanting to know why so many people now meditate and seem to become so much happier if they meditate regularly. When you take your eyes off your problems and put them onto something beautiful and relaxing, even for just a short time, it clears problems from your mind. This gives you a chance to breathe deeply and relax, and to recover from built-up stress.

Meditation can help you dramatically SHARPEN your thinking! (FREE Relaxation Brainwave Mp3!) — Boost your mental capacity… Improve your memory… Become more creative… Blast through studies and complicated material… Increase focus and brainpower… Keep reading to learn how meditation can change your life!

Our busy lives in our busy world do not leave much time for meditation or contemplation. Most of us have quite an affluent lifestyle, yet we are always worried and are not really happy. We worry about not having enough money, whether our children are doing OK at school, how our children will turn out, how we will afford to retire, what will happen if we lose our jobs. We worry about why we are not as happy as we think we should be. We worry about the state of the world, about why physical violence and aggressive behavior is all around us.

It is our state of mind that controls our level of happiness. If you want to worry less and be happy, you need to work on your mind. Everything in your life is experienced through the preconceived ideas in your mind – your relationships, perceptions of others, work-life, home life, love life.

Your mind interprets and distorts your everyday experiences. Understanding and cultivating your mind is the key to happiness. Meditation is the key to understanding and cultivating your mind.

Your ideas, beliefs, and values were formed in early childhood, generally from your parents, and have since been refined by your experiences of life and other people. You are under a spell, a product of this conditioning. Meditation assists by allowing you to question this conditioning, see that things do not always match your expectations, allows you to think and see outside the square.

Thoughts and stories stored in your mind from our early childhood can run your life, even when you know these thoughts are not serving you well. Do you remember being criticized as a child? Does that criticism still affect your life? If you were told as a nine-year-old that the essay you had proudly handed in “lacked imagination”, should you still be allowing that to stop you from putting pen to paper?

If one teacher once said you “lacked co-ordination”, should this stop you from ever trying another sport? It sounds silly, but this is what happens to many people. We are fragile beings who trust the judgment of others and such criticism stays with us forever or until something happens to turn the belief around.

By cultivating your mind through meditation you will notice that those troubling thoughts lose some of their power, you will be able to step back and see them more clearly, see them for what they really are, and not allow them to continue to affect your life. Does it serve you to keep those limiting beliefs? If it does not, then it is worth doing whatever is necessary to change your beliefs.

As well as this, practicing meditation will allow you to learn to withdraw attention when you want to, not when you don’t want to, and it will allow you to know how to focus your attention when you want to do so.

How often do you find your attention wandering when it would be kinder to stay focused? Times such as when your child is proudly showing you their work or your partner is telling you about their day, but your mind is on what you are going to cook for dinner.

It is so easy to get distracted by a phone call, noises outside, demands on your attention from a TV program, something on the internet, or a computer game. You owe it to yourself to set these distractions aside and use your attention mindfully.

We all need to be able to go within ourselves and allow ourselves the luxury of contemplation. We also owe it to our families and others close to us to give them full attention whenever we can.

To be able to meditate, you need to shut off distractions. If you do not have time alone, tell your partner or children that you are not available for a period of time. Shut the door to your room. Set up a relaxing area, have some cushions to sit on and support your back, light some candles or burn some incense.

Sit down on your cushions and make yourself comfortable. The traditional cross-legged pose may feel strange at first, but it is the best pose, so try it. Put your hands gently in your lap. If you can hear any sounds, listen to them for a moment and decide to put them aside.

The best way to start to meditate if you have not done so before is simply to close your eyes and concentrate on watching your breath go in and out. Internally scan your body from your feet up, see where there is tension and consciously relax each area in turn. Come back to watching your breath. Each time a thought intrudes in your mind, acknowledge it, then gently push it away and come back to watching your breath.

If you are having difficulty staying focussed, count along with your breath, one on the inhale and two on the exhale, or count the length of each inhalation and exhalation. It may not be easy to stay focused to start with, but will gradually become easier.

Keep doing this for as long as you can manage. If you have not meditated before, it may only be a couple of minutes. Try to build up to at least fifteen minutes, ideally half an hour. When you decide to stop, simply open your eyes slowly and give yourself a minute or two to bring your attention back to the present before you get up and go back to your busy life.

That’s it! That is all there is to get started with meditation.

Simple and Easy Meditation Techniques

Meditation may be a challenge for most people to do as a habit. But it is not as difficult as some may think. There are several easy meditation techniques that anyone can follow toward attaining a deeper sense of relaxation. Meditation is an effective weapon against banishing stress brought about by the rigors of life. You should try it out and here are the simple steps that you can follow to help you out.

One of the first things is to find a place where you can sit comfortably. It should also be someplace where you can have few distractions as possible. Distractions are not good when you are meditating since they can keep you from developing your focus and concentration and keep your mind away from everything. Once you get the hang of meditating by keeping away the distractions, you can also do your meditation while riding the train, bus or plane.

After you have a place where you can do your meditation in comfort, you now need to choose a mantra. It can be any word that you feel can help you feel relaxed and calm. Try to go with words for your mantra that really appeals to you. It can even be your own name as long as it helps you feel positive and be aware of your meditation.

Once you have yourself comfortable and have chosen a mantra, close your eyes and start repeating the mantra to yourself. Let the mantra do what it wishes. If it is something that you wish to repeat it slowly, fast, quiet or loud, then do so. Try not to let outside thoughts to disturb you while you are doing this. Just ignore them and focus on repeating your mantra.

As you repeat the mantra, try not to get distracted and just be aware of what you are saying and focus on it. Learn also to remain relaxed and clam as you do this. In time you might sometimes find yourself going off on a daydream and stop repeating your mantra. Just try to refocus and continue on with your meditation before you ward off any further.

The key to this simple meditation is trying not to let distractions come before you when you meditate. It can be a bit hard sometimes to do first, but it will develop along the way and will help you develop your focus as well as awareness better. After some time, stop repeating your mantra and remain quiet while you are still sitting comfortably. Do this for about a couple of minutes or so. Avoid getting up immediately after your meditation. It would be similar to jumping up just after having a deep sleep. It would cause a lot of stress in itself.

The other key to effectively make use of such easy meditation techniques is to do it as a habit. Try to allot some free time in your schedule for your meditation. Making it a habit would make you improve your ability to keep out distractions when you do not need them.

This meditation technique can be done in as little as ten minutes or so. It is not such a long time to spend on something that can provide you with a lot of benefits especially when it comes to battling everyday stress.

When you do not have time to sit and meditate

Practice getting into a meditative state by performing your everyday actions with awareness. First, slow your breath down and watch your breath, then concentrate on whatever it is you are doing. If you are washing up, concentrate fully on that, think about each item as you carefully wash each part of it, and then place it deliberately and carefully into its place to dry. If you are preparing dinner, think about who is going to share your meal and where each ingredient has come from, and prepare it with care.

The meditative state can be a loss of awareness. Practicing meditation can raise our awareness, improve our sensory responses, make us more generous and bring a sense of calm and control into our lives. Meditation is a state of total relaxed focus, concentration without effort.

Meditation will allow you to own your own mind, instead of your mind dragging you to where it wants to go. Meditation in its highest form can lead to a feeling of euphoria, the highest state of happiness.

Each time you meditate you will be taking another step to improving your life, increasing your happiness and sense of wellbeing. Occasional meditation will provide you with benefits, but the only way to change your world with meditation is to practice it regularly and often.

Written by Suesie Kendall

Do you want to make changes to de-stress your life? Do you believe that you hold the keys to do this? If life has you wondering what you could improve, how you could live better, eat better, sleep better, improve your mind and more, then visit our website.

Make your inner light shine and visit Inner Balm Yoga – How To Meditate today.

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