How to Meditate

Stress gets the best of us at the worst of times. While some people go fishing, take a walk, or read to relieve stress others of us meditate. Here are some simple steps to meditate without associating specific religious or customary limitations.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A comfortable place to lay down.
• Quiet
• An hour of free time
• Calm
• Patience

1. 

   Find a nice comfortable room in the house. Make sure that all distractions are turned off. Radios, TVs, etc. will keep you from relaxing. Take any portable or cellular phones out of the room and set them to their "silent" function. Even relaxing music or "white noise" generators are distractions to this process.

2. 

   Get comfortable. Take off your shoes and socks. Remove any jewelry, especially necklaces, watches, or loose hanging bracelets that can move easily. For best results total nudity is recommended. There is no specific direction or "style" you should lay in. Just be the most absolute comfortable you can be.

3. Clear your mind. Consciously try to forget everything that is in your brain. While this is entirely impossible to do, it is a good exercise in removing malignant and useless processes and thoughts from your mind. It generates focus of mind and energy into the overall purpose of you meditation. Oddly enough, the more work you put into this focus the more relaxation you will have.

4. 

   Center your focus on positivity. Earlier you were looking to clear you mind of the trash and muck that filled your mind. Turn your focus now to filling your mind with peace and beauty. Imagine what is beautiful to you. Do NOT focus on a person or a personal object. Think generically. I prefer to think of a red rose on a white background. This image will seem perfect at first, but continue to focus. Soon it will seem that rose is being painted in your mind. As each "brush stroke" appears the rose will become more real, more solid. You have now found your focus.

5. 

   Now, while centered on the roses image, transfer your focus to your own body. Imagine standing under a waterfall. Where you stand is shallow, but the water rushes over you, starting at you head. As it cascades feel the temperature of the water change starting warm to cold, then back to warm. By the time the warm water has passed over your head and circulated to your feet it is now cold on top of your head. Visualize this by seeing color changes in your body that flow from the top of your head to the furthest most tip of your big toe.

6. Stay in this stage of focus as long as you can. Most people will drift off to sleep while meditating, and this is quite alright. Relaxation, after all, is the point.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are interrupted by outside forces, that is quite fine.
• Meditation takes practice. You will NOT perfect it immediately.
• Meditation is a good gateway to astral projection and heightened consciousness.
• Not everyone believes in this practice. Be careful who you talk to about it.

Resources

• Here's another spin on meditation

[MIHealthCoach]

on 6/7/2008 great advice!

[kyehan]

on 11/8/2007 I'm assuming what you have described here is closer to guided imagery exercise of cleansing your mind. of course this is coming from a lay person.

[kyehan]

on 11/8/2007 meditation is watching. Observing your thoughts and emotions. it's not about consciously erasing your inner thoughts nor enforcing an image into your mind.
A meditator is an aloof observer of his or her inner world.

[dja21149]

on 10/19/2007 Now I'm confused... How can I clear my mind when I am thinking about your meditation sequence and process?

[WeeSandy]

on 9/17/2007 This is lovely. I also like to remember the scent of roses, to help me meditate.