learn to meditate

I have a cool experience while meditating today. I was doing it as I usually do when suddenly I just felt this power emminating from inside of me. In my mind’s eye it was a bright white/yellowuish colour that just came from the center of my body in a vertical line. I don’t know what it was, but it felt like a very gentle sort of power. It’s something that I can still feel when I think about it. A very positive experience.

However, right now I can’t seem to meditate for very long. I usually don’t go above 5 minutes before I feel like I should stop. This isn’t nessecarily bad, as I assume that with more practice I can go for longer. It’s just the perfectionist in me wants to go faster, longer harder :P

So Im no longer an assistant co-leader on the meditation course. Im worried my practice will deteriorate but I have to keep persisting, the effects have been good and I know without practice they will not last. I also walked a labyrinth in a related goal and I realized that their is a certain meditative quality to the prayer connected to that experience, which I also enjoyed. I think my first bit to help my practice stay strong is to create specific meditation times that get respected like workout times though I will also count yoga as meditation. I think I need to set a certain amount of times per week aside as meditative times. Hopefully I can keep it up :) Summer is so chaotic!

I’m starting off meditating, and based on some of what I’ve read, I’ve devised a little meditation for me. I do some sort of yoga stretch before hand if I have any aches/pains, and then I sit down in as proper position as I know how. Then I count 30 breaths, and let my mind go from there. When it drifts, I bring it back as best I can.

I had my first session today. I decided I’d do 5 minutes. I stopped meditating when it felt right, and sure enough 5 minutes had gone by almost exactly. It turns out I have a fairly good inner clock!

Also, my mind was constantly wandering today, but I’ve heard that it’s usual for that to happen to people who meditate for the first time. I hope that with further practice, I get better.

Lets do them both and discover the true nature of reality. Then we can cultivate compassion and loving kindness. Eventually, we can help others do the same.

So as of now I have led the body scan, mindful movement, and a 25 min meditation. This week I lead the emotions/body meditation. Its getting easier to keep my voice steady and pace my words to my breath though this week I noticed the vulnerability that comes with meditation since I was leading the group as opposed to meditating with them. It was just one of those times when there was alot of contact with emotions and unification of the body with these emotions.

I think I will mark this goal complete now that I have been getting help from Deepak Chopra (his radio show and website)... Here’s a link for free guided meditations you can listen to online:
http://www.chopra.com/library

Namaste

I’ll note here that the reason I’ve wanted to try meditation is because I seriously lack a “spiritual existence”. So long since the days of church, I have lost touch with any sense of what spiritual even means. I guess it’s my hope that with meditation, I will start to understand or feel something that I have been missing.

Even though I’ve had it on my 43things list for a time now, I haven’t made any concrete effort. Today I just felt an urge to work on it.

Quite a few years ago now my mom took up meditation and even went to annual vipassana meditation retreats. On a whim this evening, I asked for her advice for a meditation beginner. She told me that there are many different kinds of meditation and that to start I should try to find a CD of a guided meditation that would sort of take me through the steps, sort ease me into it I guess.

Of course, I took to the internet and found this site via google: http://www.beliefnet.com/Health/1999/12/A-Moment-Of-Calm.aspx

It had just a ten minute meditation which seemed like it was going to be very long. I was pretty skeptical and nervous that it would be cheesy. But as I started listening, I was surprised at how easy it was to just let go and follow along. And to be quite honest, it felt really wonderful. I felt utterly relaxed, dipping in and out of thought…and then my phone rang.

Lesson #1 learned: Turn off your phone during meditation.

I feel like I’m off to a good start, and I’m totally excited to have a go at it again!

i have bad panic attacks so i thought meditation would be a good outlet
i have been ready books and im going to buy a dvd that teachs you how to meditate

Well leading a body scan meditation on Thurs….though feel like a bit of a fraud doing so since its my most disliked meditation and I have yet to complete it without falling asleep….will update on how it goes….

This is kind of a spur-of-the-moment goal. I think I would like to learn meditation, but a decidedly secular kind. I would rather use it to reflect and decompress than to understand the spiritual connectedness of all matter: that kind of approach would turn me right off. So I’m not sure whether taking a course, reading a book, or some third option would be the best plan. But it’s something I’m going to be looking into, at least.