Meditation Technique

Meditation is really a very simple practice. There are many kinds of technique and methods and you may like to try different styles later in your practice.

For now, keep it simple. The primary goal is to establish a habit of sustained attention. The attitude is to be gentle but persistent. Meditation is a lifelong resource,not a chore to force yourself through.

How to Meditate

1.Sit down! Depending on your level of suppleness, you can sit cross legged, or in half lotus, which is like cross legged but with one foot on the opposite thigh. Sit on a raised cushion so that your hips are higher than your knees.

If sitting on the floor is unrealistic, choose a chair where you can sit upright with both feet flat on the floor and your back straight and unsupported.

This basic sitting posture will become the framework for awareness for this meditation technique. If you have some physical condition that makes such a posture difficult, adapt it to any sitting position that is upright without being tense.

2. Now you are sitting down, take a good breath and relax as you breathe out. Do this three times, relaxing a little more with each out breath. When you relax be careful to maintain an alert, upright posture.

3. Close your eyes and notice what feelings and sensations are in your body. When your mind wanders, and it will, return to noticing how the body feels. At this point there is nothing to correct or change. Just become aware of whatever sensation is in the body and be patient with it. When I begin to meditate I sometimes feel an initial unwillingness to sit still. The trick here is to notice that feeling as just a feeling and be patient with it. The keyword here is patient persistence.

4. Change your focus of attention to your breath. Feel the breath enter and leave the tip of your nose. On each out breath count from 1 to 10. Each breath gets one number, not all ten!! When the mind wanders off into thoughts and dramas, notice that this has happened and return to counting the breath.

5. When you are ready to finish, open your eyes and sit for a moment before you get up.

Practice of Meditation

Noticing that this has happened is part of the practice , as is returning your attention to the breath. You could start with a few minutes and build up to ten, then twenty minutes. It is not a race.

Choose a time that you can maintain everyday, or at least every week day with the weekend off for good behaviour! Establishing any new habit takes energy. Give that discipline in a coaxing way rather than making it too much of a burden.

Other techniques

A mindfulness practise can be difficult to sustain unless we have a foundation of 'well being'. If we feel positive and caring towards ourselves, we can be more spacious in our practice and have a greater capacity to accept feelings which can be difficult, into consciousness.

Theravada Buddhism has a series of four meditation techniques called the brahmaviharas which are useful in this respect. In the same way that you would expect to train before entering a race, it is valuable to practise these before you need to use them in the event life become rocky and more difficult than usual.

The first of these techniques is metta, loving kindness. The meditation technique for metta is the same as for the other three brahmaviharas. The overall idea is to bring a particular feeling into your mind and body and 'breathe' it in and out with the sense of offering it to yourself.

The other three brahmaviharas are compassion, joy, and equanimity

The overall meditation technique is the same for each. You bring to mind an example of the particular feeling, perhaps in relation to another person, and then offer it to yourself.

It is always better to practice these before you need them, especially as when you need the benefit of these techniques life is often troubled. This kind of meditation technique has stood the test of time and trauma. Investing time in their cultivation is a smart move.

More Techniques

For more information, you could look at All About Chi Kung/Qigong: Secrets to Health, Martial Arts & Meditation at chikung-unlimited.com. This 5000-year-old Chinese yoga incorporates still and moving meditation, tai chi chuan martial arts, health (herbalism, acupressure massage, nutrition, home remedies), philosophy, and yogic breathing. This website offers a traditional lifestyle approach with ecourses on qigong vision therapy and other yogic qigong lessons. This is a really interesting approach to meditation technique!

Another body focussed way of practicing mindfulness is yoga. Yoga is a tremendous way of improving health and caring for the spirit. For further information about yoga I highly recommend Giselle Toner's site Eternity Yoga

Heart Coherence

There are two versions of the technique. One requires simple equipment to turn your computer into a heart monitor and the second one, which I use and which Dave recommends is an easy exercise which requires no extras at all.

Here is the method:

the following is based on the Quick Coherence technique which is the copyright of Dr.Childre

Step 1. Heart Focus. Shift your attention to the area of the heart, or the center of your chest

Step 2: Heart Breathing. Breathe slow and deeply. Imagine the air entering and leaving through the heart area, or the center of your chest

Step 3: Heart Feeling. Remember a time when you felt good inside, and try to re-experience that feeling. Focus on this good feeling as you continue to breathe through the area of your heart.

"Quick Coherence is a powerful technique for refocusing your emotions, connecting you with your energetic heart zone, and releasing stress. Cumulative stress creates a cloud of incoherence. By practicing the Quick Coherence technique, you increase self-alignment, drawing in more of your higher discernment faculties and increasing access to your intuition. Heart coherence increases operative intuition for day-to-day facilitation and guidance. Once learned, the Quick Coherence technique only takes a minute to do. It consists of three easy steps: Heart Focus, Heart Breathing, and Heart Feeling.

You can apply this one-minute technique first thing in the morning, during work or school, in the middle of a difficult conversation, when you feel overloaded or pressed for time, or any time you simply want to get in sync." (Dr Childre)

I find the heart coherence technique a valuable addition to my meditation practice and have incorporated it as the way I begin a session. It does take a bit of practice, like any other skill, and I hope you will take the time to try it out.

Walking Meditation

So called ‘depth’ of meditation is sometimes taken as an indicator of ‘good’ meditation in the same way that depth of trance is sometimes taken as an indicator of the most valuable trance state.

Of course deeply concentrative meditation has its place, and leads to particular states of mind and inner experiences. A more mindful approach to meditation reaps other benefits and is arguably the most relevant form of practice for ordinary,that is non monastic, life. This is because mindfulness takes as its object the very thoughts and feelings and body which we experience continually, and with which we have to deal in order to live more or less effectively in an often difficult world.

To develop mindfulness it is helpful to work with more than one posture. Perhaps sitting meditation will be the core of our practice but we can then extend our mindfulness in to other postures. Walking is an ideal context for mindfulness as the physical movements are both simple and repetitive. I remember a comment fom the late Trevor Leggett who made the point that it was easier to reach attainment in Zen through a martial art such as the spear, than through Judo, as Judo was so much more technically complex.

It is the same for walking. It is very simple!

Walking meditation can be done by picking a track to walk up and down, or around, space permitting.

When practicing this form allow the awareness to rest in the body. Notice the breathing without trying to change it. Notice one foot picking up and putting down, the weight shifting and the other foot picking up and being placed down.

As you take each step, mentally say the word, ‘step’ to yourself. The work in walking meditation is to use the physical form as a hook for the attention. To let the attention rest in this step. As we walk we notice how and when the mind wanders off and to gently return it to this step.

Notice when the mind is unsure and wants something more complicated to do. It is just a thought. Notice when the mind thinks it is not achieving anything and perhaps is doing the meditation wrongly. It is just another thought.

Take one step slowly and then take another. Bring the mind back to the body and the movement. That is it! have a go…

Walking meditation can be used to replace and or supplement seated meditation, sometimes. It is good to use in the early morning when we are sleepy! It is good to use if you have some quiet space outside.

The instructions are simple. if you want to read more follow the download link below. More importantly, have a go!

Shift Your Consciousness is a site that looks at meditation and manifestation from the overall perspective of consciousness.

FREE Walking Meditation downloadable pdf

Free Meditation technique instructions for starting your practice here
(downloadable pdf file).

Go to Audio Meditations This is a growing collection of sound files to guide you through a particular meditation technique.

For more resources that offer focused techniques to deal with stress, try this site: Stress Free Vibe!

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