Meditation
What is meditation
How to meditate beginners

In search for Peace of mind, meditation is an absolute “Yes!”. Basically every great spiritual teacher will advise you to do meditation and they have a good reason to do so. Meditation brings many benefits on mental, spiritual and even physical level.

Benefits Meditation
Few of the many advantages of meditating:
-Improved emotional balance
-Enhanced concentration
-Better health
-Reduced stress
-Finding inner peace
-To get control over your thoughts

And above all: Meditating feels so good!
Meditating is like taking a mini-holiday, every day. Meditation is, time for yourself. It is focused, quality time for yourself. It can be more refreshing than a full night of sleep.

My personal experience
I started meditating at the same time when I quit smoking. I had tried to quit smoking many times before and I thank meditation for succeeding at last. I have not touched a cigarette ever since I started meditating.
The meditation functioned as a substitute for the smoking. Instead of having a break with a cigarette I would have that same break and time-for-me with a quick meditation.
Also meditation gave me the control over myself to be strong enough to resist the cigarette and re-direct my thoughts to other things than smoking.

I also thank my emotional balance for a great deal to meditation. I remember how one morning, a few weeks after I started meditating I dropped a cup on the kitchen floor. The cup broke  and my immediate reaction was:”Oh, where is the dust-pan?”. The next moment I focused in awe at this oo-so-peaceful reaction of mine. Wow, till few weeks before that I would have felt a bit upset. I might have scolded one word. And now…. no upset whatsoever. Only a peaceful solution-directed thought: “How to clean it up”.

One thing that I find to be very important is to do it every day. Once you start skipping days, you will easily quit. When I am too busy, ill or very-not-in-the-mood, I allow myself to meditate for only 5 minutes. On normal days I meditate 15 to 30 minutes. But you can meditate for hours if that is what feels good to you.

How to do meditation
Meditation is in fact very simple. How to do it can basically be described in one line: Sit in a comfortable position and free yourself from thoughts.
Having said that, many books have been written on how to achieve this state. Your brain loves to think. Most of us walk around with this radio chattering in our mind, every waking moment. We do not totally want to get rid of that. Our ability to think is what makes us human so powerful, but wouldn’t it be great to sometimes turn off that “radio” and experience “true silence”?

Meditation can be done in laying position as well. The danger of this position, however, is that you can easily fall asleep. Therefore I would advice sitting. The moment you fall asleep your head will fall which wakes you up again. One should be well rested, so sleep will not bother you too much.

It is advised to:
-Keep your spine straight.
-Use no back support.
-Keep your feet flat on the floor, when sitting on a chair.
-Bring thumb and middle finger together in a circle.
-Etc.

The most important thing to my opinion is that you sit in a comfortable position, even if that means that you ignore all the above given advice. I listed only 4 points of advice above, but when you search you’ll find endless tips and recommendations on how to do it.
As a beginner do not bother too much with all of that. It might discourage you enough to never even start meditation.
In my case, my back hurts easily when sitting in the same position for longer time. Therefore, I sit on a comfortable sofa-chair with my legs supported and a pillow in my back. I do keep my spine straight, simply because it feels good. But I also know people who have great meditations while laying in a lazy chair, spine all bend. Choose what feels good for you.

More important than your posture is your mind. Meditation is all about controlling your thoughts. Usually people say that you should free your mind from thoughts, but that is a bigger task than it sounds. You can try it right now if you feel like. Start a stopwatch (or use your wristwatch) and think nothing. The moment a thought comes up, you start again at zero. How long do you manage thinking absolutely nothing? If you reach a minute, you are doing great!

Mantra Meditation
People use all kinds of tricks to control their thoughts.
This can, for example, be done by using a mantra. For several years I meditated with the mantra: "Jai Ram”. During meditation I would in my thoughts keep on repeating this mantra, focusing my thoughts upon it. When a different thought would come… just kindly return thinking “Jai Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Ram….”

Guided Meditation
When people come together, often “guided meditations” are done. One person will talk, giving you guidance on what to “do”: “Relax your legs….. relax your pelvis…. etc” and ”You are walking into a beautiful wood and you breathe the fresh air deep into your lungs….. etc.” All kinds of experiences can be provoked in guided meditations. Any tropical place can be easily visited in your meditation. Often magical things can happen, like a ball of light floating down from heaven and filling you with energy (just an example). Anything can be experienced in your mind.
(You can order guided meditations starting from $9,99 by clicking here (check the left column)) 

Binaural Beats Guided Meditation
A short while ago I have added “Binaural beats” to my meditation. This is an mp3 that I listen to during my meditation. I change between a few recordings that I have. I am always using headphones so it appears as if this sound is in my head. Usually I hear the sound of water, which makes me feel like my brain or inside of my head is washed and refreshed.
Some of the recordings include guided meditation (a voice guiding you on what to do). These recordings are great for beginners.
There is a pleasant peaceful music which is simply great to enjoy.
But what makes the “Binaural Beats” stand out are the “brainwaves” that have been put into the audio. Depending on which topic you have chosen, the brainwaves program your brain for things like success, health, creativity, confidence, more energy and so on.
I am only using the Binaural Beats since few weeks now, but my meditation has never been better and more addictive. It is pure joyful relaxation.
You can read more about this on my goodies-page on Binaural beats (click here) 

Basic steps for meditation
The basic of the basic is to follow below 4 steps
-Sit in a comfortable position, wearing comfortable clothes.
-Close your eyes.
-Relax all your muscles going from bottom to top (don’t forget your face muscles)
-Free your mind from thoughts or use a mantra or recording to focus upon.

Make this a daily habit. Commit to yourself to never skip a day. In case of emergency you can meditate as short as 5 minutes.
For those who have not meditated before, try this, do this and let me know how you experience it.