Mindfulness Meditation: This is one of the most effective forms of meditation and is one that I use almost every night now, it is very good for learning to slow down your mind, and eventually if done enough will lead to some very amazingly profound experiences and benefits. Basically it involves just monitoring your thoughts and letting them flow freely but not attaching to them. Instructions: Step 1: Find a quite place where you will not be disturbed for at least 30 minutes, I usually do this at night before going to sleep, so I am usually pretty confident I won’t be disturbed, this is probably the best time to do it. You could also go to a secluded place and meditate there, but the easiest option is probably to perform it in your bedroom before going to sleep. Step 2: Get into a comfortable position preferably with your legs crossed and sitting in an upright position, placing your hands together in your lap (you don’t have to do and special pose with your hands like so many people think meditation involves). If for some reason you cannot sit upright for long periods of time, then you can also just lie down on your back. Step 3: Start by first just letting your mind wander, and just observe your thoughts. The best analogy that I can give is think of your thoughts as leaves in a river, instead of seeing them and following them along the river, simply let the leaves flow into your vision, acknowledge them and let them pass. This is a very interesting thing to do, as you will realize just how many thoughts keep shuffling through your mind. Know that most of these thoughts are just being created by the mind randomly, like a random number generator, you are not actually consciously creating them. Step 4: While just letting your thoughts wander, also become aware of your breathing, slowly breath in through your nose and out though your mouth, bring your awareness to your breathing, you can even say in your mind “In” when breathing in and “Out” when breathing out. This will help slow down your thoughts further and calm your body. If you notice yourself following or getting lost in a thought, don’t fight it, just let it happen, then return to noticing your breathing. Eventually with persistence and great patience you will achieve a state, where you realize you are actually the awareness behind the thoughts, not the one having the thoughts. This is an extremely profound experience. Step 5: Once you feel like you have had enough, slowly open your eyes and you are done. Don’t think that when first starting out that you need to do half an hour, 5 minutes is perfectly fine for your first time, you can work on extending this the more you do it.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:48:19 +0000
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