Some tips on Meditation

Lately some of my friends were checking with me on how they can start with a Meditation practice. They have never done it, they have been trying to start and making hard efforts but they are not able to focus.

This is the most important thing, when you try to do something very hard it all the more feels difficult. Meditation, when we make it as an activity where we try hard to do it, then it becomes difficult. But when we just try to do it as a nourishment for self it will happen effortlessly. It is a state of mind that has to be reached and it has to come easily and effortlessly. It has to become a way of life and not to be done as an activity. Like just how we breathe to survive or eat to live. Food is the nourishment for the physical body and Meditation is the nourishment for the mental body and our soul.

Yes, but it's true that when we start with the practice, we do not know what exactly to expect in a Meditation process. Let me share some tips on how I started my practice. When I started it was the same problem, I was not able to focus, because I was trying hard not to think, and the harder I would try the more thoughts I would get, just when I would close my eyes. What I had to cook, what I had to do that day, who I had to call up.....every possible junk thing would cross my mind.

I started tuning into guided meditations to begin with, they were very helpful, because then I was only focusing on what was being guided to me. From that I shifted to tuning into different frequencies of music. The Binaural beats meditation is really very helpful. The other one is the Chanting Meditation, Chanting Aum is very powerful, it raises the vibrations not only of the physical body but also of the surrounding space. Personally, this is one of my favorites. The Candle gazing Meditation is also a powerful one.

The most effective form of Meditation is just the simple Breathing one. Where the focus is just on the breath and nothing else. When one gets accustomed to being little stable one can shift to this. In the beginning you may find that the focus is for a shorter duration, but as one progresses the duration also increases. In breathing also there are many different techniques, like the anulom vilom (the alternate nostril breathing), the quantum pause (breathe, hold, release, hold technique), just focusing on breathing with slow breathing in and breathing out. The whole point is to be comfortable in the process and go with the flow.

Meditation has some real good benefits for the Mind and Soul, One must try to spend a minimum of 20 mins daily in it. Ideally Meditation is a state of mind, where we learn to live in the now and it is not time bound, it is just expected to happen all the time. But the world we live in, it is difficult to be cut off from everything. But the least we can do is to cut this clutter off for some time in the day and relax the mind. Give it some rest, allow it to rejuvenate. Just 20 mins a day will allow it to heal.

Hope you find this article useful.