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How to meditate, and the benefits of meditation

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Posted 27th October 2009 at 06:01 AM by katiepanton

Meditation is an essential tool and daily practice that will have enormous benefits for everyone who practices it. Some of the things you will experience include:
- Massive stress reduction
- Inner and outer peace
- Centeredness
- Spiritual connection
- Physical and psychological healing
- Empathy
- Wisdom
- Weight loss
- Increased wealth
- Increased health and well being
- Increased happiness and appreciation
- Increased feeling of love
- A deeper understanding of who you are and how your mind works
- A clearer understanding of what you want and where you want to go
- A clearer understanding of decisions you should make, directions you should go
- Problem solving
- Creativity
- Joy
- A deeper sleep, especially if you suffer with insomnia
- Increased energy vibration and sensitivity
- Greater inner strength and resilience
- Thousands of other benefits you will only know when you experience it.
By choosing to take time for yourself everyday to relieve yourself of stress and lighten your perspective on perplexing situations you will receive all the above mentioned benefits, which is something that can only be done through intentional relaxation and inner reflection time.
The best way to meditate is by doing so at least twice a day, for 15-30 minutes in the morning as you wake up, and 15-30 minutes, even an hour, just before you go to sleep at night. The reasons for doing it like this is because you want to impress the peace and goodness into your subconscious mind and participate in relaxation physically, mentally and emotionally before anything affects you during the day, before anything eats away at your energy or mood levels. If you can get yourself into this state of bliss before you do anything else, then anything which would normally perplex you will just bounce off of you, you will feel an inner sense of peace and resilience to annoyances, so you can hold your meditative state and relaxation throughout the day. A word of caution to meditation newbie’s, your meditation levels is a continuous evolution, so in the beginning it will require perseverance and patience. Because you may never have been used to shutting your mind and thoughts down for an extended period like this, you will need to train yourself; your thoughts may still creep in and clog your mind and you may feel frustrated in the beginning, but if you diligently practice, remain patient and forgiving with yourself, you will evolve and your meditation will sophisticate, so do not panic!
The reason you meditate in the evening first thing before you go to sleep is because you are shutting down your mind and body before you sleep, relaxing your physical and mental states which will automatically put you to sleep effortlessly and peacefully, and into a much deeper sleep because you are shutting down the layers of mind before you even get to sleep. What you are also doing is programming your mind, you’re letting go of all worries and concerns so they don’t cook overnight in your subconscious and seem worse in the morning, you let them go. I my previous article I spoke about visualization with meditation, which means that you visualize all the things you want in your life, all the goals and things you want, and imagine them as already being yours. This means that they will sink into your subconscious overnight and you will attract them to you, because you have trained your subconscious to seek out all the things you need to get you to that specific outcome.
On top of this, if you can steal 10-15 minutes during the afternoon to relax, deep breathe and meditate, it can immediately bring you peace, focus and happiness, which brings you back to a state of calm after the day has started laying pressures on you. It’s like you start your day off with an empty rucksack on your back, and as the day progresses, bricks are gradually laid into your sack from all the people and situations in your life, weighing you down and making your tired and stressed. If you can get a few minutes in the afternoon to relax your body and mind, and let the bricks slip away as you centre yourself and enter your blissful state again. You will return ton your life with increased relaxation and peace, you’ll have let your tension go, and you will see the situation with detachment and objectivity, strength and energy. If you can’t take time in the afternoon then you can take time in the early evening when you get home from work. Before you start interacting with your family and loved ones. This means that you will shed the heavy brick from your back before you take it out on any of your family; you can bring yourself back to centre and peace, relax and ground yourself, and so you’re the real you when you see your family. This means that you won’t need to affect your family with whatever may be troubling you at work, you can leave in at work where it belongs, and it also means that you won’t need to resort to drink or arguments to numb yourself from your stress, stealing important parts of yourself away from your loved ones and children. There’s nothing worse for a child than seeing their parent/parents consumed by stress and resorting to unhealthy means to numb themselves, meaning that they’re absent for their children. You must remember that children tend to emulate their parent’s behaviour, so be careful what you programme into your children. So by giving yourself the space to relax and calm, you’re giving all your relationships the best parts of you and you don’t risk throwing your bricks at them!
Meditation comes in many forms and everybody has slightly different ways of practicing it, the essence is still the same. What ever works for you and you feel is right, is the right thing for you. What meditation is, is blocking out all outside influences and turning down the noise within your own head, you are practicing the art of just being. You are also getting in touch with the real you, not the character you are playing that day, the ‘mother’ or ‘father you’, not the ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’, ‘wife’ or ‘husband’, ‘son’ or ‘daughter’,‘student’ or ‘manager’, broke person’ or ‘millionaire’. Your enter the soul part of you, your highest you, which you can’t hear through the noise of the day! This is the part of you, which holds the key to perfect health and healing, perfect happiness, love, forgiveness and wisdom.
To meditate you simply find a spot or corner in a room, which can be your meditation spot, where you will go every time you meditate. Rooms hold energy, whether you’re aware of it not, like if you go to a hospital, it has a certain energy of pain and discomfort which makes you edgy, churches hold a feeling of peace, a baby’s room seems to brim with love. A city like New York, or London holds and aggressive, fast energy, newness, and the countryside holds a feeling of peace, nature and beauty. So you need to create a spot, which will gather the peace, your pour into over time. St on a cushion cross-legged, or in the lotus of half lotus position. Hold an image which bring s you peace, which represents serenity to you to help you calm your mind and focus on natural beauty, like a beautiful sunset, mountains, a waterfall, light coming through the trees in a forest, the beach at a sunset, etc. Play some gentle classical, chant or new age music to block outside noise and to focus your mind. This type of music has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and induce relaxation. Light a candle or burn some incense, because it’s another tool to focus and calm your senses. Sit with your hands upturned on your knees and take in 10 deep, full breaths, holding it for 5 seconds at peak in breath, and let it go, counting for 10 seconds. This focuses your mind, relaxes your body, and fills you with oxygen, going directly to your brain where you need it the most.
You can just sit and focus on your breathing, thinking of nothing, just enjoying being and getting into peace where nobody wants anything from you. No demands, just being. Say gently to yourself “My toes are relaxed, my feet are relaxed, my ankles are relaxed, my calves are relaxed, my knees are relaxed, my thighs are relaxed”... etc, until you get to the crown of your head. Your body will automatically relax and shut down with your suggestion.
You can also buy cds, or download them and follow guided meditations. I particularly recommend Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra or Dattatreya Siva Baba; they have some very powerful meditations. Or you can use your voice which will make your whole body vibrate after 20 minutes, by repeating the mantra “ahhhh” or “ohm”, taking deep breaths each time and letting it out as long as is comfortable. You will be surprised, if you have never meditated before how profoundly relaxing and powerful this centering exercise is. It may seem strange to begin with, but after a week of doing it every day you’ll soon get in the swing of it and get comfortable with it.
The benefit of doing all this means that you will live an I much calmer, positive, peaceful and resilient way, which automatically makes life more enjoyable, and allows you to achieve more, increase your productivity and focus on your true desires.
You become much less stressed and much more easy going, which means that you don’t have as much troubling your mind, which will increase your energy, vitality and health. You also gain increased power to focus, more tolerance and happiness. As a result you become much more pleasant to be around and you enjoy your own and other’s company much more. One of the struggles many people with stress or insecurities face is that they can’t stand to be so intimately one to one with themselves, but you must face your demons head on, discover what they are, write them down and get rid of them. By finding this outlet you cleanse yourself; it’s crucial for a happy life to be happy with who you are. (See my self-esteem and confidence articles and videos for this). It’s crucial to give yourself this time to focus on you, away from others. It’s not selfish, it’d absolutely crucial to live a happy life, and it’s filling your emotional cup. This means that you have more to give to others as a result, instead of running on flat batteries all the time; you’re no good to anyone like this! Other people will notice this peaceful glow and energy, which you will give off. For those of you who also rely on a glass of wine or a sleeping tablet, or any other false relaxant to get to sleep, guaranteed after a couple of weeks practicing this at least twice a day you will no longer have sleeping problems. I know because I did this myself. I used to be a workaholic insomniac, I would get between 1-3 hours shallow sleep every night, and I suffered with anorexia. After practicing this I could sleep properly within 2 weeks, a good deep 6 hours sleep, and I healed myself from anorexia physically and psychologically, within 6 months, and turned my life around, after having suffered with it for over 2 years.
Give in to a natural, peaceful life with this amazing power that you can utilize if you choose to let your barriers of scepticism down and embrace something new, which is proven to heal and work for the millions who do use it. I wouldn’t send my time writing this article and down other speaking and writing to spread the word about it if it didn’t genuinely have real and profound effects.
I hope this helps you, whatever your situation is!

For more articles and videos on this topic to go my blog at
http://www.katiepantonpro.com
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