Meditation
Meditation Techniques for Beginners
Meditation sounds simple enough, and it actually is, but many
things in life that are simple are not easy, and meditation is a perfect
example.
How hard can it be to just sit? Well, if you've ever tried
meditation before now, you're probably a lot like me.
I would unplug the phone, turn off the TV and all the lights in
the house, light a candle and some good incense, and then try to force my legs into the
pretzel position and sit quietly.
The first thing I noticed was that my legs hurt and my lower back
was screaming.
I couldn't shut my mind up long enough to relax, and started
remembering and thinking about things so upsetting and chaotic that I gave up and took a
nap.
What I learned was that my first mistake was trying to sit like
that and assuming that I'd be able to quiet my mind on the first try.
Try sitting cross legged or on your feet or whatever way is most
comfortable for you.
Meditation in a dimly lit room and the incense was a good start,
now as you try to quiet your mind, count slowly from one to ten with each breath-it gives
your mind something to do while it's learning to shut up.
Also, closing your eyes is not necessary, you could get a piece of
wood with the grain easy to see, a big enough piece that when you look at it that's all you
see (the back of a door?)
Sit in front of the wood grain and watch it as you slowly inhale
and count, Inhale through your nose slowly and hold-exhale slowly out through your mouth and
"one," again and "two."
Try it for five full minutes. It's okay if your mind gets
distracted (it's used to being distracted) not sitting still, so forgive yourself and start
again when retraining your mind.
Try to listen to the sounds behind the car doors, the sirens, or
any of the other daily sounds you hear in your place, listen for the birds behind the cars,
for the wind behind neighbors, just listen and breathe.
On you next attempt at meditation take it a step further, setting
your timer for 7 minutes instead of 5, and add the habit of practicing listening to your
feelings of warm or cool, hard and soft, pressure and breath, be here now.
Take your mediation only this far for the first month or so, and
allow yourself time to learn how to breath and congratulate yourself on beginning to mediate,
never be hard on yourself or give up, it takes a long time to get good at this, but the
holistic benefits of meditation are great, increased breathing power, a sense of calm that
you can tap into anytime you need it, are all excellent benefits of meditation
exercise.
Follow your breathing as if it was a tennis ball, without
manipulating your breath, watch it in your mind as you inhale and exhale, the tennis ball
bouncing against a soft wall, and the wall bending with each breath as it throws your breath
back at you, cool visual, hunh?
You may also choose to take advantage of a mantra, or sound that
you hum or say while you are meditating.
While "Ohm" is popular, you may hum your mantra or make up anty
sound that you like.
The only hint is the simpler, the better. One vowel mantras seem
to work best. You can even use a prayer or part of a poem, it if helps, but I tend to stick
to simple.
The last and maybe best part of meditation is sending good
feelings and warmth to others.
While meditation is a wonderful preventative exercise in medicine,
you can give it away as well by thinking good thoughts about those you care about.
|
