Tips for Successful Breath Meditation

 Comfort

·         Try not to eat a large meal just before you go to meditate.  The chances are you will either feel uncomfortable or fall asleep.

·         Wear warm and comfortable clothes.  Clothes that are too tight, especially around the waist and legs mean you cannot maintain an appropriate posture.  You will also be aware of your body more than you need to be if clothes are pinching, and your legs will become uncomfortable more quickly leading to unnecessary shuffling.

·         Lean against the wall only for minimum support.  Your ideal posture is one where balance is maintained by the body itself in an upright position.  If you can cross your legs, all well and good, if not sit on a little stool, low chair or firm cushions.  Shifting so your bottom is slightly higher than your feet, takes the pressure off both the hips and the ankles.  A small cushion or folded towel under crossed ankles stops them going numb so quickly.

·         Many people worry about fidgeting in meditation.  On the one hand you do not have to sit so still that you worry about moving a bloodless foot.  On the other, once you are in a comfortable position try to stay there as long as possible.  Avoid answering the phone or continually rearranging your pillows and blankets.  Many a meditate has been wasted like this

Breath Meditation

·         Once you are comfortable and ready to begin your meditation, begin by doing some deep breathing through the nose for a couple of minutes to relax you. 

·         As you become more relaxed, gently close your eyes and begin to become aware of your breathing.

·         Follow the breath in through your nose, down to your lungs and gently out again following its own natural rhythm.

·         Try now focus just on your breathing in a relaxed way. If your thoughts wander – bring them back to your breath.

·         Try and do this for 10 minutes, twice a day; on rising and just before going to bed. As you become more proficient, try and extend these periods to 15, 20 30 minutes and beyond.

While Meditating

·         Often we experience sensations in meditation: emotions, feelings of changing size and shape, delight, awe, fear and so on.  These are different for everyone, and are part of your own path.  Allow yourself to witness and learn from the experience, but do not try or expect to repeat it, or to understand the experience.  Accept what is there, ask for nothing and appreciate what is happening.

"You cannot understand a higher level of consciousness with a thought that cannot go there"

·         Thinking in meditation is always a problem.  However, if you have checked all the points above, meditation arrangements, physical needs,  you will go into your meditation well prepared.  Once meditating, if the mind starts to wander, bring it back in line as soon as you realize what has happened.  It's not a good idea to go into meditation expecting to sort out tomorrow's diary or the child-care arrangements - do those later.  Avoid visualizing in meditation - just meditate.  Enjoy what you are doing and be grateful for the opportunity.  Above all, keep alert.  Meditation is your most important activity of the day – it's wasted if you are half-asleep and daydreaming, or worse, asleep and dreaming.

·         Whilst its good to be concerned with the quality of your meditation excessive worrying is counter productive.  The best way to progress, and to enjoy your meditation, is through regular meditation in well thought out circumstances over many months.  If you are enjoying your meditation in general the occasional "bad" meditation is irrelevant.  Acceptance and a nonjudgmental attitude to meditation, and to your own ability to meditate, come with time.

·         Make time for your meditation and other related activities.  Its all to easy in a busy life to make meditation the last priority.  Take time every now and then to reassess your life, and to make changes that will allow you to continue to develop as an all round spiritual person.

·         Its OK to have questions about meditation and your own personal development.  With growth, questions invariably follow.  You may well be able to answer them yourself as your consciousness expands further, or you may wish to express a question, or your realizations.  There is nothing wrong with having questions, or asking them - so don't hold back.  I also like to hear your realizations, as they give me inspiration too!