subject: How To Do Meditation - A Beginners Meditation Guide [print this page] Fortunately, there aren't too many things that you need to know in order to find out how to do meditation. You don't need any special tools or equipment, just somewhere to practice where you're unlikely to be disturbed.
Many people start out meditating by using the traditional method of sitting down, possibly cross legged, and focusing on an object such as a flickering candle. This works well so long as your mind is happy to allow any thoughts that come into it to pass through just as quickly. This clearing of your mind is probably one of the most difficult parts of traditional meditation methods and is where a lot of people get hung up, wondering whether they're meditating correctly.
Quietening your mind is one of the benefits of meditating but it's also often one that doesn't happen immediately. In turn, this causes a lot of self doubt. After all, if your mind is still chattering, you must be doing something wrong mustn't you?
Actually, no, you're probably not. It's just that getting your mind to relax and keep quiet is actually quite a difficult process. Using regular meditation methods, it takes a lot of practice to achieve this. But that doesn't mean that you're not meditating.
If you don't like the idea of watching a flickering candle, another traditional meditation is to chant a mantra over and over again. "Ohm" is one such mantra that is regularly used but the actual chant is secondary to the purpose of giving your mind a point of focus. Again, if this works for you then it's definitely a case of go for it!
Nowadays, a lot of us prefer more instant methods of meditation. Learning the traditional ways is all well and good but they take time. Modern meditation methods usually involve listening to a pre-recorded track on CD or downloaded onto your MP3 player. In the background, a series of noises - called binaural beats - take your brain down to the same wavelengths that are found when people meditate more traditionally. The difference is that you don't have to do anything more complicated than listen to the track. The background beats take care of everything else.
How To Do Meditation - A Beginners Meditation Guide
