Meditation Techniques for Beginners.

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. 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 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 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 medicineFree Reprint Articles, you can give it away as well by thinking good thoughts about those you care about.

 Krishan Bakhru.

Meditation - Helpful Tips for beginners.

I used to think that meditation is a relatively simple activity that does not require instructions, but it turned out to be a little more complex than I thought. I even needed to learn meditation for beginners before I was able to do the relaxation ritual correctly. Let me tell you about are some of the things that I learned through the process.

I learned that it’s important to try not to think too much. Meditation for beginners is often misunderstood. Many people think that the process involves running thoughts through your mind, but it is actually quite the opposite. In meditation you need to empty your mind, but this is not as easy as it seems.

When I heard that I have to empty my mind of all thoughts in order to practice meditation for beginners, I wound up thinking that this is impossible. I mean that the very thought of emptying the mind of all thoughts is a thought in itself. Is it really possible to empty the mind? My first experience with mediation for beginners was actually a stressful thinking session about how to stop thinking.

Then I had to deal with the problem of keeping my eyes closed. Some people practice the relaxation ritual with their eyes open, but this has not really proved to be effective in meditation for beginners. I found that I can’t help but peek around the room in between my thoughts about not thinking. It is essential to keep your eyes closed because you have to direct your energy inwards. This can be very difficult even when your eyes are closed. You really have tot to look inwards because meditation for beginners is about finding a place within the self to relax.

You also have to consider where to conduct the activity when you are practicing meditation for beginners. It is important to find a very comfortable place and to choose a position that you can commit to for at least twenty minutes. During the first few weeks, I sat on a hard floor in an awkward position that I needed to rearrange several times during the session. I found that it was very distracting.

Keep in mind that distractions can wreck havoc on the entire process. Some people suggest choosing a mantra to help you keep your focus and keep distractions at bay. I also found this quite hard. I felt like an idiot repeating the same phrase, even though I chose it for my self. Meditation for beginners can be very rewarding once you get the hang of it through practice. I found meditation to be an everyday oasis from reality once I was able to lose my self-conscious nature and truly embrace the process. As a result of my effortsScience Articles, I now have more energy and I am also able to sleep better at night.

Morgan Hamilton.