Meditation Steps
Variations to Select From
A. Purpose of Meditating (Picture that you are a bucket holding all of this chaos from your world inside of you. You have a leak at the bottom of the bucket. Now picture meditation slowly replacing the chaos with peace & wisdom, pushing the chaos out the bottom and relieving your mind and body of the symptoms of chaos such as headaches, illness, disease, short attention span, lack of patience, difficult relationships, etc.). Stop meditating and the chaos replaces the peace and wisdom. Re-establish your meditation discipline and regain peace and all the health benefits and wisdom and insight you are longing for at times of distress.)
1. To slow your mind, which is relaxing to your mind and your body
2. Slows your respiration: heartbeat, pulse, breathing which improves health and quality of life
3. Releases suppressed thoughts, reduces sense of chaos, clears your head which helps you to process your issues more effectively for the benefit of better outcomes
a. is known to allow joy in ‘being’ to re-surface
b. by clearing your head you begin to see issues in a new light
c. you are likely to remember long-forgotten memories and therefore process them with wisdom you are gleaning from the development of the insights you gain from meditation
d. insights come out of seeming ‘nowhere’ which tend to allow you to move forward on your journey with a renewed sense of purpose and clarity of self
4. De-clutter your mind.* Meditation is a revitalizer and a de-stressor as well. Let go of your baggage now.
5. By not having any thoughts for this length of time you are letting go of resistance to change, thus allowing in the positive vibration that brings the change you long for and desire.
B. Mechanics (Select one from each below)
- Choose your sitting position (posture is key: research shows erect posture allows your blood to circulate upwards towards your brain which, when it releases oxygen in your brain, stimulates the production of neurotransmitters which improves your mood)
- Sit upright in a chair, knees bent at a 90 degree angle, back straight
or
b. On the floor on a comfortable pillow in semi-lotus position where your knees brace you on the floor creating a tri-pod like support to keeping your back straight
- Choose your hand placement
- Place your hands — one on each leg, slightly before the knee and relax them, palms down
or
- Place your hands slightly before each knee on your legs, with palms facing upward, providing an open and receiving antenna
- Choose your eye position
- Keep your eyes open, fixed on one object, eyes relaxed at half mast
- Facilitates alert relaxation
or
- Close your eyes allowing for an internal universe to be part of the meditation process
- This helps with relaxation, down side is that it can facilitate sliding into drowsy state if you are fatigued. If this happens, take a nap as you need the rest. When you wake, return to meditation practice.
- Choose your mental discipline to slow your mind
- Picture in your mind watching a leaf or a feather slowly float from the sky to the ground and trace its floatation upward again toward the sky and then back down again, over and over,
or
- Follow your breath with your mind, slowly notice as you inhale and then exhale and continue to follow your breathe for the duration of your meditation
or
- Create a word or affirmation that has a positive vibration and meaning for you to repeat over and over to help relax and discipline your mind as you descend into a relaxed and meditative state where you will no longer need the word**
d. Or learn to sit in silence, without any words, images or music. It’s a real discipline but works.
C. Steps of Meditation
1. Turn off all electronic devices to avoid distractions: phones, TVs, fax machine, computer and radio
2. Bring notepad and pen and place next to you to take notes, so as not to repeat looping thoughts and messages that come up during ‘monkey mind’ when your mind jumps from topic to topic repeatedly
3. Take three long, deep, slow inhalations and exhalations to begin relaxation
4. Follow your leaf/feather, breath, or chant
5. Begin relaxing even though you experience monkey mind*** which is your active state of consciousness (Beta and alpha brain wave state) until you arrive in theta, your most relaxed state right before falling asleep or right after waking up from your delta brain wave state. Be patient, this takes lots of patience and discipline to wait out the chaos in your busy mind state. a. So begin by practicing daily for twenty minutes in the morning and again at night
b. After two weeks, add another ten minutes to each meditation to equal 30 minutes twice daily
c. Eventually add one long block of time once a week to your practice. It’s the hardest to do at first, but it is what puts you over into the benefits column of meditation that you hear so much about.
1. 4c is where you will develop unbridled wisdom
2. 4c is where you will transform your relationships and quality of experience
3. 4c is where you may even hear that still small voice reach into your mind and give you pearls of wisdom to help you along your journey of life
4. 4c is where you will be glad you started to meditate and will always want to continue to include it in your daily and weekly schedule
5. 4c is free and you’ll have no regrets for ever making the decision to include meditation on your journey through life.
*De-cluttering your mind requires silence. That means you are asked to follow the steps listed above. Practicing any of these will defeat the purpose of meditation, therefore :
1. no calming music in the background
2. no guided imagery or visualizations, that’s great for yoga and other functions, though
3. no prayers which are a form of silent communication which require focusing on thoughts which require formulating words and sentences to express yourself to your hire power
**Words and phrases used to chant may seem helpful to you, however in eastern religion it has been determined that they create a vibration that conveys a link to a certain outcome. It is normally advised not to chance this as you do not have the knowledge here to assure you of your desired outcome. Therefore, if that seems to be the only way you can meditate then you might want to seek more training from someone disciplined in an eastern religion or meditation practice of your choice.
***Monkey Mind is a metaphor normally used to convey the state of your consciousness when you first begin to meditate each time. You carry your day/week/year/life with you into your meditation practice and sitting silently at first you are still in your Beta brain wavelength state of mind. Your mind may race or merely jump from topic to topic like a monkey jumping from tree limb to tree limb and back. Quieting Monkey Mind requires patience and dedication to the practice of meditation. It will subside as your mi
