Beginner Meditation

I know this can be a spiritual thing for some people, but for me this is more for mental health and stress relief reasons.

I want to start meditating but have no idea how to begin. I have a very active brain and get restless even sitting for ten minutes doing nothing, but I know there are many benefits of meditating.

Any tips or tricks from experienced meditators?

I'm not that experienced myself but I do meditate to relieve stress. I usually do it at night while lying down before I go to sleep.

When lying down I tell myself to let my feet and hands to get lighter and then my head. Once my arms, legs and head feel light and relaxed I start to think of a place I feel really love and enjoy seeing. For me its the beach in front of my family home.

I've been doing this on and off for the past 4/5 years and its helped a lot with my stress levels and I get a good nights sleep usually after it.

Hope that helps you in some way.

Just keep it simple. Jus lie down, so your comfortable the just concentrate on your breathing, feel the sensations of theN breath in the body,at some point your mind will start drifting off. It may start fantasising about the future ruminating on the past arguing with itself,

minds are very active and always in the process of some mental activity.
As soon as you detect your mind is off elsewhere and not concentrating on breath sensation go back to thinking about breathing and the breath sensations in your body. Keep this process going for 30-40minutes maybe set yourself an alarm or just keep going until you've had enough. Sounds easy really, but it's difficult to recognise the moments your mind goes off your breathing and catch your mind and what it's doing. .

Just stick that simple task. When you get the hang of the breathing awareness, maybe try recognising the sensations of feelings in your body, from your feet to your head, again when mind goes off to thinking recognise this and return to your body sensations, working the mind from toes to head, feeling each part of the body against what your lying on. That's a real easy starting point

Take up Tai Chi then start your zen medidation about 6 months in

originally posted by: mavra81
I have a very active brain and get restless even sitting for ten minutes doing nothing, but I know there are many benefits of meditating.

I have been studying meditation and trying to practice it for quite a while now ans I still get restless/frustrated/averse to sitting.

There is the view that it is for relaxation and calm, and there is also the view that it is for self-observation, gaining concentration, discernment, and through those skills/qualities, gaining understanding (of self and the world around you).

Here is one guide I found, though it may be specifically Buddhist.
www.accesstoinsight.org...

If you want to be really serious, there are also free ten day retreats -
www.dhamma.org...

Awesome!!!

I've been meditating for years, for many reasons, stress relief being a major one.

An earlier poster suggested Tai Chi as a good general starting point, I would concern and add any form of yoga as well.

However, whether you want to meditate for spiritual or physical reasons, consistant daily practice for a short time is much better then occassional longer periods of practise.

I would not recommend lying down for meditation or closing your eyes as a beginner.

For the really active (chaotic) mind you might find an 'EMwave" helpful, it is a simple device that engages both sight and sound with breathing to help focus. It is not particularly cheap but I have found it very helpful especially when detressed. Mine finally died two years ago after 12 years of reliable serivce and I haven't found the need to replace it.

The big points to remember are 1) there is no goal and 2) just keep coming back to your focus (breath, mantra, visualization, prayer, etc). You will learn not to chase your thoughts and your health and presence will improve over time.

Just keep doing it no matter what.

You can try Yoga Nidra. I find it a very effective type of meditation for stress relief. It doesn't involve all sorts of pretzel positions, you just lie down and do some mental excercises, and it's an almost foolproof way of relaxing very very deeply.



Another effective way of meditating is just sitting down comfortably and following your breath (Vipassana meditation).

Sit comfortably, with the head, neck, and chest in a relatively straight line. Be relaxed yet alert.
Be directly aware of the physical sensations of the body while you are sitting: the contact your body makes with the cushion or bench.

Breathe naturally. There is no need to control the breath in any special way. It can be helpful to begin by becoming aware of sounds as they come and go.

Notice the difference between the bare experience of hearing and any thoughts or images that may be triggered by the sound. Notice how you don't have to make an effort to hear as long as you pay attention.

Then, after some time, let the sounds be in the background and bring your attention back into your body, to the breath.

Be directly aware of the physical sensations of the breath, either at the nostrils, in the throat or chest, or in the belly.

Use soft mental notes such as "in" and "out" or "rising"and "falling," if it helps you stay in touch with the breath. The note is a pointer or reminder to you of the direct experience of the breath and not a substitute for it.

Think of the breath as your home. Whenever you become aware that your mind has wandered away from it, simply return home, again and again.

There are two general methods for keeping the attention focused on the breath:
You can either settle back and relax, letting the sensations come to you as if you were listening to sounds, or you can make more of an active effort to connect and sustain your attention. One or the other method will be appropriate at different times.

Remember: the heart of meditation practice is the ability to begin again, no matter how often your mind wanders.

from: www.freemeditationinfo.com...


Another thing you can try is this relaxation music with a binaural beat. This binaural beat is a sound that entrains the mind into a certain frequency. In this case it a frequency that's associated with deep relaxation. The way it works is this: the binaural beat consists of 2 sine waves, one on the left ear and one on the right ear. They have a slightly different frequency, say the left ear is 400 Hz, and the right ear 402 Hz. The difference in frequency is the binaural beat, which in this case would be 2 Hz. So your brain gets entrained to the 2 Hz frequency, which results in deep relaxation.

That's the theory anyway.. give it a try and see if it works for you. I've added some sounds of nature as well as some homemade gentle music to guide you along your journey