your meditative practice
There are many approaches to meditation. This article describes a simple process that works well for beginners or more advanced practitioners. You will need to set aside at least 20 minutes at a time to begin this process. If you can do 30 minutes or more at a time, so much the better. Select a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed or distracted by phones, animals, or other people. Settle down in a quiet place and in a comfortable position that you can maintain during practice. It is generally better to sit than lie down, as many people find that they are more likely to fall asleep when reclining. Think of your meditation practice as having several important phases.
Start with being grounded
The first process is to center and ground yourself. This helps you ground your energies, quiet your mind, and begin to tune in to your inner realms. To meditate effectively, you need to relax physically, emotionally, and mentally, so let go of any external concerns and focus your attention on the present moment. Generally, some form of controlled breathing is helpful at this point. For example, measured breathing works well for grounding your energies by breathing in and out with the same slow count of one to five, but any form of slow, connected breathing will bring you to the state of stillness from which clarity will emerge.
You may want to spend five to ten minutes alone in this phase of your session, as sometimes it takes a bit of time to calm your mind from the distractions of the day and return your attention to your spiritual work. You may want to accompany your breathing with a calming visual image, such as a calm and restful natural setting near calm water.
The grounding process can be enhanced by directing your intention to form a connection from the base of your spine to the center of the earth. The visual image that I find works the easiest for this is to imagine that you are sitting on a tree stump that is two feet in diameter and the trunk of the tree and its roots go deep into the earth to the center. It is important to keep the same diameter from the ground connection to the center of the earth. The first chakra is located at the base of the spine and its energies move down the column of energy that you have created with your intention and have a wonderful stabilizing effect on your entire being.
You will find that when you are well grounded, your thinking and memory improve, you are more focused, you feel more empowered, you have more ownership of your space and are therefore not affected by others as much, and you will feel more stable. and balanced. . Grounding does two other important things. It helps you stay in the present moment and gives you a place for anything that is distracting you to release. We tend to pick up energies from other people, organizations and even places we have been, and these subtle energies have effects on our feelings, ideas and reactions that interfere with the clear messages that want to come from your Soul.
Once you establish a good ground connection, keep the intention that it stays in place at all times. You will find that it helps you throughout the day. In fact, if you turn your attention to it a few times during the day, you will always be in a grounded state. Then, when you are in your meditation practice, it will only take a few seconds to bring your attention back to your grounding and hold the intention for it to clear and remove from you any energy that is not your own or not fully supporting you. .
Think of your grounds working like a drain in a shower or bathtub; it gives whatever is washing from you a place to go. You can imagine what a shower would look like if there was no drain. Now imagine that you have no outlet for the energies you have accumulated. If they do not have an easy escape, they will condense and settle in your tissues, organs and body systems or remain resident in your aura and energy system. This simple grounding process that only takes a few seconds a day can be of great value to you.
Center your awareness in your heart
The second phase of your practice after settling in, relaxing, and grounding is to center yourself in a place where you can begin your connection to your True Self. Everyone’s consciousness has a point of focus. If you pay attention to yourself right now and scan yourself, you can tell where your awareness is focused. It usually focuses on an area that is attracting your attention. So if you have shoulder pain, chances are you find your awareness focused somewhere near your shoulder. If your mind is active, it’s probably somewhere in or around your head. In some cases, it may even be in front of your head. If you feel stressed or tense, it may be in your abdomen near your solar plexus. Haven’t you heard the expression, “What does your gut tell you to do with your situations?” When you are attuned to your gut, you will find that your awareness is focused somewhere around your abdomen.
The third likely area where your attention can usually be found is in the chest or heart area. Some people carry grief, sadness, emotional pain, love or compassion in the chest area. The chest area has another value in meditative practice and that is that the Soul or Higher Self is most easily accessed through the heart center. So, for our purposes here, place your attention in your heart center in the upper center of your chest and reverently say to yourself, “I ask my Soul to emerge in my heart and rise to the surface.” Sit quietly with it for a minute or so to allow yourself to connect with the words and the Soul. You can repeat that request multiple times, each time deepening your connections to what the words represent.
Connect with your Higher Self
Begin to feel and feel the awareness of the presence of your Higher Self or Soul in response to your requests. At first you may feel a stillness come over you, but over time more presence will emerge. You may also find it helpful to repeat other statements in a mantra-like process. Some suggestions are: “I feel my Soul. I feel Divine love in my heart.” Some people like to repeat a name of God or a mantra. I cover this topic in other article titles. The power of words in prayers and mantras. The idea is to repeat something that helps you feel like you are making an inner connection with your divine essence. As you repeat these statements for several minutes, you will find yourself connecting deeper and deeper each time you repeat the words. You will dive deeper and deeper into your experience of discovering your true nature, which is an expression of God’s infinite love and light.
This is a constantly improving skill the more you do it. Over time, you will find that you are in tune with your inner guidance most of the time. It can become a continuous inner communion and a walk with God throughout your day. You will begin to feel a harmony and congruence as you align with your inner guidance, and you will feel “off” when you are not. Step by step, the ego relinquishes control as it realizes that you are safe and guided through an inner direction that brings healing to the parts of you that have lived apart. Soon you will hear only the voice of God while the other voices quieten and no longer call your attention.
Attunement with the inner guide
As you listen to the inner voice, observe everything you can about it. How it sounds? How does she feel? What does she want? After you have contacted him in this way, you are ready to phase three which is to tune in to God through the repetition of a name of God. There are many holy names of God that generally have an “ah” sound that helps to open and expand the heart center. Some examples are Yeshua, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Yahweh, Allah, Abba, Amma, Baba, Adonai, Allelula and many others. Repeat the name you have chosen slowly, reverently, and silently every 5 to 10 seconds with the intention of deepening the connection each time. Call the light of God and your soul to embrace you and melt in you. After a few minutes you will notice a change taking place within you. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to 30 minutes or more. If you continue with the practice, you will feel supported, comforted, and spiritually healed. At this point compare how you feel with what you were feeling and experiencing before the meditation.
The meditation itself will guide you on where and how to explore next. You will be taught from within. Once you feel that you have reached a good meditative state through repetition, practice sitting in peaceful stillness and tuning in to the subtle impulses that arise. Be willing to stay out of judgment to allow the new awareness to arise.
In the early stages of this practice, you may not see, feel, or hear much of anything and assume that you are doing it wrong or that there is something wrong with you that is preventing you from succeeding. None of these conclusions is true. Judging yourself, becoming impatient with yourself, or other doubts that arise will only keep you from opening up. Continue with your daily practice, no matter how long it takes you to open your receptivity, you will succeed if you persist, and the rewards are well worth all that you put into your practice.
Integration
Tea four The practice phase is integrating your experience before you start to return to your normal day-to-day world. In this phase you relax your mind, put questions aside and stay still. Feel and feel the peace and expansion. You will want to rest in this phase for at least 5 minutes, probably longer. Give yourself permission to fully surrender and merge with your deepest truth. You may stay in this phase for a short time or for a long time. You will know when it is time to integrate the total experience in your everyday awareness into your daily life.
Tea fifth phase it is expressing gratitude for your session regardless of your perception of its nature or quality. Gratitude is a form of delivery that opens you a little more every time you express it and feel it. Reconnect your awareness with your five senses and begin to notice what you are feeling. Notice sounds, feelings, sensations, and smells. Take several deep breaths before opening your eyes and savor the smells in the air you breathe and the sensations in your body. Enjoy the way you feel as you begin to stretch your body. Be careful not to cringe or tense up at the thought of going back to your normal day. Keep the space displaced from your meditative awareness.
As you return to your normal activities, you may think you are losing what you experienced in meditation, but know that your awareness has expanded from where it was to a new experience of yourself and your spiritual connections. As the day progresses, you may find that you “pop” out of meditative awareness. This indicates that you are, in fact, changing. Notice how the new insights live in the back of your mind throughout the day, giving you a new experience of whatever is in front of you. The more you meditate and connect with yourself, the more you realize that your outer perceptions have been limiting and confining you, and the inner truths of love and light begin to emerge from within. Your consciousness gradually awakens to reveal your inner core essence of love, light and beauty.