Have you ever noticed that while your mind is often willing to
focus when meditating, it will generally insist on lapsing into
'dreamland' for the rest of the day?
It's almost as if it has categorized meditation as a special activity that only takes place at certain moments of the day.
But
if meditations feels great, if it's good for our health and general
wellbeing, then why not try to integrate it into everything you do?
If
you have been reading my newsletters for a while, you'll know that I
have often written about this topic and have previously even given lists
of tips for meditating better.
In this article, I'm therefore
going to change tack slightly and focus on how we can integrate
meditation into our day - and give 6 tips for doing so.
The tips
are easy-to-apply, enjoyable, and, if you work them, will help you
maintain your meditation flow well beyond the times you are sitting on
you meditation mat.
6 Tips
1.Value Meditation.
Unless
you place a value on meditation, you are never going to have the
discipline and energy required to integrate it into you day. Humans can
happily put up even with great hardships if there is a good enough
reason for it. When there is no good reason, they will quickly grow
resentful.
Of course, you do value meditation. But it is not good
enough for this to be a vague kind of 'Oh yes, I know meditation is good
for me and I should do more.' That is unlikely to get you focused when
your day grows tricky.
Instead, you need to have the benefits of meditation firmly in your conscious mind.
You
need to think about how meditation will give you greater inner balance
and energy, how it will improve your health and relationships with
others. Then, once you have these benefits (whatever they might be for
you) firmly in mind, you need to 'feel' them.
Imagine
(visualize) scenes where you are walking about in a bubble of
meditation energy, where you are meeting external chaos with equanimity.
Feel how good that feels! Make it a visceral thing. A
real bodily sensation. This step isn't about indulging the rational
mind; it is about creating a physical experience through visualization.
If
you can really feel the benefits of meditation (and not just rationally
understand them) then it will be far easier to have the energy needed
to integrate it into you day.
2.Set the stage.
This
means doing some formal meditation (or other such exercise that
connects you to meditation energy, like T'ai Chi, Qi Gong or Reiki) in
the morning before you start your day.
The idea here is to anchor yourself in meditation energy - energy that you will then nurture for the rest of the day.
It
is difficult to connect to meditation energy in busy, energetically
chaotic surroundings (e.g. most people's working environment). But it is
not so difficult to maintain your meditation energy in such places if
you are already connected to it.
So take time to connect every morning and then do what you can to stay connected as you go about your day.
3.Use affirmations.
You
don't need to go crazy on this point. You don't have to spend every
moment of the day repeating your affirmation. But if you repeat it in
the morning and on a few occasions throughout the day, you'll find you
have more energy and focus for your meditation. Words are like magic spells.
They are energy that we send out into the universe to create our
reality. It makes sense to harness their power constructively.
An affirmation for our purpose might go something like this:
Every moment of my day, I am connected to meditation energy.
Or,
No matter what I do, I am in a meditative state of being.
4.Use books, videos and audio programs to keep you focused and inspired.
There is a concept called 'neural mirroring'. Basically, it explains that we become like our environment.
If
our bedroom is in a mess, we'll tend to find it harder to be settled
and calm. If we hang around with drunken hooligans, it's unlikely we'll
feel very meditative and peaceful. As the saying goes, 'If you lie down
with dogs, you'll wake up with fleas.'
Of course, the reverse is true as well. Mix with good company and their good qualities will rub off on you.
That
is why it pays to spend some time with wise teachers and inspirational
people - if not in person, then at least via books, videos and audio
programs. If you do this each day, you'll almost certainly find you are
more balanced, meditative and focused on the kind of person you wish to
be.
Some suggested teachers you might consider are: Eckhart Tolle
(you'll find lots of his free videos on Youtube), Adyashanti (try
reading 'Emptiness Dancing' or watching his videos on Youtube) and Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj (read 'I Am That').
For audio programs, I am a
fan of Tony Robbins. He has a lot of pragmatic and easy-to-apply tips
for getting the most out of yourself.
5.Use meditation reminders.
For
this purpose, some people tattoo themselves or wear a certain ring or
necklace that helps remind them to stay in a meditative state. The
problem with these things, however, is that while they work to begin
with, after a short time we don't notice them anymore.
A more
successful approach (popular in certain Buddhist circles), is to use
'triggers' to remind us to focus. A trigger might be something like a
doorframe. Here, each time you go through one, you remind yourself to be
meditative.
Another trigger might be your mobile phone ringing. In this case, its ringing will be a reminder to stay in the moment.
To keep things fresh, it is a good idea to regularly change the trigger. They will then serve as handy little 'wake up calls'.
6.Harness the power of groups.
If
you've ever been to one of our Om Reiki practice nights, you'll have
experienced how powerful group energy can be. At a practice night, you
barely need to lift a finger to feel large amounts of healing energy
flowing.
The reason for this is that the moment humans come into
contact with each other, they connect energetically. Their energy fuses
and what one person does, thinks or feels, affects the others. This is
why we can behave so irrationally in large, 'emotional' gatherings (like
soccer games and political rallies).
The flipside of this is that
if we are with wise people with good energy, then their energy will
positively affect us. We will be energetically drawn to experience the
world as they do.
What's more, when people come together with a
common intent (say, to meditate), then the collective intent has a force
far greater than the intent of any individual. This can help us both
sink into deep meditative states and learn new techniques far more
quickly than we would alone.
Nothing particularly new here, but we
need to convert this knowledge into action and find ways to meet with
groups that will have a positive energetic impact on us. Ideally, we can
meet weekly with such groups and then, periodically, do courses or
retreats over 2 or more days for a massive energetic boost.
Retreats and courses are particularly useful because of their intensity and duration.
The hours spent in meditation compound and help individuals cross key energetic thresholds that would otherwise be inaccessible.
Think
of it like this: Image you normally have an energy level of 4, but need
to get to an energy level of 8 to have a new insight. Going to weekly
practice might raise you a couple of points each time, but since, over
the next few days, you are likely to fall back to your usual 4, you'll
never make it to an 8 and have the insight (or key energetic shift).
During a weekend gathering, however, your energy experiences will bit by
bit accrue until you have moved all the way from 4 to 8 and beyond.
That is why if you think back on your past experiences of courses, you
will find that afterwards your healing and meditation almost always took
on new life.
So use the power of groups, use the energy of others and massively accelerate your meditation growth.
Jeremy O'Carroll is a traditional Usui, Shamballa and Karuna
Reiki Master who has studied with some of the best known Reiki teachers
in the world including William Lee Rand, Frans Stiene and Laurelle
Shanti Gaia.. He is the founder of the Om Reiki Centre in Victoria,
Australia and Om Reiki Online Video and Articles Learning Portal.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.omreiki.com.au or
http://www.omreikionline.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_O'Carroll
Maintaining your thoughts in a continuous state of flux is like keeping the engine on your car operating the whole night. You and the car will gradually run out of gas. Suppressing your thoughts needs a top five positioning on your "to-do" list.
If you are serious about achieving total mental, emotional, and
physical peace, it is very important for you to understand that a
successful meditation session has a direct connection with the use of
the right kind of meditation pillows. It can make a huge difference. It
has been found that when people start learning the various meditation
techniques, they try to practice the various methods by sitting on a
flat surface without any support. But, soon they start feeling pain and
end up experiencing an unsuccessful meditation session. Sitting long
time on a hard flat surface with no support at all is quite a challenge.
In order to maintain the right sitting posture for effective meditation
results, it is very important for you to use meditation pillows.
Furthermore, there are different types of pillows available in the
market for this purpose. Therefore, make sure that you keep in mind the
following factors while you are shopping around for the right kind of
product.