Archive for the 'MEDITATION' Category

Every parent desires to see their children as happy and confident as possible.

Child meditation is one of the best ways to fulfill that desire. Child meditation is very effective.

With child meditation, children can gain positive mind-set, self-esteem, perfect health, better relationships with others and sharp grasping power.

However, most of the parents wonder about a child’s ability to meditate.

Surprisingly, children love to meditate. Child meditation basically involves the techniques to connect with one’s inner-self (the mind with the body).

Child meditation can be done in several ways. Simple and easy way of meditation is ‘mantras’. A mantra is a word or phrase that can be uttered silently or aloud.

A good mantra to practice child meditation is “hamsa.” It is a natural mantra that one makes while breathing: “ham” (h-ah-m) on inhalation and “sa” on exhalation.

For the hamsa meditation, sit comfortably in a quiet place and close your eyes. Breathe naturally. Sit calmly for about one minute prior to the beginning of your meditation using mantra. This allows your heart and breathing to slow.

Meditation will bring a sense of completion and fullness. It is the only permanent source of tranquility available with in you.

Meditation is also defined as the adventure of self discovery.

You can attain various self realization techniques with meditation by making your mind peace.

Meditation techniques will differ from one culture to another although meditation is same.

Different meditation techniques will get suited to different personality types.

Some techniques are concentrative that involve bringing focus into one’s thought, where as some techniques are expansive and allows for free flow of thoughts and their observation.

You should choose your meditation technique according to your personality and your way of thinking.

The most important meditation techniques:

Mantra meditation techniques:

• This mantra meditation technique involves the conscious repetition of certain sounds or mantras that appeal to the mind in order to achieve the meditative state.
• The word mantra means revealed sound. It can also be defined as the combination of sound that develops spontaneously.
• You should not get confused of your mantra with religious chants.
• You can choose proper mantra by your own or you can take mantra from your guru.

Zen meditation is the form of Buddhist meditation developed Korea, Japan, Vietnam and china.

Zen meditation allows the mind and body to relax and experience insight into nature of existence.

Zen meditation postures:

1. Full lotus posture
2. Half lotus posture
3. Burmese posture
4. Sitting on a chair
5. Seiza posture

Full lotus posture: Sit straight on the floor and place each foot on the opposite thigh. By sitting cross legged on the floor increases your stability and efficiency. This is perfectly symmetrical.

Half lotus posture: Sit straight on the floor and place left foot up on to the right thigh. Place your right thigh under the left foot. This is slightly unsymmetrical. Sometimes your body needs to compensate in order to keep it straight.

Burmese posture: Sit straight on the floor. Keep your legs crossed and feet should rest flat on the floor. Knees should also rest on the floor. Sometimes you may feel difficult to make the legs touch the floor. After sometime, the muscles will loosen and the knees begin to drop.

Sitting on a chair: Sit on the chair with feet touching the floor. Keep your spine straight with lower part of the back curved.

Transcendental meditation is a technique of deep relaxation by which our mind was taken to the source of thought.

Your power of mind increases and you can use a great potential of mind.

It is unique, simple and effective for improving all areas of life simultaneously.

With Transcendental meditation, the physiological effects of stress are minimized by a deep relaxation of the body during meditation [Benefits of meditation].

You can learn this technique within few days and can experience the result immediately.

The word transcendental means to go beyond or to go above the norm. Achieving this state takes lot of time and dedication but if have done it, then there is no feeling greater than this state of being.

In order to go beyond meditation, you have to leave all the conscious thoughts. You have to reach the deepest possible state. During this state, you lose all sensations with the body.

This may be frightening because you may not hear any sounds including your own heartbeat. It is not dangerous but it is basically like relaxing until the absolute deepest state of relaxation is achieved.

Meditation involves concentrating the mind on subject of thought without any distractions [Meditation and concentration].

The methods used in the practice of Buddhism are called Buddhist meditation.

Buddhists identify meditation with mental growth. In meditation, one uses object to concentrate and direct their attention.

The object may be breathing sensations, physical sensations of the body, visual images or sounds.

The core of Buddhist meditation is practicing eight fold noble path.

The eight fold noble path are right thought, right view, right speech, right effort, right concentration, right livelihood, right action and right mindfulness.

Three types of Buddhist meditation are mostly used in United States.

Three types of Buddhist meditation:

1. Insight meditation: This is also referred as mindfulness or vipassana. This meditation comes from Thailand and Burma. This method involves observing body sensations and thoughts which come and go. If your attention drifts, you return to the observation. Observing and watching yourself can lead to deep insights about your real identity.
2. Zen meditation: This meditation comes from Japan and Korea. You should perform meditation without thoughts. Second way of performing zen meditation is watching your sensations and thoughts as they come and disappear. Third way of performing zen meditation is teacher asks the student to solve a puzzle.

Insight meditation is also known as vipassana meditation.

The aim of insight meditation is to understand one’s nature, whether mental, spiritual or physical.

One way to practice this type of meditation is observing our physical and mental movements.

Insight meditation is self transformation through self-observation. With attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, the focus on the interconnection between mind and body can be experienced.

Insight meditation helps to develop perception, reduces fear and tension. It helps in diminishing greed, cravings, and ignorance. Due to the observation of their own behavior, they can cultivate awareness and mindfulness.

Everyone can benefit from insight meditation, as it teaches how to meditate beyond the conscious mind. It helps to look ourselves with great clarity and change ourselves.

Practicing insight meditation:

• If you see, smell, taste, think, or touch, everything should be observed and you will be aware of what is happening. To start insight meditation, sit in a calm and quiet place on a chair or on the floor.

• Breathe through your nose and observe your breathings. Be aware of your abdomen rising and falling when you breathe in and breathe out. Feel it through your senses and concentrate on the sound of breathing.

While meditation is associated with sitting posture, you can practice meditation while walking.

It is nothing but meditation in action. In walking meditation, our focus will be on walking.

There is a difference between walking meditation and doing meditation while sitting [Learn how to meditate].

When we do meditation with sitting, we close our eyes, but in walking meditation, we keep our eyes open.

While performing meditation while sitting, we don’t concentrate on surroundings.

In walking meditation, we have to concentrate on outside world and surroundings as you will be distracted by many things.

Sitting and performing meditation may make you calm and dull while walking meditation make you energize in a skillful way.

When you are doing walking meditation, you may get interruptions with people on the road and vehicles moving on the road. In walking meditation, we should be aware of many things than in sitting meditation. You have to concentrate on weather such as sun, rain, wind, and sounds [Meditation and concentration].

It is easier for many of them to be aware of their bodies and to be more intense while performing walking meditation. You can make walking meditation intense and it is easier to be aware of your body when it is in motion than sitting.

If you have decided to learn meditation, it is the best decision with regard to improving the overall quality of life.

Meditation makes your mind and muscles relax. Your mind will be free of thoughts.

Before starting meditation, you have to follow few points. Meditation is a simple and effective practice to learn.

Before starting daily meditation, you take help of meditation teacher to guide you how to meditate and how to deal with difficulties for some techniques.

If you have right teacher to guide you, it is easy to learn meditation.

If you don’t have time to meditate regularly, you can practice for at least twenty minutes daily.

Establish a regular time schedule to practice meditation. You have to change your activities and have to allot time for meditation regularly.

You have to choose the time in such a way that no disturbances should be there at that time. You can select any meditation technique and do it regularly at the same time. You can fix your time in the morning or evening based on your work schedule. Once you have fixed the time, you have to follow it regularly and should not give excuses to yourself.

Meditation is concentrating our mind for inner peace. You attain relaxation with meditation.

Meditation gives balance emotionally, mentally and physically. With meditation, a person can manage stress, anxiety and tension.

Meditation technique helps in removing destructive thoughts from mind and gives happiness to your life.

There are many benefits of meditation if you follow regularly.

Benefits of meditation:

The psychological benefits of meditation are reduced depression, reduced anxiety and stress, reduced irritability and moodiness, increased self esteem and concentration, increased alertness and emotional control, increased memory and reasoning and increased intelligence.

The physiological benefits of meditation are lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels, lowering chronic pain, high skin resistance, decreased aging process and increased immune system.

Depression: You may feel hopeless, helpless and mentally upset if you are depressed. Meditation increases your self confidence and feels much better after meditation. You feel relaxed and out of depression if you practice meditation regularly.

Stress: You may be affected with stress in life that comes from family, work place and outside. The hormones and other biochemical compounds which increase the stress tend to decrease with the practice of meditation. Reduction of stress leads to reduction in tension and anxiety.

Meditation is a state of consciousness when your mind is free of thoughts.

Meditation is flow of your mind towards concentration. You have to develop concentration for meditation.

Why concentration is important for meditation?

Meditation is nothing but making your mind free from all thoughts. When your mind will be free? When you narrow your thoughts to specific object or thing and concentrate on that object.

Your mind will be concentrating on that specific object leaving behind all the thoughts. If you have thoughts in your mind, they will distract your concentration.

How to improve your concentration?

You have two techniques to improve your concentration: number meditation technique and visualization meditation technique.

Number meditation technique depends on numbers. Close your eyes and start counting from number one while exhaling. When you visualize number one in your mind breathe in and start visualize number two in your mind. When you see number two breathe in. You continue this process fifteen to twenty minutes.

Visualization technique depends on visualization of objects. Close your eyes and think about any object in your mind and try to visualize it. Suppose if you think of a clock in your mind, get the clock in front of your eyes and visualize it. You continue visualizing the object, the color of the object and the shape of the object.