This week my topic is ” How Do I know If I am Meditating Right?”
Each week I take some questions from my friends on Facebook to answer here in my E-zine. If you have a spiritual/psychic development question you can leave a message for me here on this page in the comments or at my Facebook page.
This week I have a Facebook friend who wrote: How do I know if I am meditating right?
From MarVeena: Good Question!! Everyone will have a unique meditation experience.
There is a bit of a learning curve but meditation is natural for everyone. You might have even been doing it and not realizing that you were meditating at all.
Meditation is a way for us to re-boot our systems. Just like every so often you need to shut down your computer and phone. They have to be re-charged and sometimes re-started.
We take in a lot of data on a regular basis. In order to digest all we take in, we really need a meditation program.
There are more benefits to having a regular program than you can imagine!
Meditation is not just for hippies promoting peace, love and rock and roll!
There are several Fortune 500 companies that encourage this process because they know there is a huge payoff with creativity, focus, energy, enthusiasm and much more. Health for a biggie! People that meditate on a regular basis are healthier, have less stress and they quite often look younger than their friends who don’t meditate. Check out this study
A great way to learn is to attend some organized meditation classes. That way you can get some training, they can help you through the learning curve. I am a big fan of Hatha Yoga breathing exercises. Find some hatha yoga classes near you to start this process.
After you learn some of the basics, you can create a personal practice. Btw, I teach this in my Boot Camps and Apprentice Programs 🙂
There are a lot of ways you can create a personal meditation routine.
I suggest finding a quiet place in your house or office to start. It is good to have a place out of the way of the rest of the house, very quite and peaceful energy if at all possible.
One of my students meditates in her bedroom closet, granted it is huge, but she can shut the door and no one bothers her in there. Probably because they never think anyone would hang out in there 🙂
Anyhow in this case, quite is good. You can meditate sitting up or lying down. I do both and like both. I think it is easier to have a really deep out of body sort of meditation lying down.
Unplug your phones, turn off the TV, put on some nice incense and light a little candle.
This helps to shift your awareness from everyday reality to your higher conscious.
The first thing I do is ground myself. To do this, I imagine a thin cord extending down through my tailbone into the chair, on down into the floor and sink in into the ground beneath the house.
Then I see the cord moving through the layers of the earth, all the way down to the center of the earth. Just pretend there is a giant rock at the center of the earth. See your self tying your cord around the rock. Tie it snug with a strong knot. Affirm to yourself that you are securely attached to the earth. Now take the cord in your hand and follow it all the way back up to your body.
A favorite way to meditate is to have an object to stare at, like your candle flame. I like to set a taper candle on a couple of big books so the flame is right at my eye level if I am sitting in a chair. I just use a desk to sit my candle on. Turn off the lights in the room, just begin to softly stare at the flame. Gently breath in and out and continue to stare at the flame. I sit about 2 ft away from the candle. Another way is to lie down on your back and use a nice lavender eye pillow to block out the light. This helps you activate your 3rd eye better. Here is a link for the eye pillows I like best.
Usually I will play some meditation music while I do this. If you can distract all of your 5 normal senses, it helps to activate our higher sense of perception. I use noise canceling head phones for my music, and to block out the outside noise. The kind I use are found here, there are others that work just fine, but these are my favorite!!!
You can set a timer for 15 minutes to start. I suggest you meditate 15 minutes the first week.
Depending on which meditation, Continue to stare into the flame gently , keep your hands in your lap. If you are lying down, then imagine the flame and Breath in through your nose and exhale through your month. Immerse yourself in the flame, try to feel the warmth of the fire. Just think about the breath and the flame. If you find other thoughts came in, gently dismiss them and go back to the breath and the flame. The main idea is to get the breath/oxygen into your body. Especially your brain and all the organs there. We need fresh oxygen in our blood stream. Our blood cells can heal if they have what they need!!! Pure resources, clean water and fresh oxygen!
On your second week build up to 20 minutes and the next build up to 30 minutes. After you meditate, do your grounding exercise again. Then sit with spirit for a few minutes to soak up all the good energy you gathered in your meditation. Don’t worry about the small details, like am I doing it right. It takes a while to feel accomplished at anything. So give yourself a month or two to really get a feel for it.
It is a great idea to keep a simple journal after your meditation. Just jot down anything your felt or saw. Some day it might make sense to you. After you are done, give your self some down time to absorb the experience.
I realize there is a bit of a learning curve here, if you have questions about your meditation practice be sure to leave me a note in the comments below.
A lot of people want things in life, like to feel better, to sleep better, to look better. They can have these things if they can make a few lifestyle changes and add in some healthy practices.
I feel that people with TBI and PTSD can enhance the quality of their life with a steady meditation routine. See my support link below for research notes. Facebook is one of the best places to reach me if you have questions. I have a link to my page at the top of this one.
Bright Blessings
MarVeena Meek
(c) June 2014
Here is a link for TBI support!