SIX WAYS TO MEDITATE
Guided Meditation
Guided meditations are a brilliant point to start practising meditation. They help you understand what meditation you are doing and guide you through it fantastically. They can be done whilst sitting down, lying down and even possibly whilst doing yoga. These can also be listened to fall asleep to, and allow you to have a good night's rest for the day ahead. It is quite similar to falling asleep to somebody soothingly telling a story.
A guided meditation will help you to develop your ability to listen and follow instructions - this will come in handy in general to activate your inner listener.
Candle Staring
Candle staring is a technique designed to help you focus on a particular thing for a period of time. This form of meditation develops your ability to focus and concentrate on something specific without leading a trail of thought behind you. To do this, you will need to light a candle in a safe space and sit in a chair directly in front of it. You might find that it helps to turn off the lights as it may help you to focus on the candle flame. Play some relaxing meditation music from our current favourites section and...voila! you've got yourself a new form of experimental concentration meditation.
Mantra
A mantra meditation is simply repeating a word
or phrase in the focus of your mind.
It will help you focus on a specific thing and also allow you to meditate on something you wish to understand or change. The purpose of this meditation is also to develop your concentration, however, you might find it easier if you have sensitive eyes to bright lights such as candle flames.
You could also repeat more than one mantra during your meditation, try changing and experimenting with which words or phrases resonate with you the most. Words such as 'Acceptance' and 'abundance' work well to manifest big things, and phrases such as 'May all beings be loved' also increases your capacity to open your heart a little more to your life.
Visualisation
Another earth-grounding meditation to experiment with is visualisation. Visualisation allows you to use your imagination for your personal benefit. You can find a variety of these online and you can experiment with whichever ones you like, to find what works best for you.
They work a little bit like dreams and let you create images in your mind to assist the creativity developing in your imagination. Visualisations can also be done without a video or a guide - you can simply focus on an idyllic being or setting to focus on. You can add things to it, take them away, change them etc. Just be sure to remain focused on the theme you picked at the beginning not to drift off into a different one.
Present Moment
Present moment meditation increases your awareness in the present moment.
Close your eyes, and begin to focus on the breath.
Allow the breath to broaden your body - feel the freshness of the breath rejuvenating it every moment.
Deeply feel the sensations occurring - try understanding what they could mean to you.
Now expand your awareness to everything in contact with you, noticing all of the sensations.
Then, shift your focus onto all of your senses, what can you feel? Smell? Taste? Hear?
Allow these sensations to travel through your body and bring you into the grounding, present moment. This meditation is also brilliant for calming stress and anxiety from day to day life.
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Observational
Observational meditation will expand your ability to feel within, and tap deeper into your inner being. Focus on becoming the observer of your own mind. Close your eyes and begin to take deep, full breaths, following each one to its fullest extent. Then, begin to focus and feel the point slightly above the midpoint between your two eyebrows. This is called the third eye Chakra. It symbolises and activates your intuition and inner ability once opened.
Begin to watch your mind and be receptive to whatever arrives during this meditation; thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions, etc. Being aware of these things will help you to observe what is really going on in your mind every day and presents you the ability to change it.