Author: Akhil Aggarwal
Meditation is a mental exercise. It is a means to retreat from your daily routine in your own space of silence and peace. Meditation should not be seen as a religious practice or the latest fad. By practicing meditation regularly, you are in more control of your emotions, your energy levels increase, and your perspective on life can change (for better) because of the relaxation. Meditation is hard and it cannot be perfected. The key is being quiet in your mind. Below are a few simple things to do in order to meditate correctly.
Position: Sit down. Find a comfortable spot anywhere in your home or anywhere else where you can spend a few minutes without being disturbed. It is important to sit with your back straight. Following any special wrist or feet position is not a rule as any unusual body position can cause pain and hence distractions. Sit comfortably. Accessories such as incense, candles, or cushions can be added to the environment but remember meditation is what you're aiming for, rest are all superficial additives, which you will not think about or feel while you're in 'breathing'.
Breath. Breathing is what keeps us alive. We never think about it and we never really give nature the credit it deserves for making breathing so simple an effortless. While meditating feel your breathing. Feel the air moving up your nostrils as you inhale and feel is exhaling. You will notice a slight pause after exhaling and before inhaling. Do not experiment with your breathing rate; keep it as normal and natural as possible. This is the only activity or task that you do in meditation - breathe. As you focus on your breathing, you will realize that this effortless and natural process gives you the oxygen your heart, your brain and the rest of your body needs to function properly.
Get lost in the dark space. Close your eyes when you meditate. Do not allow any thoughts to wander in your mind and only focus on breathing. During all this, what is that you see? You may forget to notice what you see, which is perfectly normal. If however you notice the dark space inside your eyes, use that to let yourself lose. In doing so, you do run the risk of letting your imagination run and hence think – but remember thoughts are to be ignored. So do not be too imaginative, like do not imagine yourself flying in that space, but allow yourself to look deep into space. The deep darkness and the spotless fluency in you can bring peace to you with its silence.
Don’t be hard on yourself. Meditation is not easy. It cannot be perfected, so do not expect yourself to be perfect at it. By being imperfect I mean, that when you meditate you will get random thoughts, maybe even ideas. You will not notice when you strayed and started thinking about something. At this time you will let your judgmental side kick in and right yourself off as being incapable of meditating. That is not right. Everybody can (and should) meditate. The key here is not to judge as it is only natural to drift. When you notice yourself getting any thoughts, do not try to fight them, simply move the thoughts aside and get back to your breathing. Evan a regular practitioner's mind can go adrift every time she meditates, but she would know better than to judge herself.
Set an alarm: You can decide how much time you want to meditate. Usually 20 minutes a day is a good practice. When you sit down to meditate without a timer, you run the risk of thinking about the time and being tempted to peek at the watch sometime during meditation. When meditating its easy to lose track of time. Only after 1 or 2 minutes, one can feel that a lot of time has passed and perhaps one must check the time. All these thoughts are unnecessary distractions that you must make sure do not exist at all. The solution to this is to use a timer. Set the timer for as many minutes as you plan to meditate. If you set the timer at 10 minutes, you will not worry about exceeding the time limit, in case you have errands to run. Remember, your only activity is to sit down and breathe without thinking about anything. Therefore, to make sure that you prevent such distraction setting a timer is a good option.
Meditate when you can. (1) Traveling in a bus; (2) Waiting in a queue; (3) Waiting for someone to show up; (4) Taking a break from work.
Meditation, not necessarily, should only be done in the serene Himalayas, or in a quiet candlelit room. You can meditate wherever & whenever. Moreover, meditation can be done for just 1 or 2 minutes. All you need to do is, give yourself a moment, and just breathe. In just one minute you can feel relaxed and at ease. Repeat this couple of times a day, whenever you can and whenever you feel like it. Meditation is like your own personal retreat from the world around you, to a world of peace and quiet.
Best time to Meditate. There is no 'only best time' to meditate. Meditation should be done only when you feel that it is a good time to do so. Some like doing it in the morning, while others in the evening or even late at night. Moreover, it's not mandatory to meditate at the same time everyday, as long as you spend some time everyday with yourself in deep meditation.
Meditation is a skill. It requires regular practice. The study of Meditation is a science while practicing it is an art. Meditation takes away your stress. Meditation allows you to take some timeout from your daily routine of work and people, and provide your brain some time to rest. So, if you're suffering from anxiety, hypertension, excessive stress, emotional troubles, or you're simply overworked, Meditation can be a wonderful and simple way to help you by keeping your mind healthy.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Meditate
