Meditation tips for beginners

In my last post Reiki and Meditation, I discussed about how beginners can experiment meditation. In this post, lets learn about some easy steps that will assist you getting closer to the objective. 

I have repeated some text from the last post, just in case you don't want to make an effort to click through the above link!

Follow these, and moreover suit them to your convenience. Staying relaxed is far more important than having a straight back. (Though you will automatically reach to an optimum posture for your body)

• Set aside a specific time during which you plan to meditate. Just like your body follows a sleeping regimen, your mind will gradually become accustomed to the idea of meditating or concentrating, every day. 
• It is recommended to exercise meditation during mornings; just after your routine warm up/ workout; you can also suit it according to your day schedule. Waking up half asleep, just for meditation, is a waste. Though, try making the early morning habit.
• Before trying to focus your mind, try to slow your breathing pattern. Unless, the breathing in under control, you won’t be able to concentrate. By concentration I don't mean you have to light up a candle and look at its tip, or observe vacuum. Just let your mind free, accept whatever and wherever your mind takes you. 
• Unless, a slower breathing pattern is adopted, your muscles won’t be able to relax. This is the only way to regulate your circulation also so that you don’t sweat too much or feel thirsty and irritated.
• It is better to do some basic stretching before you get seated for your meditation. This helps to loosen the tendons and muscles. This aids better circulation of blood. 
• Regardless of what is preached by other online resources, you need to understand that Meditation is not about letting yourself go or totally losing connection with yourself. Meditation is a rather an active process. Initially do not force yourself to focus, let it wander. You will get aligned, eventually. 
• Simply sitting back and relaxing - is introspection. Your mind may think about what happened during the day, quarrel with your loved ones, your office work and so on. 
• Slowly, these thoughts will automatically shift to only those that matter. And you will later realize, nothing really matters! :) Well, that's how is the process flows; Random thoughts --> only whats important --> where did you go wrong, rather others --> introspection --> nothing is important --> no thought has any intrinsic value.
• The biggest enemy of getting into the meditation mode is frustration. You are bound to feel your feet or your mind getting restless. However, the masters preach that you shouldn’t fight such thoughts. This extremely frustrating period of your apprehensive mind sticking on to seemingly useless thoughts has to be tread upon, if you want to move ahead.
• One of the simpler Meditation techniques that usually works is trying-out different seating areas. This includes sitting under the tree, in the balcony or with the windows shut or open. The idea is to keep trying different environments until you find one that seems to make you feel absolutely comfortable. As you advance, try meditating in different set of environments to test your ability to meditate when the surroundings are unfamiliar.
• If you are particularly tense or ill in one part of the body, think of it as you exhale. This should be done once you are a few minutes into your meditation and have settled into a calmer, breathing pattern. This is often referred to as “feeling your body parts”. You will know that you have reached a stage of some expertise when you can actually feel a sort of force or relaxation in the body part you are thinking when exhaling.
• Try to keep your back straight (or sit against a wall), however there is no point sitting with your back straight if it pains after a while. The focus will shift to pain; hence you are moving away from the sole objective of relaxing. 
• Improper postures tend to impair the breathing pattern. You will automatically reach the straight-back position with continuously observing your breath.  
• While one starts, the focus often shifts to 'how long?', 'when will this end?'; which is point less and a waste of entire exercise. Either stop, with that first thought or set an alarm for yourself. 
• You can also divide your breathing, i.e. Exhaling & Inhaling, into sets with repetitions. This is the method followed for keeping the workout systematic in gyms. For instance, you can start with four, slow sets, where each set includes 10 reps. One inhalation and one exhalation combine to form one, single rep.
• Please understand that the advantages of Meditation might takes quite some time to become evident. However, it is equivalent to making a small investment of time and effort, the benefits of which you will reap throughout your life. 

You can contact me if you have any questions.