Hi again. This is the second
part of the meditation series I was dying to write about. I had been too busy
with my daily routine and work that could not spare time but now you will get
an idea of how to meditate. If you want, you can read my previous post on what
is meditation and why do we need to meditate.
Again, it is important to know how to meditate.
There are various meditation techniques- Guided and self. Guided meditation is
where you can get help of audios, videos or a regular teacher who can guide you
through the meditation process. I suggest finding a good teacher is the best
way to get deep into meditation, than audios/videos. Nobody can beat one-one teaching. If you cannot find a good
teacher, self- meditation can be done and is easy.
We have mind. There is a conscious and a sub-conscious mind. Joseph Murphy, in his book "The power of your subconscious mind" explains that there are no two minds, they are just two spheres of activities within one mind. All our decisions are made from our conscious mind. The involuntary processes of the body like breathing, heart beat and brain functioning are carried by subconscious mind. Subconscious mind never argues or suggests if anything is good or bad. It just accepts whatever it is fed- good or bad. Meditation aims at training the subconscious mind.
How
to meditate?
Find a place where you
would not be disturbed by anybody. If possible put your cellphones on silent,
better switch them off. Turn off the TV, radio or anything that may distract
you.
1.
Sit in a position that
you are comfortable with. It is not that you have to be in a Yogic position or
upside down to meditate. Choose a position that is comfortable to you. Don't
lie down else you may fall asleep.
2.
Now, start breathing.
Don't breathe deliberately. Let your body calm and let it come by itself. Allow
the body to breathe naturally. Pay attention as you breathe in and breathe out.
Don't allow your mind to enter into any sort of argument. Just allow it to
concentrate on the breathing process.
3.
In some time you will
find that you were breathing longer, then short and finally when you are in a
deep level, you get the feeling that the body is not breathing at all. (No need
to panic!) You are still breathing. Now is the time to feel each and every part
of your body. Feel your head, hairs, eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, chin, nose,
throat. Feel each part. Tense your muscles and then relieve them.
4.
Feel your shoulders,
chest, abdomen, stomach, waist. Feel the cloth on your body. Tense these
muscles and release them. Feel your thighs, feet and toes. Your body should be
more relaxed now.
5.
A better way of
relaxing your body would be visualizing your body to be a bag of sand and
then feel the sand being released out of each and every part of the
bag(your body). You will feel a lot lighter.
6.
Don't let the noise
outside interrupt you, acknowledge your surrounding and accept it. The
noise will no longer bother you.
7.
Move deeper and
deeper. Visualize yourself going down a tunnel in the dark. Feel safe as
you are only going deep levels of your mind. As you go deeper and deeper,
your brain wave frequency will slow down from Beta to Alpha. With a
good practice, you can get to Theta levels of brain.
Even though you do not get
this in your first attempt, don't panic. Practice makes a man
perfect. With a daily practice, you will improve. If at the first time,
you do not get into Alpha level, still you will find your mind relaxed.
How
much should you meditate?
There is no hard
and fast rule that you need to meditate a certain number of hours or minutes.
It is as per how good you feel and till you are relaxed. Prolonged
meditation can get you into a state of deep sleep.
It is said that we can
start meditating from the age of 5 years onward. You can meditate
for a time that equals to your age. Say, 10 minutes for a 10 year old and
30 minutes for a 30 year old. But still, as I said, it is up to you. It is You
who has to decide how to get it to work and how good you are feeling doing
this.
Feel Good!
No comments:
Post a Comment