How do you meditate? What works for you? What do you feel in your body? I know I’m not the only one who admits that I have a hard time meditating. Here are some answers I got to the question above on a Conscious Evolution interactive site last year. I hope one of these methods will help you on your meditative journeys.
Method 1:
Ritual is very important to my meditation practice. In my practice, that includes meditating at the same time every day: incense, a burning candle, recognizing the four directions, and an opening prayer and music. I have been influenced by zen meditation, yoga relaxation and breathing practices, visualization techniques, mantra repetition, and even dance techniques to name a few. My meditation experience changes from day to day as it is very contemplative of my life at times; some days I feel connected to nature or find myself praying for peace, compassion and love. Sometimes my meditation takes me to a void where there is no thought or it can be very visionary where I receive insights about my life and that of those around me; sometimes I even see things far in our future. From time to time, I am BLESSED to feel a loving presence permeating my entire being with happiness and love. What is constant and most important about my meditation practice is that it has become as essential to my life as breathing air is to all of us. Best of all, I’ve seen how my behavior in my daily life has become (for the most part, who’s perfect?) a mirror of the peace and compassionate feeling I tap into when I meditate. I have been meditating for 20 years. That you have a hurt thing. De Pablo (Evolve Community Café)
Method #2
Good question. I use a very unstructured approach, working towards the goal of making all my waking and sleeping moments meditative. If I walk (or ride a bike), I develop a rhythmic cadence of affirmation around some topic (health, harmony, love, etc.) and go through the affirmation at my own pace. For example, I like an eight-step rhythm and this statement of harmony works well for me: “I am one with the universe and all things in IT. Not my will, but yours be done.”
My training in hypnosis/hypnotherapy has taught me that trance induction is easy. I use the following sequence of affirmations repeated subvocally (and in rhythm with the normal breath cycle) to induce both trance and meditation: “Relax now. Release now. Renew now. Refresh now. Live now. Love now. Heal now. Grow now… Peace now.”
I try to be in nature every day, whether it’s watching ants in my backyard or fishing in the local rivers and lakes. That is meditation for me. I also use spontaneous free associative journaling as part of the meditative practice. I took this from “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. She calls this discipline “morning pages” and there is no doubt that this approach has great power to focus us on meditative action and intuition.
I guess what I’m seeing from what I’m saying is that I’m very kinesthetic and prefer action meditation to passive meditation… and if you hadn’t asked me the question, I wouldn’t have realized this. Happiness. I hope it makes sense. Nick (Evolve Community Cafe)
Method #3
I meditate early in the morning, it’s a big part of my life. About four years ago I went on a weekend retreat in Oxford to the Brahma Kumaris and learned how to meditate with Raj Yoga, which means meditating with your eyes open. At first it was difficult but Discipline is the key. It calms my work mind and psychologically, I am more at peace. girl
Method #4
i read this in The angel of evolution by Dr. Michael Abrams and he liked it, so I’ll share it with you.
The angels believe that we lost the ability to communicate with God directly when the churches put in a go-between for communication. These angels give us permission to use God’s name, which is Yahweh, when meditating with God to connect on a deeper level and on an evolutionary plane. Yahweh is the name referred to in the Our Father. It is the name in the Judeo-Christian tradition that is said to be so sacred that it should never be spoken aloud.
If you think of this name over and over again, day after day, month after month, all good things will come to you. Do not use the name in a mechanical and empty way. Repeat the name silently inside. Saying the name over and over again helps you get past that self-talk.
This is how you do it:
1) As you say the name, your thoughts should gradually slow down and lengthen. She repeats each syllable rather slowly. Say each syllable for about a second and then lengthen it to 3-4 seconds with a short break between syllables. You’ll feel good when you hit the cadence that’s right for you.
2) To further improve technique, inhale on “Yah” and exhale on “Vay.” Your breathing should be smooth, peaceful, and leisurely.
3) When you get that part, add the heartbeat. Visualize and feel the sounds, along with your breath, moving in and out of your heart.
The Angels say that this mediation will fix everything in your life and bring it back into balance. You start to develop in ways you never thought possible and at an amazing rate, with less pain.
Yes. This sounds like meditation to me.