(no subject)

[mstakenidentity]

I want to learn to meditate properly. Does anyone know how I go about learning? Are there and books or cds you'd recommend? Are there any places or courses or teachers you would recommend? Anything I should avoid like the plague?

Comments

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I learned how to meditate when I was 10 at a buddhist ashram and don't always forget how.

The way I learned was to follow roughly what other people have said here to let your body relax, then not to try and blank out everything as some people will tell you to do, but to craft a scene in a landscape you can control in your own mind. This is a great deal more relaxing and takes far less effort. The natural world in a place you feel at peace is a good start and for me, it's usually sitting on a clifftop overlooking the beach, on a warm summer's day with a light wind stirring the grass around me.

Other techniques I have heard, depending on how you think are to try and think of blackness and block out everything, but I find this a hindrance. hesepa has said she finds success with trying to think of everything at once and waiting for the state when your mind is overloaded and forces itself to relax, it comes much quicker than you think.

What "lj user="asmodel"> has said about breating is important, so much so I can't believe I haven't mentioned it, breathing gives you a constant rhythm to focus on and you need that to be able to wash everything else out of your conscious mind.

There are various types of meditations to relax you physically and mentally, depending on what you need. I've gone through the mental ones a bit and they work well before bed if you need to sleep. If I concentrate on my breathing, it never takes me more than about 5 minutes to fall asleep and I usually rest deeper.

Another thing you can do to relax muscle tension is to lie down and clench every muscle you can in your body, then slowly relax them section by section in increments as small as you can manage. Try to relax only one thing every cycle of breaths, say once every ten breaths. Make those breaths as deep and as long as you can too, so you can feel the tension draining out of you with every exhalation.

Meditation for me is about regaining the full control of my body and making it feel like home again instead of something I have to fight with to achieve what I want. There isn't a one way that will definitively work for you, but some combination of some of what I and others have said should make a big difference and help you find your own way of getting some peace back.