Tips for a Simple and Successful Meditation Practice

How to Make Meditation Part of Your Busy Life!

Meditation is good for you! The benefits are physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Meditation increases the strength of your immune system and can even help to reduce blood cholesterol levels. You feel a greater sense of self-control and a heightened ability to "go with the flow" when you make meditation part of your daily routine.

Meditation helps you control your thoughts. Instead of being hostage to the random thoughts that run through your brain continually, you learn to choose what you want to think about. As a result, you gain greater peace of mind. Spiritually, you may feel more "connected" to your Higher Power as you understand it. You develop a sense of purpose that injects new meaning into even the most mundane daily tasks.

If you've always wanted to learn to meditate, but thought it sounded too complicated or time-consuming, the following simple tips will ensure your meditation practice is successful.

1. Choose A Quiet Place
Anywhere that you can be alone will work. Inspiring music played softly in the background and/or burning incense will set the mood and help you relax. Instrumental musical selections are best.

2. Start Small
Begin your meditation practice with just 5 minutes, twice a day. Mornings and before bedtime are ideal, but make plans according to your own schedule. As you gain expertise, increase your time to 10 minutes, then 15, and so on. Depending on the amount of time you have available, you may want to work up to 30 minutes a session.

3. Read
If time allows, read a few pages in an inspirational book before you begin to meditate. It helps to clear your mind and prepares you for silence. You may also have a favorite affirmation or short verse that you enjoy reading.

4. Be Comfortable
Sit upright in a chair or on a bed. Wear comfortable clothing. Keep your feet flat on the floor and your legs uncrossed. Let your hands lie in your lap, palms turned up. Consciously relax as much as possible.

5. Keep It Simple
Start by paying attention to your breathing. Focus on your abdomen and chest expanding as you inhale and contracting as you exhale. While you continue to pay attention to your breathing, your thoughts will naturally slow down. Visualizing a pristine space or imagining that you're turning a switch to the Off position may help.

6. Be creative with your own visualizations!

Keep breathing slowly and deeply. If thoughts enter your mind, just acknowledge them and let them go. Your aim is to build up the amount of time that you can be silent, with no thoughts intruding. You can also use repetition of an inspiring word or phrase to help keep your mind clear.

7. Be Consistent

Set aside time every day for your meditation. According to mental health practitioners, it takes 21 days to form a habit, so set a goal to keep your meditation appointments with yourself for 30 days. You'll be well on your way to having an established, successful meditation practice!

8. Remember Your Sessions
During the day, think back to your morning meditation session. Reconnect with the sense of relaxation and peace that you felt. This will give you a renewed feeling of calmness and direction, even in the most stressful of circumstances.

 

7 Tips For Meditation

Through meditation we can bring about greater peace of mind and powers of concentration. The length of time we meditate is not as important as the focus we give during our meditation. If we can meditate with a silent mind for 5 minutes we can bring to the fore our own divine qualities of inner peace and inner happiness. This is an inner joy independent of any outer success or outer prosperity.

 

When offering meditation classes for the Sri Chinmoy Centre. I offer these 7 tips which will help us to meditate more successfully.

1. Quite The Mind

The Goal of meditation is to go beyond the mind. Meditation cannot be done by thinking. All the different paths of meditation share this common feature of cultivating a silent mind. When our mind is silent we can start to enter a new consciousness, a consciousness not limited by the intellectual mind. With a quiet mind we will experience peace
"I meditate
So that I can inundate
My entire being
With the omnipotent
Power of peace."
- Sri Chinmoy 

2. Concentration

In whatever we do,we will be more successful if we can concentrate fully on the task in hand. This means being single pointed. When we meditate we need to switch off from everything else and put all our attention onto the meditation.

3. Place to Meditate

It is very helpful to find a Quiet Place to meditate every day. I have a small corner of my room specially set aside for meditation. You can use a picture of a saint or Teacher who inspires you. Or just use flowers and a candle. If you meditate in the same place every day it builds up a meditative atmosphere.

4. Aspiration

Aspiration to meditate. If we are hungry then we are eat. It is the same with meditation if we are not satisfied with what we have and would like to discover the inner peace within ourselves then we will be motivated to meditate every day. This aspiration or inner cry is perhaps more important than learning many techniques.

5. Perseverance and Patience

In the beginning we cannot expect results overnight, each time we meditate we are adding to our capacity's even if we don't have great experiences then we need to persevere. If we practise sincerely we will progress.

6. Use the Qualities of the Spiritual Heart

The heart is the location of the soul. If we focus on the heart, immediately our thoughts have less power. By concentrating on our heart we can enter into the vastness of meditation.

7. Cultivate Happiness

It is important to bear in mind the goal of meditation is to uplift our consciousness and have a more positive outlook about life and about ourselves. When we meditate well we will have a positive outlook on life.