How to Meditate

True meditation is to not think. We spend all our days thinking and making decisions. Meditation can truly calm your mind. It’s not easy to learn for some people. I have been meditating since I was eleven. I have learned to put myself in a relaxing state when I am in a great deal of pain. I have been able to go to the emergency room and look quite calm. I have been accused of not being ill because I did not look like I was in pain. I know we all have been accused of that.

The main thing to remember is not to think. If you catch yourself thinking, label it “”Thinking” and start over. There are several ways to meditate. We will go over a few of them now. You don’t need a teacher, but it helps. Meditation classes are free. You can practice on your own. The only problem with that is you don’t have the guidance you need, when you get stuck. Most people give up without guidance. Meditation makes you feel centered and balanced. I don’t feel balanced when I don’t meditate. There are podcast you can download or cds that can teach you. Having a teacher is best, try to join a group.

Mantra
Your teacher give you a word or a phrase to repeat over and over. If you don’t have a teacher choose a word that is important to you. Repeat your word, or phrase over and over. This word is your mantra. To begin try the word. I am.

Meditation
Is where you clear your mind and do not think at all. This method takes the most practice. It’s hard you have hundreds of thoughts per day. How do you not think? It takes practice.

Transcendental Mediation (TM)
They train you to meditate in the technique. This is what I learned when I was eleven. Developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He taught the Beetles, back in the day. They have centers all over the world.

Buddhist Meditation is vast.
What I mean by that is there is more than one technique. What I mean by Buddhist meditation is vast. Is there is a meditation for every problem you could encounter. The answer to all of the problems are compassion and lovingkindness. It’s really effective. For instance I learned Metta (lovingkindness meditation). You need a teacher for this.

What I recommend is you meditate for 15 minutes a day, everyday. Then each week increase the time by five minutes until you work your way up to 30 minutes a day. I meditate in the mornings. Try not to listen to the news first. It will put negative information in your mind. Which is hard to not think about while you meditate.

Think about it your hear about a horrible crime or you hear some horrible stories, and you want to bring peace to your mind. When I walk to my meditation room, my husband would mute the television as I walked by so I would not hear the news. Believe it or not something this simple really does help meditation.

Do you meditate? If you do are you at peace? If not what is stopping you from trying it? Look at Meet Up groups in your area. There are a lot of meditation groups. Most will teach you to meditate. Then you can do it on your own.
Namaste