At the beginning of my meditation learning curve, I tried many different ways to meditate. One of my greatest teachers (who happens to be a healer in our HHM Directory) guided me from me “I think I meditate, but I don’t think I’m very good at it” to phenomenal, cosmic experiences. His guidance and explanations were paramount to my understanding of the hows and whys of my meditation experience and what eventually moved my learning curve up and literally out of this world! Many thanks to my dear friend James; message me if you’d like more info about him and his expertise.
To summarize many, many sessions I had with James and other meditation gurus, I learned that, as with most things in life, many ways to get to the same result. The trick is to find the one that works best for YOU; then stick with it!
Some suggestions and tricks helped for a while and then the effects wore off. After years of trial and error, here is what worked best for me:
1) Find a quiet place where you can sit in complete silence without being disturbed. If your mind is under assail by random thoughts and noises, this will greatly reduce the effects of your meditation.
2) Sit in a comfortable position where you are sitting up straight but not tense or strained. Your spine should be erect but relaxed so that you can sit for long periods without fatigue. If it’s difficult to sit completely still, then standing is also feasible as long as you keep your back straight.
3) Find a focal point or object to lock your eyes on, with your eyes open. Once you have it in focus, close your eyes and maintain your “focus” on this location in your mind. This helps guide you away from random thoughts and enables you to focus all of your meditation concentration. If your mind keeps wandering off, open your eyes and look at an object again and bring it back to the center focus every time. Then close your eyes again and find that spot in your “vision” with your eyes closed.
4) Focus all of your attention on your breath. Try to keep your awareness of the air flowing in and out of your nose or mouth. If you start thinking, bring your thoughts back to the object of meditation and focusing on your breath.
5) Keep your mind relaxed but sharp at the same time. Do not think about random things, but do not think that you have to suppress all thoughts either.
6) Eventually you will start to have sensations of energy throughout your entire body. Try not to focus on these, but instead bring your attention back to the breath or focal point. If outside noises become distracting, try putting in headphones so that they are muffled out by the music.
7) Continue this cycle for as long as necessary with breaks if you get tired or lose focus.
8) If the meditation is going well, you should eventually feel some kind of energy sensation throughout your body; but everyone has a different experience. You may also begin to have “visions” or experience dream-like states of what may seem like an alternate reality where your focus has shifted. This is great!
9) When you are in the middle of meditating, try not to key on any kind of expectations or wanting a specific outcome. This will reduce your chances of success since all thoughts (including positive ones) can be distracting and often indicate that you are thinking about something else besides letting the meditation take you where it will.
10) Meditation is like working out; it takes time and patience before you start to see results. If you are patient, then the effects of meditation practice will become very rewarding in the long term.
As everyone’s path is different and everyone has their own set of filters, you should find what works best for you. It might be a different time of day, location, setting, or different techniques, but the more consistent and persistent you are in your practice, the sooner you will see results. Perseverance pays off!! Invest in yourself and you gain from the get-go.
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