Discovering Your Imagination During Meditation

In this exercise a box is used as a focus for your meditation. As you visualize the box, let your imagination take over. Allow items in the box to “appear”, these represent your thoughts and feelings.

1) It may help to place an empty box in front of you and observe it for a few moments. When you are ready, close your eyes and picture the box in your mind’s eye.

2) Imagine that the box represents your mind, and you open it to discover that it contains certain objects. What do you see inside the box? Are there items that represent your life, your personality or mood? Perhaps there are random objects that don’t seem to make sense – they could be messages from your unconscious.

3) Imagine removing each item from the box. What feelings does each item arouse in you? Accept your feelings, whatever they might be. To end the meditation, imagine placing the items back in the box, and closing the lid. Take a few deep breaths and open your eyes.

Living In The Present Meditation encourages us to focus the mind and concentrate our mental energies. If we are constantly dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, we hinder our ability to be fully aware of the present. Meditation encourages us to awaken to the reality of today and, in doing so, offers us freedom not only from all that has been but also from all that will be.

Developing focus during meditation

The underlying key to meditation is learning how to “centre” ourselves, how to still our bodies and focus our minds so that we are able to enter a state of total absorption and concentration.

Try putting your personal preoccupations on hold and direct your awareness to whatever item you may want to let your attention rest on. You may wish to focus on a specific part of your body by channelling all your mental energy there. Or you may want to place a particular object or image, perhaps a flower, vase or painting, in front of you and allow your eyes gently to rest on it as a point of focus.

Initially, you may find that your concentration lies solely on the chosen object; in time, your thoughts and your object of thought will become as one.

The ability to concentrate for long periods during meditation is an enriching experience, but don’t worry if at first you are distracted and your thoughts dart in all directions, try to bring them back into focus and, with practice, your powers of concentration will increase. Read More…

Centre Yourself During Meditation

This exercise shows you how to develop a still, quiet mind and a firm, steady body, both of which are important prerequisites for effective meditation.

1) Start your meditation by sitting  in a comfortable position with your back straight but not tense. Roll your shoulders back to broaden your chest. Place your hands, palms down, on your knees or thighs. Close your eyes during meditation. Focus on your body, releasing any muscles that feel tense. Keep your breathing soft and steady.

2) Allow your mind to settle on the innate stability and strength of your inner self. If other thoughts start drifting into your mind during your meditation, gently try to return the focus to your breathing, inhaling for strength, exhaling for stability.

3) Return your awareness to the physical presence of your body: notice the air against your skin, the weight of your body as it touches the floor or your chair, the warmth of your toes, the light touch of your hair against your face. Sit quietly for a few moments, enjoying your meditation and solidating this awareness of yourself before getting up.

Meditating “properly” People are often unsure whether or not they are meditating “properly”. The answer to this is that, strictly speaking, there is no right or wrong way, it depends entirely on what you want to achieve through your meditation practice. If meditation does not appear to be helping you in any way, there may be something you need to change. Sometimes you can find out what you need to change on an inner, spiritual level, by listening to the voice of your unconsciousness.

During your meditation,  try asking yourself what you are aiming to gain from the practice, and observe the thoughts and feelings that arise in response.

Candle Meditation

This is a very simple technique which will help to settle your mind and provide a good focus for meditation.

1) Begin by sitting in a comfortable meditation posture with a lighted candle in front of you. Breathe evenly and a little more deeply than normal. Then concentrate your attention on each part of your body in turn, saying silently to yourself, “I relax easily and completely.” Focus your awareness on the flame: imagine that it enters your being and feel that it becomes a part of you.

2) Now close your eyes, but hold the image of the candle and flame in your mind’s eye. Carry the image into the depths of your mind. As you absorb inwardly the mental picture of the candle flame, lose any sense of its separateness, you inter-fuse with the flame as the flame inter-fuses with your being.

3) When you are ready, end the meditation by focusing on your breathing once more, breathe a little more deeply for one or two minutes, and then open your eyes.

Breath And Meditation

Most of us are not conscious of how our breathing affects our physical and mental states, but in meditation observing the breath and the way in which we breathe are crucial.

On a purely practical level, if we absorb oxygen and expel waste gases freely, our metabolic system functions efficiently, this, in turn, enables our body to relax. Just taking a few moments to fill our lungs and steady our breathing can calm us greatly in times of stress and tension.

Meditation teaches us that, by learning to understand and regulate our breathing, we can develop the ability to control our bodies, focus our minds and control our emotions and thereby improve the overall quality of our lives. Read More…