Meditation tips?

Hello everyone recently I have been interested in meditation and trying different tehniques. I found that meditation can be very relaxing for me and I can focus on things much better. Also while I'm meditating sometimes my forehead hurts near my eyebrows ???? I downloaded some meditation mp3's and found a few ones that relaxed me very well.... but I was wondering if anyone has any mediation tips or techniques that they use? Please be specific and tell details on how you meditate like if you just meditate on your own with out any mp3's or with them and if you dont use them please explain your method. Also one more question ... What are the benefits from meditating besides relaxation?

I believe Meditation gives you more control over your body, mind and thoughts

Such as i can now make my mind blank of though with relitive ease (as thoughts can get annoying especially when you are trying to get to sleep ect or just random unwanted ones)

The 8-Circuit Model of Mind, after reading Cosmic Trigger, made me fell in love with meditation when I never was interested in it, and couldn't do it beforehand.

The 8-Circuit Model (or 8 Brains) is an excellent meditation tool, and would probably help anybody meditate. An exercise recommended is to sit there, and think "What brought me here to this exact spot in time and space to meditate?" The immediate past, the suggestion to do it, will be obvious and the first steps, but what brought you to that, and before that. What brought you to it?

You'll be meditating like a pro straight-up.

deoxy.org...

Do not seek to clear your mind. Let your mind be still, and it will clear itself.

Sometimes when a person is first learning to meditate, they use something to focus their thoughts. This allows stray thoughts to clear themselves from the mind. After that focus is all that remains, allow it to slip away.



[edit on 19-8-2004 by Raphael_UO]

I hypnotize myself into meditation. Here is my process:

I close my eyes and breathe deeply in and out from my diaphram while trying to clear my mind. I picture a staircase with 10 steps. I step down to 9 deeper psychic level, step down to 8 deeper psychic level, and so on until I get to step 1 deepest psychic level.

I also try to see thru my eyelids while they are closed while I am going down the staircase. If everything goes well, pretty soon I will see either shadows, shapes, colors swirling whatever.

I took a while as I am a very high strung person, but it works for me. Now I can pretty much do it within a couple of minutes.

There are many good books on meditation for beginners. Try the half price book store. I got most of mine for under $5!

Have fun and don't give up. Practice every day. I find myself wanting to medidate longer and longer each day.

Here is the techniques that I use in the morning and at night before going to bed:

I usually sit in a chair while doing this. For the breathing take slow deep breaths in through the nose. As you breathe in let you belly expand instead of your upper chest. Exhale slowly through the nose and allow you belly to contract. If you are not used to breathing like this you may just want to do this for awhile until it becomes second nature. Breathing this way is incredibly relaxing in itself.

Put a smile on your face and keep it there for the entire exercise. Not a great big smile but just a small relaxing smile.

Now then, on the inhale imagine/feel yourself as being just a tiny point of consciousness inside your head. Focus on this for the duration of the inhale, don't allow your focus to drift as best as you can. If you lose focus calmly re-focus.

On the exhale feel a strong feeling of love throughout your entire body. If you need to, remember back to a time in your life where you felt the most loved and circulate that feeling throughout your body. Don't make remembering that event a habit during this exercise though, you need to be able to just feel that love instead of always having to remember 'why' you feel it. As you feel the love throughout body also feel all the muscles in your body losing all of their tension and relaxing. Keep feeling your muscles relax until you feel you have released all of the tension then just focus on the feeling of love.

I usually do this exercise for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night. I alwaysl feel absolutely amazing after doing this.

The biggest benefit of meditation besides relaxation is of course focus. I find it much much easier to remember things now. Also solving complex problems/puzzles or anything else that requires deep thought becomes much easier, since you don't have the constant "chatter" of the mind constantly distracting you.