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HappyLittleFox |
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Tarot |
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Development How to Get
Started |
How to Get Started: Meditation – A Beginner’s Guide All the words here are my own unless
otherwise indicated, so please email me first if you wish to reproduce any of
the sections below – I would like to know where they will be reproduced
before I give my permission. Thanks. Meditation
– A Beginner’s Guide What is meditation? Meditation spans a variety of different cultures and
experiences. There is the light, day-dream type of experience to a very full
and deep religious enlightenment. I’m not going to discuss the different
types of meditation here but focus on how a Beginner can get started,
experiment and find enjoyment in the process. Once you get going, it will become
quickly apparent what you will enjoy and you can then seek further
information as needed. There are many reasons to meditate. People meditate to bring down their stress
levels; to make time in the day to focus just on themselves; to sort out a problem
or issue that is bugging them; to connect with Spirit; to send or receive
healing; to foster religious enlightenment.
All of these are valid purposes for meditation and each person
meditates according to their own preferences and beliefs. So, unless you are learning a particular
form of meditation, please don’t let people tell you that you are not doing
it properly if you just don’t happen to do it like they do – it is all
personal. For many people reading this, the purpose of meditation will
be within a spiritual context ie primarily to
enable a connection to be made with Spirit in order to develop our psychic
skills or healing abilities. From
within a meditative state we can communicate with, and so learn from, our
inner-selves, our Guides, Angels or Ascended Masters – or else our Totem
animals and Intergalatic friends. What are the benefits of meditating
regularly? In
the long term, the benefits of meditation are many:
How to get started There are 4 things to think about here and these are discussed
below: 1.
Relaxation Here are some things to try if you have difficulties relaxing
spontaneously – pick and try the one you’re drawn to in the first instance.
All of these are designed to focus your mind elsewhere so that you can
release your everyday concerns in readiness to commence the meditation. ·
Do some relaxation exercises. Tense and
relax all your muscles in turn starting with your toes, your feet, your legs
etc. Gradually work up your body. As you release the contractions feel the
stress flow away. ·
Concentrate on your breath. Feel it moving in and out of your
body. Follow the breath as it goes in
through your nose, hold it and exhale through your mouth. Hold the breath gently for a few counts
each time. Again, feel the stress release with the exhale. ·
Go for a walk or do some gentle
stretching exercises such as a gentle yoga session. ·
Develop a short ritual – like lighting
a candle or some incense – or saying a short prayer or affirmation. Over time, the very process of going
through a ritual often triggers the body and mind into a more relaxed state
if you do it often enough. ·
Play some relaxing music. ·
If you have been attuned to Reiki (at
any level) try the Hatso Ho Rei
exercise – then when you are in Gassho proceed with
your chosen mediation. 2.
Comfort It is crucial that you are comfortable before you start. If you aren’t, your attention will start to
wonder within minutes of starting. My personal preference is a comfortable
chair – one that keeps my back fairly straight and my feet on the
ground. It is important to many of us
to feel the floor under our feet during meditation or else you can become
ungrounded and rather spacey, even slightly nauseous or head-achey. Other people though prefer sitting on the floor or
even laying in bed. I know some
practitioners who lie on their own treatment couches. The key is to be comfortable – so whatever
works for you. I also suggest ensuring you are warm enough. Often
temperatures fall with the arrival of Spirit so having a blanket on top of
your normal clothes is a good idea. If
you are doing a Healing meditation, often your temperature will increase so
having something that you can push off easily without losing the flow is
nice. 3.
Timing There are two aspects to timing – how long to meditate for and
what time of day is best. When starting off it is best to keep the meditations short – 5
minutes is a long time to sit in one place trying to visualise a mountain
stream when despite your best efforts you can only see a black space! So if 5 minutes is too long – try 2 minutes
at the beginning. Working up to 20 or
30 minutes is ideal. Some people go
longer – but the average person with family commitments and the time
constraints that go along with that, may find more difficult. The time of day to meditate is extremely subjective. It’s lovely to get up early on a summer’s
morning and sit outside as the sun comes up – but realistically an extra hour
in bed is very hard to resist. If you
can only find the time when the kids have gone to bed or are at school – go
for it – just make sure you are not too tired or you might fall asleep. However, I would suggest trying different times of day
occasionally also. There are specific
meditations developed for sunup, sunset, night-time etc not to mention
different times of the year, full moon or inside or outside. By experimenting you might find something
you really enjoy. 4.
Maintaining Focus - Using Visualisation Once you’ve chosen your time of day, got comfortable, and
relaxed it’s time to start the meditation itself. Visualisation is probably
the easiest method of meditation. It
means to simply form a picture in your mind of a person or object or scene or
story. These pictures can be
stationery or else you can use your imagination to make them move either
spontaneously or else follow the instructions of another person/teacher (ie as in a Guided meditation). You can find Guided visualisations on CD at
local book stores or New Age shops; in books that you can then record
yourself and playback; or at a meditation group where the teacher speaks the
meditation aloud for the benefit of the group. The more practiced you get at visualising,
the easier it will become to trigger the meditation state. As you practice, the visualisation will
become more spontaneous and spiritual in tone. By that, I mean, the visualisations will take you with them rather than you control them. For example, there is a common “Meet Your Guide” meditation
which involves visualising a stage which has a door onto it. At the right point, your Guide is supposed
to walk onto the stage through that door.
In my experience this doesn’t often happen. Either no-one apparently turns up – or else
they come on from the opposite direction entirely or else (as in my case) my
Guide turned up on a bouncy white horse that charged down the middle of the
audience and jumped up on the stage neighing impressively – talk about a big
entrance! It’s at this point – when the meditation takes a leap of its own
that you know you’ve got it. It
doesn’t have to be as dramatic as my experience. It could be that you start to sense your
visualisations for the first time – can smell the grass, feel the water or
the breeze on your face etc – they start to become more “real” and move out
of your imagination and into the control of those who guide you ie Spirit, Guides, Higher self. However, a “Meet Your Guide” meditation is very hard at first
for those with little or no meditation experience. It puts undue pressure on you before you
even start as your expectations to “see” something is high. My best advice is
to start simple – and gradually build your focus over time. How do you know when you’ve got it? And
what to do if you haven’t. You know you’re starting to get
there when you experience a spontaneity to the
images you see during visualisations; have an immediate sense of revitalisation
when finished; and are generally more relaxed during your day-to-day
activities. Well done! Conversely if you experience the
following - stress, frustration, a feeling that you are wasting time,
agitation, even anger, shortness of breath, and fidgeting – you probably
haven’t quite got it yet. Frequently this means you are trying to do too much
too soon. Go back to basics and read
through the earlier sections of this article again. Occasionally, an inability to get
started with meditation indicates some other underlying cause. If this is
physical discomfort, a trip to the doctor may be in order, just to get it
checked out. If it is a stress-related
or emotional response, consider finding a counsellor or healer who may be
able to help you work through these issues first. Clear these up and then try
again. Trouble-shooting Meditation Fears Generally the more active an imagination you have, the easier
it is to meditate – that said, there is a point when learning, when it is
difficult to identify what you receive during the meditation as either enlightenment
or imagination. There is also a phenomena which
seems to occur for some people when they are trying to relax but are very
stressed – their imagination presents them with nightmarish images. Others, fear that
when they have a moment of spontaneous visualisation (a picture, feeling or
word appears to them which they have not consciously thought of) that some
other entity is communicating with them.
The fear brings them back to earth with a bump and they are not keen
to try again. Two things to say here.
Firstly, quite often the “entity” communicating with you is none other
than your subconscious or Higher Self, the same as your dreams at night or
when you have flashes of intuition during the daytime. This is not to be
feared but welcomed. You have just begun an extremely useful
partnership! Secondly, if you are
meditating for psychic and/or healing benefit, you are likely, with practice, to start to receive communication
from other sources. This also needs to be welcomed and not feared, for these
are your teachers and helpers. One way of minimizing your fear is to ensure that you have
gone through your grounding and protection routines before you start; or if
you are comfortable, simply asking for that protection from your Spirit
Guides or Angels. Then you know that the messages you receive will only be
from welcomed sources. See An A-Z of Grounding and Protection for more
information. Problems visualising? Keep it simple. I have a few suggestions:
Still Can’t do it? – Try this If you are still having difficulties – consider some of the
following suggestions. But first, go
back to basics, and check you are not trying for too long, you are
comfortable, not too tired, are relaxed and aren’t worried about the
process.
Finally, my advice is
simple. Relax, Relax, Relax! Where relaxation goes,
meditation follows. Good Luck. |
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03/11/2005 11:50 AM |
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