Meditation

Once the festive chaos is finally over, it is time for you to slow down. Quietly focus on the year ahead so you can build on all your positive achievements but, most importantly, make time to look after yourself. It's not as difficult as you think!

In the first of a series of articles on meditation, Karen Dobbin introduces us to the initial steps that will help us find some calm amidst the storm...

First...Relax!

Allocate a favourite place, where it is quiet, and away from possible interruption. It is preferable to use the same place each time.

Bright light can be distracting, so during the day it may be advisable to draw the curtains. At night, a room is most calming when dimly lit.

Prepare the room carefully. You may choose to light a candle, burn some incense, and put on some quiet and restful background music. However, none of these things is essential.

Sit yourself in a comfortable chair, with your back straight and your arms and shoulders relaxed. Place your hands where you feel they are most comfortable. If you choose not to sit in the lotus position, then both feet should be firmly on the floor, if at all possible.

Ways to Focus

There are many ways to prepare and focus your mind. Remember that the best way to prepare is the way that works best for you. There now follows a variety of ways to help you think about focusing:

You can concentrate on the sounds outside your house and then let them go.
You can use an image that is special to you, concentrate on it and slowly become aware that you are totally absorbed in the image.
You can sit quietly and just rest and make yourself calm until you feel ready to move on.
You can play relaxing music and concentrate on the sounds until you are calm.

Quietening the Mind

Once you have managed to come to a state of total concentration, you may find that all sorts of thoughts start popping into your head and disturbing you: thoughts about the day's activities, food you need to prepare, appointments you have to attend. Do not worry about this - it is quite common at first as the mind has not been trained to shut these thoughts out yet. Simply push the thought away and tell yourself you will return to it later. Eventually you will find you are still enough to continue, but it may take several sessions. Do not despair or give up, you will manage it in time.

Finding your Calm Place

Everyone has a calm place. This is not an actual location, it is more a state of being, it is that place inside where you are totally calm and peaceful. It can be difficult to find, but it is there. In order to access it, you need first to relax properly.

Now that you have quietened your mind, concentrate on your breathing. Do not try to regulate it or breathe deeply, just become aware of it. Listen to your breath, in and out, feel the way your chest moves with each breath. Continue to do this for a few minutes until you feel settled. Now begin to slow your breathing: breathe deeply in, and when you reach what you feel is the bottom of your breath, keep breathing in slowly until your lungs are completely full, allowing your shoulders to open out to allow the lungs to expand. When you feel that you need to let the breath go, let it go slowly. If you need to, blow the breath through your lips. When you feel that you have fully exhaled, keep exhaling until you reach the end of your breath. Then repeat. Keep doing this until you feel that you have reached a point where this new breathing has become relaxed and easy.

Connect with your Mantra

Now become aware of a place in your mind where it is calm and soothing. Visualise this place, see the colour of it, hear the sounds that are there, listen hard, you may hear a word spoken. If you do, continue repeating the word in your mind, over and over until you are sure you will not forget it. Slowly repeat the word, leaving a longer gap between each repetition, until finally you hear the word slowly fading. This can be your own Mantra, a word that can be used to trigger and aid the process of calming your mind before meditation.

Back to the Here and Now

Become aware of your breathing again, and slowly bring it back to normal. Once you are breathing normally again, open your eyes and slowly come back to the room and the here and now.

These are the basics of preparing yourself for meditation, which can be used simply to take a short time out for yourself whenever you need to, or as a preamble to a full meditation. Most of us find it hard to shut out the everyday, and for this reason many people give up on meditation. Using this technique does help, and eventually just quietly sitting and repeating your Mantra can take you straight into a full meditation.

That's it for now, more next time folks!

© Karen Dobbin 2008

Sunset Beach photo (c) Kevin Bailey 2008