STARTING A MEDITATION PRACTICE

• Meditation is the act of letting go- letting go of the limitations of the body, of the mind and of the emotions.
• Meditation is the art of being, the link between the seen and the unseen, effort and non- effort, holding on and letting go, getting in touch with the flow of life and going with it.
• Meditation is above all, practical-it must be practised to be mastered.  You must put energy and commitment into actually doing it.  It is like learning any other skill after persistent practice you become accomplished.
• A meditation group is both stimulating and supportive and the energy of a group is much stronger.

The simplest way to begin is with your body- because you are always with it.  To be in tune with your body you must first understand the relationship between the physical body, breathing, emotions and your mental state.  None of these acts independently; the breath affects the blood circulation and consequently the amount of oxygen going to all organs of the body.  If your body is not working effectively, it influences your mood and thoughts.  If you are thinking negative thoughts then you are also feeling them, and the rate of breathing alters accordingly.

Repeat to yourself as often as you can, one or more of the following affirmations:

• Every day I make space for myself
• I now give myself permission to create space in my day for me
• As I care, so I share, time with myself each day
• I am in touch with all my senses outer and inner

Transform the senses from a limited consciousness to an expanded awareness.  Make a bridge with your mind from the outer to the inner or higher consciousness.

Sit in a quiet place in nature.  Close your eyes as you take a long breath out.  Imagine you are a deep reflective mirror.  Open your eyes and as you breath in absorb all the sensual impressions around you.  When you are confident that your mirror holds the picture exactly as you see it, shut your eyes and explore the scene going through each sense in your mind.  If you want to reinforce any details, open your eyes for a time before returning once again to your mirror.  Do this exercise initially for about 5 minutes increasing the time as you improve your concentration and visualisation.

Sit somewhere inside where there are few distractions.  Take a piece of fruit.  Concentrate entirely on the fruit, exploring what you see, feel and smell, even taste.  Now close your eyes take a deep breath and using the same senses try to go with your mind inside the fruit.

Put lemon juice, then salt, then honey on your tongue and notice the differences between them.  Now taking it more slowly, taste each again more deliberately.  Take note of the appearance, texture, taste: first on the tip of your tongue, then further back on the palate.  See how far you can be aware of the taste sensation as it passes down the gullet and into the gullet and into the stomach. After completing all three, try to recreate by remembering all three using only your mind.

Prepare a vase of perfumed flowers.  Sit in front of it, preferably on a straight-backed chair with your spine erect, your head slightly bent and your feet flat on the floor, legs apart.  Now breathing deeply, focus intently on the flowers: notice the different colours, shapes and textures, the number and placement of petals and stamens.  Absorb the perfume.  Now shut your eyes and as you breath in, recall every sensual detail.  When you lose the flowers in your head open your eyes and memorise them once more. As you become more expert with this exercise you will find that you are using the five senses simultaneously.  You will also learn to coordinate the breath with the senses so that you have the sensation of breathing in the flowers.

Smell:

Take the sense and use it to help you imagine the smell of a rose.

Touch:

By using a memory of touch, make a thing more accessible and real. Touching someone’s heart or soul means we have sufficient empathy to reach through to that person’s very depths.  The inner sense of touch will make our outer lives more real.

Taste: 

Recall taste so that it is as real as if you were actually drinking.

Seeing:

See different colours the difference between the sky and the trees.  Shut your eyes and visualise the exact colour of the trees and sky.  Every time you lose the mind picture open your eyes again till you think you have remembered it.  Be aware of the changing colours around a person as their mood changes

Hearing:

The inner sense of hearing involves not only the recall of familiar sounds but an opening or freeing of ourselves that we might hear sounds that are not sounds.  We need to be both receptive and perceptive to hear behind the words

Body blocks

At the very moment we decide to become quiet within, our body lets us know that it is there.  In order to meditate we must move beyond our awareness of the body.  The way to lose your body is to fill your mind exclusively with an awareness of it, don’t try to ignore or repress a tickle or a pain.  Bring it into the full focus of your mind and concentrate on it alone, you will gradually train your mind to gain control.