How to meditate?

Hi Everyone,

Yet another wonderful day in Winnipeg, MB. It is 30C outside. So what me and my wife will do is to go up to Beasejour to our in-laws for a Tubing party. That means that the whole family jumps onto rubber tubes further up the river and then we flow down and relax down the river :D

I came by this great information yesterday! You`ll have to take a look at it. I am going to use it!

Asking someone, “How do you meditate?” is like asking, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” There are many, many different ways—all of which come easier with practice. Here I will briefly discuss some of the most common meditation techniques. Try them all and figure out what works best for you.

Learning How To Meditate

The most important element of basically any meditation style is breathing. You will breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose, hold it for just an instant at the pinnacle, then as slowly as possible release the breath out your mouth, compressing your stomach down to push the air out of your chest cavity.

Another key element to any type of meditation is focus. Naturally our minds only hold thoughts for a second or two and then they move on—we are easily distracted. Meditation is only effective when we can block out our mental fluttering. This is definitely a learned skill that gets easier with practice.

A few more meditation tips I can pass along are to make it a routine. Set aside a certain time each day to meditate—put it on your schedule if you have to. Have a quiet, comfortable place to sit. Remove any distractions from the area (such as silencing your cell phone and putting your dog in the backyard). Sometimes it’s nice to have a CD of relaxing music or nature sounds playing. This can trigger to your brain that it’s time to get in meditation mode.

As far as specific meditation techniques, I recommend these four: the stillness, the flow, the centering, and the void.

Let me explain the techniques:

THE STILLNESS
This popular technique involves focusing your vision on a single point until you get the infamous blank stare (or if your eyes are closed, a sort of internal space out). You might stare at a spot on a wall, a candle flame, or a religious or spiritual object. You can also focus on something auditory like chanting or a bell chime.

THE FLOW
This meditation technique is very much like the one listed above except that you will focus on an object in motion—such as a water fall, your own breathing, or something auditory like drumming.

THE CENTERING

This technique takes many different forms but ultimately aims to heighten your awareness of your place in the world. Centering meditation can be either outer (real) or inner (imagined) but the intent is to anchor your perspective in the center of a vivid image in which even the smallest detail is noted. With this technique, you will get into your meditation space then allow yourself to let in an outside noise or thought. This can be a great technique for beginners because of this (if you find it hard to quiet your mind and concentrate). By responding to “distractions” by absorbing yourself in them and therefore dismantling them, you take their power away.

THE VOID
This technique is sort of the antithesis of the three listed above. Like the name suggests, here you will think about nothing. You will have no focal point. You could think of focusing on “the blankness” or “the stillness,” but nevertheless the void meditation is about the complete absence of any internal or external focus. It can be quite challenging but very rewarding and relaxing.

Have a wonderful day everyone. Lets go out there and get more focus with starting to meditate. You now know how. Lets do it.

John Thore Stub Sneisen