Meditation is not a complex process. It is the simple practice of focusing your mind on a peaceful and quiet idea. And as you would expect, being in commune with nature helps achieve this in the best way. Here are a few more tips on improving your meditation experience and getting the best out of it.

• Pick a place that has abundant greenery. Any spot of natural beauty will do. Once you’ve decided on the place, make the time to go walking there, at your own pace. Don’t hurry. Go through the natural surroundings, looking and feeling every bit of its beauty. Remember to notice how you feel: your skin, arms, legs and so on. Try and concentrate on the feeling of bliss you experience.

• Another option is to sit quietly and meditate on everything around you, instead of walking. Feel the wind, look at the trees around, listen to the chirping of tiny, unseen birds. Again, note in your mind everything you see or hear or feel.

These methods are very useful in reducing stress. They are derived from the importance Zen Meditation gives on “living the moment”. It asks you to concentrate on the time at hand, and live this moment to the fullest. Zen Meditation is the art of giving your present your all, without longing or regret for the past, nor anxiety for the future – both major reasons for stress in our lives.
Here are other ways to practice meditation (while you’re traveling, for instance):

• Begin by breathing in deeply five times. This is the first step to relaxation.

• Now focus your mind on the physical act of breathing. Think on the inhaling and the exhaling without trying to change the pace or intensity. Try and make your breathing feel tangible, palpable.

Feel its physicality: it’s warmth, weight, frequency and so on. Do this for up to five minutes and you will feel your mind calming right away.

• The next step is the primary act of meditation. Look out the window at the scenery that’s going by without focusing on anything. Have a sweeping, blurred vision. Relax your eyes as they glance through the greenery and the surroundings – houses, buildings, grass, other cars, the sky and everything else that there is to see. Forget your “within” and concentrate on the “without” – the world outside you, let it fill you.

• Whenever your car stops, go back to step two and re-start the primary act when you begin moving again.

• Do not let this hamper your driving. If you’re on a busy street, leave the meditation for later.

Your “Deep Zen” can be reached in seven years of isolation, as most monks do it. Or, in a few minutes. Which would you prefer? The second?

Just plug on your headphones to some calming, instrumental music and let it seep through you. It brings the meditative quality that isolation does. Just allow the music to calm you, to let you meditate in tranquility. This, for a few minutes everyday is all you need.

Zen Meditation allows you to focus on your problems and their root causes. Once you’re able to fix your problems and meet them head-on, your work is completed and you don’t feel stressed about anything any more.

Its medicinal value is proven to work all over the world. Meditation programs are among the most popular healing programs today. In the programs, your brain is attuned to sound waves in such a way that it echoes the waves’ calming effect on your mind. Like a radio station in your own head which you can play whenever you want to!