How to Meditate

How to Meditate Deeply using Simple Techniques that Anyone Can Master
Learning how to meditate , can help you unlock your potential in every area of your life. As we have discovered on our web page what is meditation, meditation is 'concentrated communion with God' for the purpose of evolving spiritually, raising ones consciousness from misery producing delusions of life and to ultimately freeing oneself from karmic conditions that necessitate rebirth. As a result the soul returns and merges with God, Spirit or Cosmic Consciousness. So how to meditate ? Well as we hinted on our web page types of meditation there are various meditative traditions that use different techniques to achieve the same thing. Whether it's called Nirvana, Divine Ecstasy or Samadhi by different traditions, the goal is a permanent state of bliss consciousness that we experience when our soul realizes it's divine heritage. The method of meditation that is spoken of here comes from the most ancient meditative tradition on earth - being the Hindu tradition and spoken of in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Elements of which having been dated as far back as 3000 BC and precedes all other religious and meditative traditions. It is indeed the root of all types of meditative traditions today. As mentioned in our web page stages of meditation there are eight steps in the complete process of the Yoga Sutras and seven to reach the stage of meditation proper. However for those of you who just want a taste of the meditation process. I've stream lined the process to just three. Elements in Good Meditation Practice 1) Meditation Posture: It is important that you sit with a straight back during meditation, any posture that will allow you to sit with a straight back for a prolonged period will do. Having a straight spine is important because it aids with the flow of energy that is moves up and down the spine during meditation. Tip: Cover your Meditation Seat with a meditation blanket . Whether you are sitting cross legged on the floor or on a chair, always use a woollen blanket, ideally with a layer of silk on top: - This is an ancient method that the Yogis of India used to insulate their bodies from the earth's magnetic currents which has a tendency of drawing the energy built up during meditation down the spine toward the earth and therefore hampering the yogi's concentration efforts in meditation.

Tip: It is always good to start your meditation with a prayer, such as: "Father, bless me with divine concentration. I dedicate this meditation to you as a symbol of my love." 2) Concentration: An important part when learning how to meditate is concentration. It is essential for effective meditation. If you find it difficult it is important that you persist, for only with effort shall you develop this quality. Practice some technique of concentration for a few minutes morning and night to start with, then gradually extend the length of time using ameditation timer . As you develop more confidence, you will find it easier to sit for longer periods to meditate. 3) Meditation Proper: Immediately after the preceding step. Talk or pray to God in a natural way as if your talking to a close friend. It's important this is done with concentration. It is good to start by genuinely thanking him for all the blessings in your life. No matter what your circumstance or difficulty, each of us has more to be thankful for than we realise. I once met a formerly very attractive woman who was struck down in the prime of her life with a horrible disease that ate away her skeletal system. She had to be cared for 24hrs a day yet she was a very positive and thankful woman. Tip: This should form the longest part of your meditation. Remember that the sincerity, devotion and love that you bring into your meditation has a direct relation with what you get out of meditation. The Technique of Meditation To learn a definite method of Concentration and Meditation from a Master Meditator Paramahansa Yogananda who has long been regarded as the father of Yoga Meditation in the west follow this link How to Meditate

Preparing a Space for Meditation

Find a quiet, peaceful place where you can be secluded and undisturbed during meditation. Create your own sanctuary exclusively for your meditation practice. Sit on a straight chair or cross legged on a firm surface cover that with a woolen blanket and/or a silk cloth. This insulates your seat from the downward pull of subtle earth currents.

Correct Posture
Instructions on Posture for Effective Meditation Erect Spine
One of the first requisites for meditation is correct posture. The spine should be erect. When the devotee is seeking to direct his mind and life force upward through the cerebrospinal axis to the centers of higher consciousness in the brain, he should avoid stricture or pinching of the spinal nerves caused by improper posture.

Sit on a Straight Armless Chair

Those persons whose legs are supple may prefer to meditate sitting cross-legged on a cushion on the floor, or on a firm bed. However, Paramahansa Yogananda recommended the following meditation pose: Sit on a straight armless chair with the feet resting flat on the floor. Hold spine erect, abdomen in, chest out, shoulders back, chin parallel to the ground. The hands, with palms upturned, should rest on the legs at the juncture of the thighs and the abdominal region to prevent the body from bending forward. If the correct posture has been assumed, the body will be stable yet relaxed, so that it is easily possible to remain completely still, without moving a muscle.

Now, close your eyes and gently lift your gaze upward, without straining, to the point between the eyebrows the seat of concentration, and of the spiritual eye of divine perception.

From the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda:

If the beginner yogi sits on the hard floor to meditate he will find his legs going to sleep, owing to pressure on his flesh and arteries. If he sits on a blanket over a spring pad or mattress, on the floor, or over a hard bed, he will not experience discomfort in his legs. A Westerner, used to sitting on chairs with his thighs at a right angle to his torso, will find it more comfortable to meditate on a chair with a woolen blanket and silk cloth under him, extending under his feet which rest on the floor. Those Western yogis, especially youths, who can squat on the floor like Orientals, will find their knees pliable, owing to their ability to fold their legs in an acute angle. Such yogis may meditate in the lotus posture, or in the more simple cross-legged position. No one should try to meditate in the lotus posture unless he is at ease in that position. To meditate in a strained posture keeps the mind on the discomfort of the body. Meditation should ordinarily be practiced in a sitting position. Obviously, in a standing posture (unless one is advanced) he may fall down when the mind becomes interiorized. Neither should the yogi meditate lying down, for he might resort to the practiced state of slumber. The proper bodily posture, one which produces calmness in body and mind, is necessary to help the yogi shift his mind from matter to Spirit.

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The following is a very simple meditation technique you can learn in five minutes.

First, Sit Upright

Sit upright with a straight spine, away from the back of the chair. Place your feet flat on the floor, and your arms, palms turned upward, at the joint between your thighs and torso.

Relax the Body

Do this Tense and Relax exercise to help you relax the body: Inhale sharply through the nose, with 1 short and 1 long inhalation (double breath)

Tense the whole body until it vibrates with energy Hold your breath and the tension for five seconds Exhale forcibly through the mouth, with one short and one long exhalation (double breath) As you do, throw the tension out Repeat several times

Breathe Evenly
Inhale slowly, counting to eight. Hold the breath for eight more counts, then exhale slowly to the same count. Without pausing, inhale again hold exhale, each to the count of eight. This is called the Measured Breathing Exercise. Repeat it three to six times. You can vary the count according to your lung capacity, but always keep it equal during inhalation, holding, and exhalation. Finish your practice by inhaling deeply, then exhaling completely.

Hong-Sau Technique of Concentration

Now wait for the next breath to come in of its own accord. When it does, mentally say Hong (rhymes with song). This time, dont hold the breath, but exhale naturally. As you do, mentally say Sau (rhymes with saw). Hong-Sau is an ancient Sanskrit mantra (a mantra is a word, syllable, or group of syllables, which can convey spiritual power when pronounced correctly, often with repetition). It means I am He or I am Spirit. Try to feel that your breath itself is silently making the sounds of Hong and Sau. Make no attempt to control your breath. Simply observe it as it flows in and out naturally. In the beginning you may be mostly aware of the physical manifestation of the breathing process as your diaphragm and chest expand and contract. As your breath grows calmer, however, try to become aware of its flow in the nostrils, then gradually transfer your awareness higher and higher in the nasal passages. With the eyes closed, turn your gaze upward to the point midway between the eyebrows within your forehead. Concentrate there. This is the seat of spiritual consciousness in the body, also called the spiritual eye, or Christ Center. In time, try to feel the flow of the breath near the spiritual eye within your forehead. Keep your gaze steady at the point between the eyebrows throughout your practice. Dont allow your eyes to follow the movement of the breath. If you find that your mind has wandered, gently bring it back to an awareness of the breath and the mantra. Finish your practice of Hong-Sau by inhaling once through the nose, then exhaling three times through the mouth.

Meditation Proper

Forget the breath. Concentrate deeply at the point between the eyebrows. Keep your mind focused and your energy internalized. Absorb yourself in the peace generated by your practice. Continue for at least five minutes. Finish with a prayer to the Divine, offering yourself into the light of God.

Ways to Deepen Your Meditation

1. Relax the Body It is common for new meditators, in an effort to concentrate, to tense the body unconsciously. Deep concentration, however, is possible only in a state of complete relaxation. Practicing the Tense and Relax exercise is an effective way to release stored-up bodily tension. Together with the Measured Breathing Exercise, these are preliminary exercises taught by Yogananda to help prepare the body and mind for meditation. 2. Pray Begin your meditation with a prayer. This will help you remember why you are meditating! You will also be inviting the Divine, or your Higher Self, to help you in your practice. 3. Sit Perfectly Still Moving your body even slightly sends the energy into the muscles. The purpose of yoga is to withdraw that energy inward and upward, to the brain. Thus, any physical movement during meditation will counteract your meditative effort. To keep yourself from fidgeting, try to think of your body as a rock solid and unmoving. Refuse to move for the first five minutes of meditation, and you will find that your body will grow calm of its own accord. Your physical and mental restlessness will subside the longer you sit still. A glass of muddy water will become clear in time if its undisturbed. The same is true for us! 4. Eye Position Your eyes should be closed and held steady, looking slightly upwards, as if looking at a point about an arms length away and level with the top of your head. It is essential to keep your gaze gently raised to that point throughout your practice. This will magnetize your spiritual eye, and draw the energy to the highest spinal center, the seat of spiritual awakening in the body. 5. Do Not Control Your Breath After the preliminary breathing exercises, you should cease any effort to control the breath. Let it flow naturally. You may notice that the pauses between the inhalation and exhalation are gradually becoming longer.

Enjoy these pauses, for they are a glimpse of the deep state of advanced meditation. As you grow very calm, your breath may become so shallow, and the pauses so prolonged, that it hardly seems necessary to breathe at all. Do not be alarmed. This is good!

How Long to Meditate

It is entirely up to you. Make sure, however, to allow enough time after the Hong-Sau practice to sit still and enjoy the calm meditative state.

Where to Meditate
If possible, set aside an area that is used exclusively for meditation. In time it will become saturated with spiritual vibrations. A small room, a corner of your bedroom, or even closet can suffice, as long as it is well ventilated. Keep it simple. All you really need is a chair or small cushion to sit on, and perhaps a small altar. Face East if possible, and place a wool or silk blanket on the floor to insulate your body from the subtle magnetic currents of the earth.

Proper Meditation Posture

In addition to sitting on a straight-backed chair, there areother ways of sitting that are appropriate for mediation. You can sit on the floor in any of the several poses: cross-legged, half-lotus pose, or full-lotus pose. Two things, however, are essential: your spine must be straight, and you must be able to relax completely without slouching.

Would You Like to Learn More?

The material offered above is a greatly abbreviated explanation of the Hong-Sau Technique of Concentration. The full instruction is available from The Ananda Course in SelfRealization. In addition to Hong-Sau, The Ananda Course in Self-Realization contains other techniques for beginner, intermediate, and advanced meditation. All of them are scientifically proven to beneficially affect the brain, body, and spiritual development of the student.

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How to Sit Comfortably for Meditation

One of the most important aspects of a sitting meditation is to be able to sit comfortably, without an aching back, or legs hurting or going to sleep. If you are in pain or great discomfort, the only thing you will be meditating on is that!

Sitting Positions
Options for sitting are in a chair, or on a meditation bench, or on a pillow on the floor. Most westerners are not trained from birth to sit comfortably on a hard floor. So a chair is probably best for most of us, beginners or otherwise and many very great meditators with many years experience use a chair or stool for their meditations. It is not a sign of lack of meditative ability if you are unable to sit in the lotus posture or any other floor sitting position. In a Chair Get a fairly straight-backed chair and sit forward in the chair so that both feet are flat on the floor. If your feet do not touch the floor, get a shorter chair or place a pillow or two under your feet to raise them so that your thighs are parallel to the floor. Do not lean against the back of the chair! The idea is to sit with an upright, unsupported spine. However, if you are not used to sitting this way, or if you have weak neck / back muscles or injuries, there are ways to overcome this challenge. Get a firm pillow of some sort (the crescent shaped ones are very good for this) and put it between your back and the back of the chair. The feeling you want is that of support, but not leaning into it. Move the pillow around until you achieve this feeling. If you want to place a pillow in the seat of the chair, to cushion a too hard surface, that is fine. Meditate for short periods of time in the beginning and work up to longer amounts of time. This way your back muscles will strengthen gradually. Yoga stretches and other such exercises also strengthen your back muscles with time and regular practice. On the Floor Meditation benches are a wonderful invention for making the legs feel comfortable and unpressured and keeping the spine up-right. Finding the right size and height is important. Padding on the seat often helps. Adding small pillows under the knees or ankles might facilitate your comfort also. If you have never tried a bench, please be sure to experiment with one. Some people are more comfortable sitting cross-legged on a pillow. The crescent-shaped or round-plump pillows are designed to help with this position. Experiment! Have a chair, lots of pillows, a bench and whatever else you want to try. When one position becomes tiresome, calmly switch to another. Eventually you'll find the best one for your body-type. Remember everybodys body is different. A Blanket or Two Many yogis recommend sitting on a wool rug, blanket, or piece of silk. Also the place you meditate should be a little on the cool side with a source of fresh air if possible. Thus another blanket or warm meditation shawl should be handy to wrap up in. The body does

cool down a bit when you sit still for a while, so a wrap is often important to maintain an even body temperature. Get comfortable, but stay awake and read

Concentration
In concentration we marshal all our dispersed energies into focusing on just one thing. When mastered, concentration can be of unimaginable benefit in our life; through concentration we can increase our productivity and give ourselves greater peace of mind. These are some suggestions for improving your concentration.

One-Pointedness
Concentration means that we can focus on one thing, to the exclusion of all else. Our concentration may involve writing or working on a particular problem. Whatever our activity the most important criteria is to give all our focus, concentration and attention solely to the activity at hand. Concentration becomes hopeless when we get distracted by several different things at the same time; to improve our concentration we must stop trying to do several things at once. If you are writing an article, dont be thinking about what to say to your boss later in the day. If we can develop onepointedness we will develop a tremendous intensity that enables us to achieve our tasks much quicker.

Learn to Control Your Thoughts

The main stumbling block to concentration is the inevitable distraction we get from our own thoughts. It is random, uninvited thoughts that distract us from achieving pure concentration. The only solution is learning to control and quieten our thoughts. The first thing to be aware of is that we do have the choice to welcome or reject thoughts; we should not feel a helpless victim of our own mind. The second thing is we need to consciously watch our thoughts and prevent ourselves following any train of thought that detracts from our concentration. If we casually begin a project, it is easy to begin daydreaming and lose focus; what we need to do is be very determined to concentrate without distracting thoughts. When we have this intention and determination it becomes much easier to concentrate.

Practice
Concentration is an activity like any other. Clearly the more we practice, the better our concentration will become. We wouldnt expect to be a strong runner without doing some training. Similarly, concentration is like a muscle, the more we exercise the stronger it becomes. There are specific concentration exercises we can do, such as focusing on a small point of an object; but life itself presents innumerable opportunities to sharpen your concentration. The key is to always take opportunities to heighten our powers of concentration.

Meditation
The practice of meditation will definitely improve our powers of concentration. Actually, when we try to meditate, it is concentration that is the first thing we need to master. A daily period of meditation gives us the chance to specifically

work on concentration techniques. This can involve concentrating on a candle or just concentrating on our breathing. These exercises are simple but effective.

Change is as Good as a Rest

It is difficult to concentrate on one thing for an extended time period. Sometimes, the best solution is to give ourselves frequent change. If we concentrate on one task for an hour, we can then move onto something different. This change in activity enables us to use different qualities, therefore, we can maintain our powers of concentration without becoming tired of one activity.

Physical Alertness
The powers of our concentration depends a lot upon our physical well-being. If we are tired, unhealthy and afflicted by numerous minor ailments, concentration will be more difficult. Of course, concentration is still possible; it is just more difficult. However, we have to try to make life easy for ourselves; we need to give a high priority to our physical health getting sufficient sleep, staying physically fit. Undertaking exercise will help develop our concentration. It will help if we lose weight, clear the mind and create a sense of dynamism. If you struggle to concentrate, we need to think of a holistic solution; good physical health and fitness will definitely help develop our powers of concentration.

Creativity
What is Creativity?

Working productively can be broken down into several key skills: time management, organization and controlling your attention and energy. One of the often neglected but most important factors is your creative output. Successful people tend to have an unusually high creative output and Id like to offer some tips for how you can boost yours.

Creativity is often compared with originality. When you see someone who can come up with unique ideas, you say they are creative. Picasso was creative because of his unique painting style. J.R.R. Tolkien was creative for writing The Lord of the Rings. Linus Torvalds is creative for starting Linux. There is another way of viewing creativity. The root word of creativity is create. Creativity can be seen not just on how original your ideas are, but how many of them you can produce. Creative output is a measure of your ability to churn out creations. Thomas Edison held over a thousand patents in his name. Leonardo da Vinci was an astronomer, painter, engineer, inventor, poet and writer. Although both had unique ideas, there creative output dwarfed most of their colleagues. Why Does Creative Output Matter? Isnt quality supposed to be more important than quantity? The problem is that with creative output, quality and quantity are completely independent. A few people have gotten the wrong idea about creative output. The myth that having a higher output will somehow reduce the quality of the ideas you create. Having a high quantity of ideas doesnt reduce the quality of ideas; quantity enhances quality.

I write for several sites as well as my own. A couple fellow bloggers disagreed with this strategy. Wont you be giving away your best ideas so other websites will profit off them? This assumes that each idea I create reduces the total ideas available to write about. This is ridiculous. Ideas are not zero-sum. Having one idea doesnt reduce the amount of ideas you are able to produce. Boosting your creative output requires changing how you channel attention. It has nothing to do with depleting an imaginary ideabank inside your brain. How to Boost Your Output The most important way you can boost your output is to get rid of the zero-sum assumption. If you feel that each idea created limits your ability to create new ideas, youre output will be only a trickle. The best writers, programmers, designers and idea-generators I know believe that the supply of ideas is endless, you only need to know how to turn on the flow. Here are some tips to get you started: 1. Churn Without Judgment. If you stress about the quality of work you are outputting, then the flow will be cut off. Writers block is a symptom of perfectionism. Churn first, judge later. 2. Idea Breeding. Use past ideas to generate new ideas. Ive written close to 500 articles in the past two years. If I ever get stuck, all I need to do is search through past articles. Almost always they leave unanswered questions that can be tackled with a new article. 3. Creative Input. Feed your brain with books. I read about 50-70 books a year. The most creative people I know can read over a 100. By devouring knowledge you add to the variety of ideas you can produce. 4. Be Patient. It can take awhile for your brain to get into the right flow. I can write 1500 words in an hour when Im in the right mental state. But that state often requires waiting through twenty minutes where I type no more than a sentence. Take the time to accelerate your creative flow. 5. Use Large Time Chunks. Since it takes time to warm up your creative muscles, you cant expect to go fast if you are constantly stopping. Use large chunks of time where you can build up speed and work for a few hours before taking a break. 6. Publish Garbage. If you are starting out in a new pursuit, you have only one goal: boost creative output. This often means publishing junk until you train yourself to do a better job. Feedback from the world (not self-judgement) is the fastest way to hone your creative flow. 7. Set a Quota. Give yourself a certain output criteria for each day, week or month. This will build up a high creative output that can later be refined. Instead of just creating when you feel like it, set a high goal. Sometimes youll produce garbage. But youll also produce a lot more winners than by being a perfectionist. 8. Hit the Challenge Zone. If you set too few standards for quality, you wont improve. But if you set too high standards, your creative output will plummet. The challenge zone is the area where you have enough challenge to improve yourself but not so much that you cant perform. 9. Aim With Your Challenge Zone. There is a tendency to use external factors to define your standards. For example, you want to become a musician, so you decide to set your standards to one of your favorite bands. This is a mistake. By setting the challenge

zone to external criteria you kill your creative output or kill your quality. You only need to compete with yourself, dont judge yourself by other standards. 10. Nuke Those Assumptions. If you assume that your creative output is fixed, it will be. Give yourself a high quota and aim within your challenge zone. Youll probably be surprised at how much more you can produce if you force yourself to. More importantly, youll probably be surprised that quality doesnt usually suffer when you boost creative output.

Fast thinking
The person who reads to much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking - Albert Einstein How much time do you get a week to just think? Not while listening to music, driving your car or during group brainstorms. Not while playing video games, doing chores or taking a shower. Just you and your brain. Id wager that few people ever average more than twenty unbroken minutes of thinking each week. Thinking without simultaneously multi-tasking between seven different things might as well be the eighth deadly sin for most people. Its important to do things but its better to do something important. Thinking Versus Daydreaming: Whats the Difference? When you look at most people who spend all their day thinking, its easy to wonder how they get anything done. Useful thinking isnt the same as wandering around, playing a personal movie inside your head. Constructive thinking is more difficult than daydreaming, which is probably why so few people bother to do it. In order to be useful, thinking needs to be: 1. 2. 3. 4. Directed. Thinking used under the broad topic of everything wont accomplish much. Recorded. Unless its on paper or in bytes, you might as well forget it. (And you probably will forget it) Solitary. Conversations can be useful for throwing around ideas, but your thoughts easily get drowned out by the crowd. Isolated. You cant multi-task your thoughts. Creating a Thinking Hour One hour, once per week is all I suggest. The only conditions are that you cant have any noise or other distractions, you need to record any ideas and you stay with it for an hour straight. Fifteen minute chunks with the television blaring and no recording device arent worth it. Why create a thinking hour? Everything from quality of life to work, relationships to health are all based on the quality of the ideas you have. Before you can take any action, you first need to think that action. Until you think it, that action doesnt exist. It only makes sense that the results you experience eventually boil down to the thoughts you have. Creating a thinking hour gives you the ability to get outside the trees and see the entire forest. As the old saying goes, when youve got a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Similarly, when youre spending all week hammering away, you might not even think to pick up a screwdriver.

Ive used regular thinking hours for a few years and it can be amazing how easy problems can be solved if you just spend the time to look at them. Better yet, you can solve problems that havent yet become problems; scratch before you feel the itch. How to Set Up a Thinking Hour Here are a few ways you can go about setting up your thinking hour: 1. Write. Get a pad of paper and a pencil and just write out your thoughts. Writing helps both with directing your thoughts and recording them on paper. Sometimes the simplest solution works the best. 2. Type. If you can type faster than you can write, typing out your thoughts in a word processor might work better. This gives you an added speed factor without wasting any trees. 3. Talk. Turn on the recording device for your computer and just start talking. Talking to yourself turns up the volume on your thoughts and helps you stay focused on one direction of thought. 4. Objectives. Before you start a thinking session, mark out what you want to think about. By setting objectives and goals for your thinking hour, you avoid the otherwise unavoidable boredom and confusion by trying to think about everything. 5. Walk. Navigating a busy street might not be the best time to get stuck inside your head. But if you can find an isolated path, a walk can give you a mix of scenery. Just remember to bring a pad of paper and pencil to write down any ideas that strike you along the way. 6. Mindstorm. Write down the numbers 1 to 20 on a piece of paper and dont stop until youve filled the entire list with ideas. You can use this along with other methods during your thought hour. 7. Meditate. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and relax. Meditation can also be a great way to spend your thought hour, although it suffers from being unable to bring in a recording device. 8. Explore the Problem. If you jump too quickly to a solution, you might get attached to it before realizing there are better alternatives. If your thinking session involves tackling a problem, explore it fully before deciding how to solve it. 9. Park It. One suggestion offered by Brian Tracy for how you might incorporate a thinking hour is to park your vehicle somewhere quiet after work, turn off the lights and think. This can be a better solution if you have a noisy home or office. 10. If I Did Know I dont know can be a roadblock. You can get past it by writing down what you would do if you did know. A poor idea can keep the thoughts moving forward until a better one is found. 11. Be Practical. Your thinking hour can be wasted if you create ideas you never use. A big part of thinking ideas is breaking them into easy steps. If you dont instantly know whats next, you arent finished.

Rebbot brain
Reboot Your Brain With Practical Meditation
July 2 by Scott H Young | 8 Comments and 0 Reactions | Featured, Lifestyle | Tags: brain, focus, meditation

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Meditation isnt just a spiritual practice. If done properly, meditation can be a practical one. Through taking more traditional meditative practices and altering them to fit my needs, Ive found it can serve many purposes:

Focus. Meditating can cut through distractions and focus your mind. Ive found certain meditations to be useful to give myself an extra edge in directing my thinking. Imagination. Visualizing different scenes can give your creative muscles a workout. Introspection. Remove the noise from your surroundings and you can actually hear yourself think. Ive used meditation to solve problems, understand situations and better explore ideas. Brain Reboot. Done properly, Ive noticed an effect on my brain similar to rebooting a computer. With the right meditations I can often spend twenty minutes meditating can remove that feeling of mental fuzziness that comes with a hard day. Use the Right Exercises Meditating isnt simply sitting in a chair cross legged and saying, ommmm, to yourself. There is no right or wrong way to meditate. However, if you want to meditate for a practical aim, say recharging your mind or enhancing your imagination, you have to focus.

When I first started meditating Id often grow restless after a few minutes because I wasnt sure what to do. Entering a meditation with a specific purpose will help you if your goal is practical and not spiritual.

How to Enter a Meditative State: 1. Be comfortable, but dont fall asleep. Get yourself into a position where you can be comfortable but arent at risk of falling asleep. Too much muscular tension or bodily pains can be distracting when trying to meditate. You dont want to move much once you start meditating, so make sure it is a position that can last a few minutes.

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Breathe. I always start any meditation with a breathing exercise. It usually takes about five minutes to enter the meditative state and patience is key. My goal is to stop moving and focus entirely on my breathing. I generally count to ten on the inhale, and once again on the exhale. Do this for a few minutes until you can keep the breathing pattern without counting.

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Flow with Distractions. Heres a task for you: Dont think about polar bears. Of course, trying to accomplish that task is almost impossible. Trying not to think about polar bears causes you to think about polar bears. This paradox applies with distracting elements too. Thoughts, emotions, sounds and disruptions can hamper with your meditative efforts. Dont force these distractions out, but simply recognize them and let them pass. The Meditation Toolkit The first five minutes of practical meditation are always the same. After that things get interesting. I dont profess to having a library of meditations or being a Zen expert. But here are a couple useful exercises Ive found and developed to meet my needs: For Focus: Isolating Senses Meditation can be used to enhance and practice your focus. To do that I isolate my senses, focusing on just one element at a time.

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On each exhale, pick an element to focus on. With the next inhale, focus on that element exclusively. With the exhale, release your focus and pick another element, or the same one. Elements here can include parts of your body, sounds in the background, thoughts, visualizations or emotional states. Think of each breath like a mental rep, flexing the mental muscle until it gets released again. For Imagination: Eating the White Apple A recent meditation Ive found challenging and interesting I call: eating the white apple.

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Visualize a white apple. Hold it so that you can see it, feel the sensations of touch, even smell it. Take a bite from the apple. Not only should you experience the sensation of eating it, but the image should adjust with where you took a bite.

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Repeat this process until the image degrades. This happens when you cant keep track of where and how you ate the apple. I can usually go about ten bites before the mental image gets fuzzy. This is just one of many visualizations for flexing your ability to think. For Refreshing: Brain Reboot All meditation is relaxing. Your breathing is slowed and you are eliminating distracting thoughts. A brain reboot goes further than other meditations in that aim. Here your goal is to enter a deep relaxation and leave feeling completely refreshed.

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Start with your normal meditations. You may want to spend a few minutes with another exercise before starting this one. Try to slow your breathing even more and make it smoother. I can usually go up to as much as fifteen counts per inhale and exhale. Dont slow it so much that you start to feel uncomfortable as that defeats the purpose.

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Next your goal is to become aware of everything but detached from it. This mental alertness means that any thoughts, sounds or bodily discomforts enter your consciousness, but you simply observe them. This means holding off any reactions or instincts to inputs.

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Continue this for a few minutes before ending your meditation. Ive found this brain reboot works because it starts by deeply relaxing your body (slow breathing, no moving) and moves to relaxing your mind. The detachment is the mental equivalent of going completely limp. Observing what is happening but not passing any judgment, strategy or action on it. Meditative Challenge Not sure whether meditation is right for you? I suggest you spend fifteen minutes of your day for a week trying out these and researching other meditations. Mediation can be used for spiritual quests, but you can also make it practica

Fast success
If you want to look back on a life that fills you with joy, conventional rules for success are not the place to start 1. Dont chase money, power, or status. If they come to you, thats fine. But most conventional ideas about success go wrong because they focus on outcomes instead of on the processes of living. Outcomes come around from time to time, but life itselfthe process of living, acting, thinking, and beinghappens all the time. No outcome is going to make a lousy, miserable process feel worthwhile. If you hate what you do, no amount of power or money will make up for that. If your life is constantly stressful, boring, unhappy, or frustrating, how can achieving some high status once in a while make up for all the miserable days and weeks you spent getting there? Its tempting to feel that the end will more than make up for the means; that youll forget the misery in the blaze of achievement. And you willfor a few moments. Then youll be back on the treadmill, with only the distant hope of some fresh achievement or monetary gain to console you. Thats like being a laboratory rat conditioned to unnatural behavior by occasional pellets of food. 2. Take whatever time you need to discover what matters to you most Success isnt simply a matter of money, power, or prestige. You could gain all of those and still feel that you have fallen short of what you wanted; or you could gain none of them and be blissfully happy and fulfilled. What constitutes personal success is mostly in your mind. It has much less to do with finding the best career in other peoples eyes, creating a killer business, or holding down a fancy job with a big salary than with achieving what really matters to you. Many people find this out too late. They struggle for years to get where other people said they should go, only to find it does little or nothing for them. Sad;y, its often too late by then to do anything else. 3. Dont base your choices on others approval. We all want to please those we care about, so its natural to try to do what they approve. Natural, but rarely a good idea as the basis for lifes choices. I dont say that you should deliberately ignore sound advice, or reject a career path simply because other people suggest it. But even the most loving parent or friend cant always see what is going to make your heart sing. Listen to others. Value their input and their support. But go your own way. Its better to be committed to doing what you truly love than accept something lesser for the sake of being approved by someone else.

4.

Stay authentic. That means always doing what truly matters to you and is part of who you are. The simplest definition of a hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another: like a person who says that he or she wants to work at something that benefits society, then forgets that at the first sight of a fistful of dollar bills. Somewhere inside of you is a part that recalls what truly matters and will never quite let you forget it. Over the years, that inner voice is only going to get louder.

5.

Go for meaning over money every time. Its perfectly possible to do something meaningless to you and earn a great deal of cash while doing so. Some people do, especially in parts of the media world. It just requires a stronger stomach and more cynicism that most people possess, plus a huge tolerance for boredom. Is it worth it? If money is truly all that matters to youand you can make lots of it quickly and get outit might be. Few areas of work will allow you to do that, aside from criminal ones. Meaningless days corrode most peoples minds and destroy their happiness. Doing something that means a great deal to you almost always makes you feel energized and alive. Its your choice.

6.

Be endlessly greedyfor learning. You can never learn too much or overfill your mind with new ideas. Nothing is more useful in life than a well-developed, well-stocked mind, especially one that has been broadened and enlarged in the process. Its hard to name a single famously successful person who was narrow-minded, bigoted, or stupid. The list of notable successes who are recognized for the power of their minds is long. And you dont have to have had an expensive education to be able to develop a great mind. There have been plenty of near geniuses whose education was almost entirely self-produced.

7.

Make a friend of failure. You are certain to fail sometimes, and the higher your aspirations, the more frequent and significant that failure will be. People who dont strive for anything glorious rarely fail; they take no risks and never aim beyond what is easily attainable. But if you treat failure as an enemy, its going to lead only to discouragement and even the abandoning of your hopes and dreams. Failure can be a friend, pointing out what isnt right yet and showing you the way to do better. The more proficient you become at accepting the lessons of failure, the quicker you will succeed.

8.

Make sure that every time you make a mistake, its a new one. Making the same mistake several times shows that you havent learned what it can teach you. Making new mistakes proves that youre trying something different. The best definition of a loser is someone who makes the same mistakes over and over again, never managing to learn anything in the process. Such a person is doomed.

9.

Choose to spend your time with the right people. I dont mean that in the sense of the rich and the powerful, the movers and shakers of society. Whether theyre powerful or not, the best people to spend time with are those from whom you can learn most: the ones whose own lives have brought them joy and endless fulfillment. That means people who do what they love and love what they do. People who have become experts in life, thinking people, people with wide-open minds and wide-open hearts. Seek them out wherever you can. Listen to them. Never mind if they are no longer living. Read their books and emulate their largeness of spirit. Learn from them all, but dont simply copy what they did in this world. What they did was right for them, but may not be right for you. What you need to use as models are their ways of thinking and responding to the challenges of the world; the process of their lives, not what it happened to contain.

10. Drop whatever is inconsistent with these principles. That means all activities that dont move you forward towards what you value most; things that get in the way of learning; pursuits that waste time and dull your senses; and people who hold you back.

You may sometimes have to be ruthless. Each of us has only one life. If you waste it, you dont get another chance. Besides, if you have chosen your dreams and aspirations wisely, what you must leave behind by dropping whats inconsistent with those dreams will not be worth worrying about anyway. Those who make bad choices find, too late, that they have abandoned things and people that meant more to them than whatever they gained in exchange. If that happens, you have truly reached one of lifes lowest points.