How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation

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As you start the mindfulness meditation practice, you have a sense of your body and a sense of where you are, and then you start to notice the breathing. The entire feeling of the breath is imperative. The breath should not be forced, try to breath naturally. The breath is going in and out, in and out. With each breath you become relaxed.

During mindfulness meditation practice try to recognize the movements of the mind, which you experience as thoughts. As soon as you start thinking about something with emotions attached, try use the breath as the object of meditation; it is particularly helpful because it will relax you.

The objective of mindfulness meditation is not to distract your attention away from stressful thoughts, but rather to just observe the thoughts without responding to them. You have to be a neutral observer of everything that passes before your attention. Your goal is not to be focused, but rather to be mindful, that is, to be fully aware and awake of what is going on in the present moment.

Mindfulness is the condition of being fully engaged in the present moment, without analyzing or in other words without ‘overthinking’ the experience. Rather than worrying about the future or reflecting on the past, mindfulness meditation toggles the focus to what’s happening right now.

Everything is welcomed. You just pay attention to whatever is there. Try not to form an opinion or evaluate – just sit calmly and observe. Sooner or later, the mind will become calmer and incoherent thoughts will begin to slow, but try to keep away from the temptation to think about this understanding.

When ready slowly finish your practice.

Allow yourself a few seconds to just sit and feel the effects of your meditation. It is essential not to try to evaluate how you did and avoid labeling it as a good or bad practice, just allow it to be what it is. Mindfulness meditation is particularly effective at reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. Practicing mindfulness meditation helps you to develop a skill to stay calm and not react to everyday stresses, but rather let them pass as events

Carole is the author of some web-blogs in Health category. You can find more interesting and useful information at Yoga and Meditation Blog and Ideal Weight Blog.

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How to Meditate Successfully : How to Meditate

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We all know that meditation is great for you, but how do you meditate? In this article I want to give you some suggestions of what you need in order to set-up a successful meditation practice, and I will also teach you how to meditate. These peripheral parts of a meditation practice should not be ignored, as one of the most important aspects in order to reap the rich rewards of meditation is consistency, and these suggestions below are the key ingredients for setting up a long-term, consistent practice.

1. Meditation Space:

First you need to set aside a space in your home for meditation. Having such a space will help you create the right environment to succeed in meditation. The space should be clean and if possible, used exclusively for meditation only. This way, once you enter this space, automatically your body and mind will tune in and settle down, allowing for you to travel deep within during your meditation session.

2. Meditation Time:

One of the most important keys in order to have a consistent practice, is to set a regular time for daily meditation. As best as possible, you should try to meditate at this time. Setting up such a time will go a long way in helping you integrate meditation into your daily life. One final note with regard to setting a regular time for meditation, is that if this can be set to early in the morning, that is preferable. During the early hours, the mind is fresh and the air it purer, both of which are helpful to meditation.

3. Meditation Tools:

You should also not be shy to use some helpful meditation tools which will ultimately help you sit better and longer. Tools such as proper attire which does not constrict blood flow and meditation cushions which take the strain off the back and knees are important parts of a daily practice and you should use them to help you in learning and mastering this wonderful spiritual art.

In addition, if you are planning to do breathing exercises or yoga as well, it is ok to use music to help motivate you during these physical practices.

During meditation though, I don’t suggest using music, so that you can develop the art of watching the mind and thoughts, which is key to advanced meditation practice.

Finally, also feel free to use a picture, incense or other such devices which inspire and help you get into the meditative mood. Meditation is a long term practice, so you will certainly run into phases where you will need some extra inspiration to keep going strong.

How to Meditate:

Once you have your space, time and tools in place, it is time to actually meditate. So let us learn how to meditate now. For this, take a nice tall posture, keeping your spine straight. You can place your hands on your knees, or place them in your lap, then follow the instructions below which will teach you a fundamental and very effective meditation technique.

* Once you take your posture, close your eyes and then remain absolutely still.

* Next bring your awareness to your breathing and begin to count your breaths from 1 to 10, with each inhalation and exhalation incrementing the count. Once you get to 10, come back to 1 and start over. So you would do 5 completes breaths to get from 1 to 10. What is important here is that you actually pay close attention to the actual sensation of the breath. It is a very physical practice, and you should concentrate of feeling the breath, as opposed to just thinking about it. So you should be aware of the depth, texture, temperature, etc of the actual air as it passes through your nostrils.

* If your mind wonders during this time, simply see your thought, let it go and return to your count. Thoughts will arise, but endeavor not to get caught in the story line, instead just see them and let them go and return your attention to your breathing.

* If you do get lost in your thinking, then again, simply see the thoughts that carried you away, let them go and return to 1, and start over. Don’t judge yourself harshly if you so get lost in thinking, it happens to everybody. In time your concentration will grow and your mind will calm down much faster, thus allowing you insight into the true nature of reality which lies beyond thoughts and duality.

Visit one of the largest free meditation websites on the internet and learn How to Meditate from world renowned meditation and yoga master Anmol Mehta.

Practice Forgiveness to Lead a Healthy Life

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We all go through unpleasant phase in our lives. There might be people who might have deeply hurt you or disappointed you. Your heart becomes filled with negative emotions like anger and resentment which in turn tends to eat you up from within, harming you physically as well as mentally. In such a situation you have a tendency to develop a vindictive attitude towards those who have hurt you and vengeance is what you seek for.

But is this the way you can achieve peace of mind or heal yourselves? If you continuously harbor grudge against others, you will never be able to grow up as a better human being. The secret to attaining contentment, poise, and better health is to let go everything that has hurt you and forgive those who have disappointed you.

When you are hurt too deeply, it becomes very difficult for you to forgive or release all the negative emotions. However, you need to understand that though, forgiving might seem to be difficult yet by letting go off these negative emotions, you will pave way to better emotional health. In other words, forgiveness plays a major role in healing your wounds.

Forgiveness doesn’t happen overnight and like many other things in life, it takes practice, and patience to learn the art of forgiveness. The great thing about forgiveness is that you may do it for the other person but in the long run you are the one who benefits the most from it.

When you choose not to forgive, you are harming yourself while preventing yourself from growing emotionally as well as spiritually.

Forgiveness has long laid the foundation for spiritual well-being.

Healthy forgiveness integrates self respect and wanting better for your own self. This will help you to rise above the desire for vengeance, and instead invite universal love to flow through you so that you can pardon the person who hurt you, unleash the old pain and move ahead to achieve better things in your life.

It is important to cultivate empathy in order to practice forgiveness, which allows you to develop understanding as well as sympathetic attitude towards the offender. This serves as a great motivation for genuine forgiveness. Evidences suggests that forgiveness has played a key role in lowering depression, anxiety and other physical conditions, such as high blood pressure and heart rate.

Forgiveness is a virtue that is given by God to his children to extend quickly and limitlessly. Though it may require commitment, patience and focus yet by giving it freely, you exchange anger, hatred and resentment for joy, peace, and freedom. 

Chamunda Swami Ji practicing spiritual healing in USA as well as in India. Swami Ji also conducts world tours of his spiritual seminar wherein he gives discourses on Meditation Techniques, Mantra and Tantra followed by a live question and answer session.- Spiritual Healer

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