Enough thinking about it, let’s meditate:

I think it’s time to meditate. But before we do let’s recap. We have gone over how to approach meditation, what meditation should be, and things to keep in mind when starting. We reviewed what meditation should be, what it shouldn’t be, and changing your methods until you find what suits you. I didn’t get into the benefits since there is a huge wealth of information already out there that explains all benefits in specific detail. Just remember to keep things simple, utilize the tips and tricks, and most importantly, just let the experience happen.

Focus on your breathing:

To start, I know there are those of you out there telling yourselves right now, “I’ve done that and it doesn’t work”. Well, I would like everyone to introduce a different element when focusing on their breathing; your feelings. Yes feelings. See, we all live our lives from within our heads and when we hear focus on your breathing we automatically try to focus our thought like a laser beam on the act of breathing.

However, we should all be living our lives from within our hearts and using our minds to help paint the reality we desire. And the heart is where emotions live. What! Emotions! Yes, and we will get into all this and more in a later post.

Now back to meditating. So, from now on when you focus on your breathing focus on the sensation of how the air feels entering and exiting your lungs. Expand that into felling how the air feels moving swiftly through your wind pipe as you inhale and exhale each breath. Then slow your breath down every now and then just to feel the differences between how it feels when you change your pace.

Take a few minutes to feel how the air feels moving through your nose or mouth and into your lungs. Once the act of focusing on feeling becomes more comfortable for you, begin to expand your focus on feeling the life force air provides us, and then on how the air we breath is divinely connected. More on the connection of everything going back to the great spirit / god later.

How does my brain fit in all this:

From the perspective of focusing on feelings, we engage our brains by allowing our brains to do what they do best, paint the reality picture. By focusing on our feelings we only give our brains one choice and that is to paint the picture of what we are feeling. Approaching focus from this perspective allows our brain to enjoy what it loves doing. Now, there will be the stray worry or two that infiltrates your space of feeling focus but as we covered already, acknowledge the thought and let go.

We will get into more specifics on how our brains both help and hinder us in future posts. For now, focus on the feeling and your brain will follow. Another way to think about the heart / mind connection is to think about how it feels to walk into a bakery. When you first walk into a bakery, you know with all your being and body that it smells great but then suddenly our brains step in and tell us “this smells great”. The initial reaction you had was from your heart and soul, the second reaction was your brain.

The prayer:

As we covered before, saying a prayer to god / great spirit and your angels will help you along your journey to beginning a meditation practice. Is this necessary? No. Is worth it? Absolutely. Praying to your angels and god to join you and help you achieve the meditative state you are after will help you get there so much easier. Our angels get so excited when we ask them to help us and when we acknowledge that we recognize their help our angels get even more excited and start doing more. We will cover this more later but for now, know your angels are ready and waiting for you to ask for help.

Below is the prayer I say before beginning a meditation session.

Calling god, my angels, arch angels, ascended masters, spiritual teachers, and passed loved ones. Surround me with your love and light. I ask that you join me in my meditation and block all that is negative and means to do me harm. Please only allow positive loving energy to come through your protection. I ask that you assist me to achieve the meditative state (replace meditative state with what you desire to achieve) I am seeking. Please fill my heart with love, light, happiness, and joy so that there is no more room for the negativity currently occupying my heart. Thank you.

Always a thank you to express your appreciation. Amen is perfectly fine as is any way you want to express your thanks for them helping you. Trust me, thank them now because you will get help and your gratitude takes you so much further than you can possibly imagine. One way to think about our angels is thinking of them as a restaurant server. Imagine being waited on by the same great server every time you visit your favorite eatery but you never tip or leave a mediocre tip. After a while the service level you have come to expect will begin to deteriorate every time you do not tip. Well, our angels are much the same way and all they require is for you to flat out express your thanks. Once you begin thanking your angels for the times you ask them for their help you will quickly begin seeing signs of your angels helping you without even asking. When this begins to happen for you, be sure to acknowledge and thank them every time you recognize it. Why? There is nothing our angels love more than when you recognize when they have assisted you in your life. I can’t even begin to explain the impact of simply acknowledging and thanking your angels for their help will have on your life. Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself.

A few things to keep in mind before we jump in:

Remember, there is no right or wrong way to visualize what you see so just let yourself see what feels right to you and just let the experience happen.

Remember, focus on your breathing means to focus on the feelings and sensations of your breath, don’t just place your thought on the act of breathing.

Try to pick one spot to meditate and stick to it as much as possible.

During this time and throughout your meditation session, when ever a stray thought comes into your mind acknowledge it, thank the thought for reminding you about what has been worrying you, and then let it go. We covered different methods to visualize watching your thoughts go away in the previous post. Pick one that works for you and stick with it. However and don’t be discouraged, when your most effective method to let your thoughts go still lets them infiltrate your meditation. Always keep in mind, there is no one method of letting go of nagging thoughts that will always be best all of the time. Our brains are extremely efficient at breaking through new restraints we apply to keep thoughts at bay. It takes a constant morphing and adjusting to your moods and feelings to fully understand what methods to use to release your thoughts when.

When I mention a breathing pattern in the mediation I am referencing a very specific pattern of breathing. The pattern is very simple but relies on you keeping the timing consistent for each meditation session. This will make more sense in a second. The pattern is taking a deep breath in, holding your breath, letting your breath out, holding your empty lungs, and then repeat. If you take 3 seconds or 5 seconds to take your breath in, take the same amount of time to hold your breath in, same time to let it out, and same time to hold your empty lungs. This is the timing mentioned earlier. Also, if you do the in, hold, out, hold sequence 1 time or 6 times in a row, keep it consistent with each time you feel prompted to begin another breathing pattern. If you repeat the pattern 3 times in your first round, make sure to repeat the pattern 3 times each time you begin a breathing pattern.

Ok now let’s do it:

Find a comfortable spot where you can sit or lie down without any of your limbs falling asleep. Once settled into your spot, begin to breath in through your nose and out through your mouth while focusing on the feeling of the air rushing in and out of your lungs. As you begin to feel more and more comfortable begin to release stress with each release of your breath. Let your shoulders slump in relaxation as you release stress and tension through the release of each breath.

Try to visualize your stress leaving your body through each breath and feel the stress dissolve with each passing breath. Feel the sensation of your stress leaving your body with each exhale. Feel yourself begin to become one with the surface you are resting on with every exhale of your breath.

Once you begin to feel like you are melting into your spot, breath normally through your nose and focus on your breath. Acknowledge, thank, and release those nagging thoughts. Stay here for a little while until you get a natural prompting to begin a breathing pattern; regardless of whether you get a prompt sooner or later just go with it. Take your time through the breathing pattern, there is no need to rush it.

Once you have completed a breathing pattern, stay in this space and notice how much more quiet, peaceful, content and happy everything feels. Don’t worry when your thoughts suddenly come rushing back into existence as this is only your brain trying to paint the reality of where you have found yourself. Gently put your focus back on your breath and let yourself once more slip into peace and calmness. When ever it feels right, begin a breathing pattern and do as many feel right for you.

This is where I will leave meditation for now. There is much more to meditation, so much so I believe there is no one person who truly understands it all. The different ways to utilize meditation will come naturally and be taught to you by others you attract into your reality. You will come to notice that everyone treats, practices, and uses mediation in differing similar ways. What I mean by this is, we all do the same things, just in our own way, which makes up the beauty of who we are.

To recap it and make it a list:

• Find a comfortable spot
• Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth
• Acknowledge thoughts, thank them, and let them go
• Focus on your breath
• Release your stress and relax with every exhale of your breath through your mouth
• Begin to breath normally once you feel yourself melting into your spot
• Acknowledge thoughts, thank them, and let them go
• When ever it feels right begin a breathing pattern
• Stay in this space of peace and tranquility as long as feels right
• When ever it feels right begin a breathing pattern
• Acknowledge thoughts, thank them, and let them go

Shift from breathing normally to doing a breathing pattern when ever either feels right. Stay here as long or as short as you wish and just let the experience happen.