Meditation View All

Meditation is the best therapy for clearing your mind. There is no wrong way to do meditation. There are formalized styles however. I am more of a free form participate when doing meditation. I believe in what works best for you. Whether it is sitting down in the more traditional pose with legs crossed, or you are lying down, or standing up, or even in your lounger chair. I use the prone position mostly, for a very good reason. It is easier to place healing crystals in the right places, to balance and heal my Chakras while I am meditating.

The first thing that I would do, is to set an alarm or timer. If you want a certain amount of time for meditation, this is a must. If you have all day with no schedule in mind, then don’t worry about it. There are two reasons that I set an alarm or timer.

The first reason is an obvious one. If you accidentally fall asleep. Do not worry about it if you do, it happens to everyone eventually. That is just your physical body telling you that it needs rest. But if you make a habit of it, that is called taking a nap, not meditation.

The second reason is less obvious, but has taken me by surprise sometimes. If you really obtain a deep meditative state during your session, you are totally unaware of time. You could have been meditating for five minutes or five hours. You won’t know until you see a clock.

Get in a really comfortable pose for you. I begin by listening to my breathing. Do not focus on changing your breathing, just listen to your natural breath sounds. Breathing in and out. Any other sounds are unimportant.

Just calm your mind, any other thoughts are pushed away. You are here in the now, just listening to your breathing. Feel the stress leave your body and mind as you get more relaxed. Only concentrate on the present moment. Breathing in and out. The most natural thing in your reality.

Breath sounds are just my preference. Some people use relaxing music, binaural beats, or nature sounds. What is important is to use what works for you. Whatever will get you into a deep relaxed state of consciousness.

Now visualise, beams of light in the form of energy, coming from the nature that is all around you. All of these beams are being focused into your body. You can feel this energy entering your body. Maybe into your pineal gland (center of the brain), or perhaps your Chakra energy centers. Sometimes I can feel the energy through my fingertips.

The crucial goal here is to feel a definite connection to nature. To experience the energetic flow with nature. This may take quite a few meditation sessions. But even if you don’t feel the connection yet, meditating should leave you feeling refreshed, energetic and with a positive state of mind. You feel mindfulness toward others. You are calm, and have more understanding of your place in this reality.

Once you have mastered making a nature connection, then you might want to progress further. It is whatever is comfortable for you, what your goals are. In your meditative state, while you have a good natural energy connection, try pushing beyond this world. Try to connect to the universal consciousness. Yes, out into space, toward the center of the universe. Do this with caution and care.

This final step may or may not happen. Zen masters study and practice for years trying to achieve a universal connection. Ultimately it is your decision on what you want from the benefits of meditation. It will affect your mind for the better no matter what level you achieve.

J is a website designer, graphic designer, and author. He lives in the US and researches the spiritual aspect of this physical dimension.

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The following meditation method that is described is a good starting point for beginners to learn about meditation techniques. Some use this as the start of any meditation session.

Find a place preferably away from any distractions. If outside in nature, hopefully you brought a cushion to sit on. If inside, there could be a cushion, a chair, or a bed to use. Just find somewhere to be comfortable.

There is really no wrong way to do this, just do what feels natural to you. Try several poses or postures, try different ones until you feel right. Trust your intuition. So just sit or lie down, assume your chosen pose.

People who cannot do meditation outside, for whatever reason, will often play recordings of nature. A babbling brook, waves crashing at the seaside, a rain shower, you get the idea. This is not all people, some would find it too distracting. Others will play these nature recordings at a low volume for background noise. Whatever works for you to relax more.

Some people will work with yoga and meditation together, using different yoga poses. Others will do meditation and chakra balancing together, using healing crystals. These are just examples of what some people will chose to do, it is not necessary to the process. Let’s concentrate on just meditation right now. The whole concept of meditation is relaxation and expanding your consciousness.

Let your eyes close. Do not make any effort to control your breath. Just breathe naturally, in and out. Concentrate your attention on each breath, just observing each inhalation and exhalation. Let your mind wander as you are breathing. Try to feel a connection to nature, to our earth.

Try to do this method for two to three minutes at the start of each meditation session. You can try it for longer periods if you wish. This is the equivalent of a warmup session.

Concentration Method

The whole idea of this method is to focus on one thing only. It can be something imagined or something around you. It could be an image or symbol that you see in your mind. Or it could be a candle flame or a repetitive sound. Some also chant mantras.

The Tibetan Dzogchen monks concentrate on a symbol during their sessions, but they often also chant the mantra of OMM. This symbol is called a rigpa, which is symbolized by the white A inside of a rainbow circle.

By concentrating on one thing, you are emptying your mind. All scattered thoughts are just released and then they disappear. You are now a lot more receptive to the energies that are all around us. There are three objectives to seek for while in this empty mind state. The first is a connection to nature and our earth for life energy. The second would be to connect to your higher self for assistance and advice. And third would be a connection to our universal consciousness for spiritual guidance.

Your ability to focus and concentrate will improve with this method. This is useful in observing the now. Your understanding of the details around you in this world will likely be expanded.

Mindful Method

This method involves you emptying your mind, and then examine the thoughts that arise from your subconscious. This examination can range from just mentally filing the thought away for future use, or to however detailed you wish to make it. Perhaps the thought is attempting to make you grasp how a concept works. Sometimes your mind will be trying to correlate two different subjects or situations together. These are called insights, and they can be powerful solutions to the questions that we are seeking answers to.

This meditation method actually encourages abstract thinking. Which can solve some of our problems, or let us understand complex concepts. It also might encourage a link with our higher self.

Compassion Meditation

This method encompasses the idea of loving yourself and all others. This is done through acceptance of yourself and others through compassion. You can review the negative events of your life and try to see them from a positive perspective. Sometimes these events occur through forces we cannot control, yet we must ask ourselves, “did I react in the best possible way?” “Did I take actions in a positive and loving manner?”

This concept involves much forgiveness and much acceptance of ourselves and others. We know we are all flawed, we must look beyond that. We must draw upon our compassion to clearly perceive this. One sect of Tibetan monks firmly believe that if we see everything in a loving way, and that if all we have is loving thoughts, then this is the path to light body and ascension.

Health Benefits

The whole idea of meditation is to relax your body and expand your mind. This is something we should all try to fit into our day. Even if it’s just ten to thirty minutes. Once you start feeling the benefits to your body and your mind, most people will start a discipline of meditation.

The improvement to your body’s health will become evident soon enough when you start meditation. This time of relaxation is invigorating to our body.

Easy to breathe, slower respiratory rate.

Slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and increased circulation.

Feeling less anxiety and less stress.

A feeling of well-being and a deep sense of tranquillity.

Conclusion

Just thirty minutes of meditation. What else would you do for that half hour? Be playing a video game that you have played thousands of times before? Or be scrolling through an endless supply of memes on social media? Why not try to do something to benefit yourself as a person during that time? Try meditation.

However, it is recommended that if you have a job, to do your meditation away from the workplace. Most companies have policies against meditating on their time.

Meditation is such an essential tool for us to evolve in our spiritual growth. We want to raise our awareness. We want to increase our vibration and frequency. And we want to enrich our viewpoint on life.

J is a website designer, graphic designer, and author. He lives in the US and researches the spiritual aspect of this physical dimension.

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