Meditation
Meditation is considered by many in the spiritual circles as essential practice. Our lives have simply become too busy and judgemental. We have unwittingly trained ourselves, or allowed ourselves to be trained into thinking that busy-ness, achievement and money equal happiness – and worse still, how we define ourselves in terms of worthiness. The rise in therapy and use of anti-depressants tells us that this isn’t the case…..in fact it’s almost the opposite – the happiest people seem to know how to BE rather than know how to DO. This post is about knowing what to do in terms of Meditation to still the mind.
If we wish to train ourselves to live a more mindful life, most use a number of different techniques to achieve our own compassionate state of peace and well-being. Here we enjoy being vulnerable as much as we enjoy being powerful (it’s easy to forget what amazing beings we all are when we’re busy criticising ourselves for forgetting to pick up the dry-cleaning).
As in every skill, it takes some diligence and repetition. If you can devote 20 minutes a day to being a happier little bunny you should read on, if you don’t feel you’re worth it, you need a bit more than this humble offering can give.
All the practices within are ones that will take one away from the bustled thinking that causes so much stress and distress in our lives, and make us better at being us. They are all methods that either create peace, clean up past regrets or hurts, dissipate anger, make us feel wonderful, connect us to our higher selves, strengthen our bodies or simply improve the quality of our being.
1. DAILY PRACTICE
It makes sense to practice daily until you get to be able to sink into a deep relaxation easily. People can find this part a challenge – the letting go of everything, because nothing is more important than giving your mind a rest. And don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. It’s not a rule – it simply reminds your body through repetition, our main way of learning.
Comfortable Space
i. Wherever you do your practice, find somewhere where nothing annoys you. The seat isn’t too hard, the light isn’t too bright, the outside noises aren’t too loud or you aren’t too cold or too hot.
ii. Don’t feel you have to have certain incense or essential oils burning with the light set to an amber glow and so on. These are great for relaxation and certain meditative practices but not necessary. If you make the set up too hard, you’ll stop doing it when you’re pressed for time and this may stop you practising as you may not feel you have the ‘environment’ right for the work.
Whenever it works
iii. There isn’t really a perfect time for this. Sure, as the day goes on and the psychotoxins build up it’s not as easy to go into a calm state, but it’s like going to the gym, just set up a routine that works with your lifestyle and soon enough your mind, appreciating the break, will set your state for you. Having said that, almost immediately after waking up and immediately when getting home from work are good times.
2. PRACTICE A – THE OBSERVER
You’re not your thoughts. You are everything other than them – the space between if you will. You are not your memories, not your experiences, not your opinions, not your sense of achievement, not your pride, not your sadness or regrets….none of it – these are the things that you have chosen to employ to make sense of the world – your subjective experience of life. You can see now how each one of us are SO completely unique that therapies can only work with us in the broader definitions of self, never fully understanding the complex being each of us has created to get through the tricky thing called life. This is why self-cure and self-realised understanding is the only true way to free ourselves of the things that we believe keep us from a life of true happiness. Good therapists and coaches help us unlock this self-directed learning and mindfulness practices are just that.
Deepak Chopra once said “Imagine Your Thoughts as Clouds” and this is our first practice.
Find your comfortable place and imagine your thoughts as clouds – watch them pass. Some build up and become bigger and others wisp away to nothingness. It becomes interesting looking at your thoughts floating past, and just then you realise – the you not your thoughts, you are the eternal sky, the watcher…
3. PRACTICE B – THE BREATH
It has been said in The Jewel In The Lotus that when we can lower our breathing to 4 times per minute we activate our Pineal Gland. This is one way to being able to see the bigger picture but let’s start slowly.
The Breath Technique
The Breath Technique is probably the simplest of the Meditation techniques around. I’ll just briefly explain why we have and need techniques.
Since you started listening to the voice in your head it has grown to enjoy its control over things – i.e. you have become the voice – and so when you first start attempting to sit around and have no voice, well, you’ll see what happens soon enough. It’s not very easy to do. This is why we need distractions. I’m only going to deal with two – the breath and the mantra, although some people use the sound of the air-conditioner, or the clock ticking – anything that can distract you from the voice and return you to training your mind, because that’s what this is – mind training.
Important note: Be easy on your mind, when you realise you’re backing thinking (or listening to the voice), without pulling your mind around or scolding yourself, simply indicate a preference for the breath, air-con or mantra.
Back to the Breath technique. In its simplest terms, track the breath, all the way in, all the way down, all the way up and all the way out – considering every sensation and movement. Notice the way your shoulders or belly moves, the internal feelings, the brushing of your nasal hair, the sound as it escapes, the temperature, the smell……whatever. Keep that up for as long as you can. For this meditation a very straight back, relaxed shoulders and chin in is optimum. You should have both feet flat on the ground and a hand on each thigh with palms facing upwards. If you can slide your tongue from the tip of your front teeth backwards onto your palate and when you reach the bottom of the well, after the first big ridge, rest the tip of your tongue there. This joins your two bio-electrical circuits (the macro and micro).
The Mantra Technique
The Mantra technique is not as dependent on posture and is loosely based on Transcendental Meditation. Choose a Mantra – Om is good. Either of the original sounds forming Amen are good (Ang Ein). The idea is to allow them to come to you as a thought, rather than say them in your head – you might not be sure how to do that at first, but the easiest instruction is DON’T say the mantra – the rest should just happen. That’s about it. You simply keep repeat the thought that is the sound and every time you find yourself thinking away, merely indicate a preference for the mantra.
About 10-30 min for both of these would be fine. Regular is better, as are set times. 2 a day is ideal and do NOT eat or exercise for 20min either side – so it’s not something to squeeze in before heading to the gym…
Enjoy!