Did you try last week’s meditation? It was short, but that is actually all that it needs to be to start your habit.
This week I will give you a few simple ways to meditate on your own, they are simple, but that does not mean it is easy to do. Some do need a bit of practice.
First of all, it usually is important that you are in a quiet place, where you will not be disturbed for the duration of the meditation. But there are some things that you can do anywhere and almost anytime. And yes, even 2 minutes on the toilet at work will give you benefits. I will even start with that one because that can come in very handy.
When you are upset about anything, or flustered or uncomfortable with something, retreat to the toilet. There you sit down, close your eyes and put your hands on your stomach or above your belly button. Then take a deep and slow breath in, hold for 3 seconds and release the breath without effort, allow it to leave. Repeat that a few times until you feel calmer again. If you still have time, then you can imagine a beautiful lake, very calm, with a very smooth surface and stare at that for about 1 to 2 minutes. There may be some thoughts in your head. When you notice them you can say: “Thanks for letting me know” and concentrate on the lake again.
When you feel calm and relaxed again, you can come out and resume your work.
This short meditation has helped me many times. At times I would not have been able to do much work, because I was to upset to concentrate.
OK, the next ones are actually quite simple and you can do them anywhere you want. You can do this even sitting in public, like when you are waiting for a bus or train or while you are standing in line at the supermarket. Anywhere and anytime, when you do not have to concentrate on something outside yourself for a short time. You do not need to close your eyes for these. I have even done this at work, sitting at my desk, with lots of people around me, while they had no clue that I was not working at that moment, but meditating. I seemed to be reading something with concentration.
Take a deep breath and think to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then you listen and you will notice very often that there is no thought at all for a little while. When the next thought comes, you acknowledge the thought, thank it and repeat thinking what your next thought will be. Soon you will notice that the gaps without thought are getting longer. The interruptions become less and you will experience more time with an empty head. Aaahhh BLISS!!
Another easy way is by concentrating on your breath. You do not have to change your breath for this but you can if you want. You will find that it will slow down without even trying to anyway. You can count the breaths and start over each time a thought distracts you. In the beginning, you can do 10 breaths and then start over again. When that becomes easy to do, go up to 20, then 30, etc. You get the idea. The longer the better, but it is also harder to do. But as with so many things, you will master this with practice.
The next one you might want to try is to meditate with a mantra. This can be any sound that you want and that feels comfortable or resonates with you. It does not have to mean anything for you, When you actually make the sound, you might not want to do this in public. But there is something soothing that comes from the feeling of the vibration of certain sounds. Try it out for yourself, you cannot do this wrong, any sound is ok. When you do this in public you might not want to make a sound, but you can still do the mantra. You can repeat it silently, over and over in your mind. You can make this any sound, for instance: Shree la om or Ha no mee. Or you can give it a meaning, like: I am calm, I am relaxed, I feel good or I am happy. You get the idea. If you want to enhance the relaxing effect of this, smile while you do this and notice how you are feeling after a little while. (When you do this in public, you might find that people start smiling back at you, they will assume that you are thinking about something really nice).
You can also concentrate on your heart area and the feelings you have there. If you do not feel anything, imagine feeling love, pure love for anything and everything. Now you imagine that this love is spreading through your whole body. Feel how it touches everything in your body, every muscle, every organ, all the parts of your body that you can imagine. And once you have filled your whole body with love, imagine that it is pouring through your pores out of your body. You can expand this as much as you want to because there is an infinite amount of love where that came from. It is possible for you to include the whole world in this love if you want to. Try it for yourself, this one feels really awesome.
These are simple ways of distracting yourself from having continuous thoughts and after a while, you will find that the endless stream of thoughts will become less. This is a huge benefit, you will become less anxious, worry less and feel less fear all the time. You might even be able to lift your depression for a short time, which will become longer after more practice.
This next meditation is a bit more complex, it requires a bit more concentration and a bit more time, but it is very beneficial.
You will close your eyes for this one, so not so good in public. Then you will imagine that there are roots growing down from the soles of your feet into the deep earth. These roots grow all the way down to the centre of the earth and attach themselves there. You can also imagine that there will be branches growing on the sides of these roots, spreading out beneath the surface of the earth. This is the same as what happens with trees. This is grounding you, the tree roots hold the tree steady in the earth, these roots will hold you steady in life.
Then you can imagine how there is healing and beneficial energy coming from the earth through these roots into your body. Going up through your feet, into your legs, up into your hips. Up along your spine, all the way to the top of your head.
And from the top of your head, you can feel how a cord, a silver shiny cord, grows all the way up to the centre of the Universe.
There it attaches itself and then it sends light energy all the way down to your body. You then feel this energy enter into your head, down your face, your neck, your shoulders, your chest, your stomach, your belly, your hips and into your legs. It mixes with the energy from the earth and fills your whole body with healing light energy.
And then you imagine your root or base chakra at the bottom of your spine. This chakra has a red colour. It deals with your stability, security, belonging, physical vitality, grounding, actions, perseverance and your basic survival needs. The healing light energy connects with this red root chakra and gives it a spin. First slow and then speeding up bit by bit, until it reaches a speed that feels comfortable to you. You can put your non-dominant hand on that area and you might feel the vibration of that area. It often feels warm and energised.
A possible mantra is: “I exist.”
Then you come up to your belly or sacral chakra, which is between your belly button and your genitals. It has an orange colour. This chakra controls your creativity, polarity, emotions, empathy, connections, pleasure, desires, sensuality, intimacy and sexuality. Allow this energy to activate this chakra as well. It will spin clockwise up to the speed that feels good for you.
A possible mantra is: “I feel or I desire.”
The next chakra is around your stomach, just above the belly button and it is called the solar plexus chakra. This chakra has a sunny yellow colour. It controls your ego, power, motivation, will-power, self-esteem, self-worth, transformation, identification, vitality, energy, intellect, ambition, gut instincts, responsibility, freedom of choice, inner child and your personality. Bring the energy into your stomach area and feel how your personal power is growing with the speed of spinning.
A possible mantra is: “I can or I control.”
Then you come to the heart chakra, this sits next to your heart – where else? When you put your hands over your heart you enhance your love energy. The heart chakra controls your compassion, love, joy, relationships, open-heartedness, peace, forgiveness, desire for self-acceptance, emotional balance and harmony. This chakra’s colour is green. Allow this energy to activate this chakra and increase your love with the spinning speed of it.
A possible mantra is: “I love.”
Now you get to your throat chakra, of course, this is on your throat area. It is blue and governs your communication, inner voice, (self)expression, divine guidance and intuition. Its energy allows you to speak your truth when the spinning speed is most comfortable for you.
A possible mantra is: “I express or I speak my truth.”
The 6th chakra is your third eye chakra and is located between your eyebrows. This has an indigo colour. And with the right spinning speed, it will enhance your spiritual awareness intuition, visualisation, insight, psychic powers, imagination, clairvoyance and inner seeing.
A possible mantra is: “I see or I know.”
The 7th chakra is your crown chakra and this is on the top of your head. This has a violet colour. And with increasing spinning speed, it improves your spiritual awareness, intuition, visualisation, insight, psychic powers, imagination, clairvoyance and inner seeing your crown chakra. This then allows you to feel one with the whole Universe at the right spinning speed.
A possible mantra is: “I am connected or I am that I am.”
Once you have activated all your chakras, you can sit for a while and feel how they become connected to each other. The energies intertwine and influence each other. This is a very nice feeling and will only enhance the areas that are being controlled and governed by each chakra. Then, they will slow down a bit, to not overwhelm you and spin at a comfortable level and speed so you can go on with your life.
Keep doing this meditation and it will raise your vibration. This will improve your life on many levels and areas.
As you can see there are many ways to meditate, and this is only a small number of ways. You will have to investigate for yourself to find your own preferred way. And you might find that with different situations you will want to do a different meditation. That is all OK, you are the only one that can determine what is right for you. When you wish to change something with meditation, guided meditations can be very helpful. You can find several guided meditations for each thing you want to do on YouTube. Check them out, try them on, discard what does not work and keep what you like. There is really no right or wrong here, you have to discover what works for you. You might even find that you have to create your own meditation or alter one that someone else has created. Be creative and listen to your spirit, mind and body. They will tell you. And above all, feel good with it, have fun with it. When you feel you have to do it, you will not keep it up.
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