Meditation -- How to Start?
As I discussed in the previous post, firstly, it is necessary to lower any expectations regarding perfection. It just delays the beginning of something that can be really great for you in so many ways.
Second, it is practical to set aside a time of the day when you are sure you will not have distractions.
Leave your cell phone in another room, if you have already woken up. If you just did it, don’t even take your cell phone.
Make sure you went to the bathroom, drank enough water, and there is no way of you being interrupted.
Ready? So, then:
- Sit in a comfortable position
- Close your eyes
- Inhale and exhale deeply while counting till five in each step, repeating three times.
- Clear your mind
- Focus on your breathing
- Remain quiet for five minutes.
An avalanche of thoughts will surely assault you. Gently ignore them. Imagine the thoughts like clouds passing by at fast speed. And focus on your breathing again.
You can increase your time as you feel more comfortable.
The trick of the trade in meditation is losing the focus and getting back to it.
Some people believe that they should be completely thoughtless. This may be achieved only by very advanced yogis. But the mind is a thinking machine and you have to persevere to calm it down.
What makes us better, more resilient in terms of meditation is not to focus on the thinking that arises but letting it flow away from you. This teaches the mind to slow down.
This is a very simple technique that I hope you feel comfortable doing.
Alternatively you can also use guided meditations for specific purposes. There are wonderful meditations available on YouTube, for instance. Or helpful apps for both android and iOS.
Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.” Richard Gere
I particularly wanted to go a little deeper in the matter, and I took some meditation courses. I was lucky to take a course with a Buddhist monk, when I learned one of the most beautiful ones: the meditation on forgiveness.
I also learned the Brahma Kumaris technique when I took a course at their Spiritual University in London.
Recently I became an Add Heart Facilitator at the HeartMath Institute when I learned the heart coherence meditation technique. Beautiful and very powerful.
I learned a lot in webinars and online courses too. So I ended up creating my own focused active meditation technique, which I will be sharing with you soon.
In these uncertain and stressful times that we are living in, we do need to take care of our mental and emotional health. Meditation works wonderfully for this.
Love and light,
Monica