subject: Taking The Mystery Out Of Meditation -- A Brief Introduction [print this page] A lot of people don't quite appreciate what to rely on on any occasion they hear the word "meditation ". Maybe even there comes to mind Buddhist monks with billowing robes and shaved heads sitting cross-legged atop a mountain, though in truth it need not be this exotic. Meditation is a popular process among anyone of all races, countries, levels of society, religions and values.
At its most essential, meditation is simply the relaxing of the waking mind. During day to day affairs the mind is preoccupied in a consecutive flood of psyche, ideas and emotional reactions generally termed as "mind chatter ." Usually there's no probability to take a short break and enable your mind calmness, relaxation, and to loosen up... The sole relief a great number of people earn is in sleep, which is maybe even then often cut short, dream-laden or otherwise fidgety. It's tough.
It is prevalent to begin meditating with a session of no weightier than ten to fifteen minutes altogether, with larger results being achieved if this process is repeated daily. It is typical for people to report with surprise how energizing and pleasing this simple process can be, and this is since particularly few human beings recognize what a barrage of stimulus and stressors the mind is unceasingly subject to.
Fundamental Meditation Outline
Here I'll draft the basics of a simple meditation, and if you desire you can understand over the content once or twice then put it into practice right away. As I said, it requires on average as little as fifteen minutes. If you genuinely wish to incorporate meditation into your daily method then this is exactly what I suggest doing. As with all matters putting it off now exclusively leads to putting it off later, whereas jumping in now with both feet takes much of the uncertainty out of it and leads to larger willingness to practice in the future.
1. To begin find a quiet, preferably secluded place that allows you to comfortably sit with your back more or less straight.
2. Close your eyes, begin taking deep, even breaths and focus your attention on your body. Try to get a sense for every part of it. Beginning with your head, work your way down and feel for tension. For example, notice if your shoulders are hunched or your hands clenched even a little, and let these areas relax into their most natural position.
3. Because the mind is so used to constant motion, it can be difficult to "turn it off " so to speak, even for a few minutes. Because of this many people choose to either focus on the in and out motion of their breath, or a certain word or phrase that has particular meaning to them. For example, "All is well, " "Be still , " or "All things through God. " When you catch your mind wandering (and you will) come back to this phrase, or to your breathing.
4. If you can, start breathing smoothly and evenly through your nose. Count your breaths or repeat your phrase to clear your mind. If your counting gets about twenty, or you lose count, just start the count over. When your mind wanders, simply center yourself with this or your chosen phrase, and let the thoughts dissipate.
5. Continue this anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, or however long feels right for you. When you're done, simply take a few moments to reflect on what you felt and how you now feel, then go about your day as usual.
In addition, it can be helpful to set a small timer for however long you wish to meditate for so you're not constantly wondering how long its been and when you should stop. Anything you can do to ease your mind of its day-to-day considerations is worth doing. Usually though, the best approach is to simply commit to putting everything else aside (after all, it's only fifteen minutes) and to do just that. This is a good guideline for other aspects of life as well, and putting it into practice here and now is the best way to start.
