Meditation

Various practices of Meditation are as old as the human experience itself. They are proven tools in our innate human tool kit to help us make sense of it all and find our way. I've often heard it said that " life doesn't come with instructions ". My personal experience suggests that, in fact it does. You were born with them. They are all there, inside of you. Learn to listen, follow them without question, and you can't go wrong.

For those of you who have no experience with meditation but would like to try I will begin here by sharing a tool and a few simple instructions on how to use it. Do it daily and you will experience improvement and change in yourself. Do it until it becomes habit and you will experience improvement and change in the world, and that change will carry you.

The link provided below will give you a guided visualization in mp3 form to get you started. It's free. My gift to you. Your gift to yourself. You can listen to it here or, with most browsers, you can also down load it. A lot of people find it helpful to put it on their phone to have with them to use wherever they are. Just below that are instructions. As you do this, remember - don't worry about mistakes... there are none.

Run The Energy Guided Visualization

• <>   Sit comfortably, close your eyes, breath deeply and slowly a few times. Do a mental body scan. Notice what it feels like. What you notice is not as important as the act of just noticing and acknowledging. Invite your body to relax. Turn on the mp3. When it is done sit for a moment and do another scan. Follow the visualization daily for a while and you will naturally learn the basic pattern from repetition.

• <>   As you become able to run this pattern on your own without listening to it ( close counts - don't worry about being exact ) try going through the pattern three times, then just sit still. Follow the movement of your breath as felt where the top of your upper lip meets the base of your nose. When you discover you have lost focus on the sensation of breath, and you will, gently bring yourself back to "the point of will" and run the pattern until you regain some focus and are paying attention again. Then return to the breath. There is no exact length of time to do this. Even just sitting still long enough to body scan and run the energy once can be very helpful.

• <>   You may find it useful to revisit the mp3 once in a while but the point is to move toward letting go of what's "out there" ( this will eventually include the guided visualization ) in favor of what's there - inside of you.

All forms of meditation are like branches of a tree leading to the same trunk. This is but one approach and a perfectly good starting point. Should you notice a particular part of the process calling to you, give it attention, do it over and over and a kind of groove or track will begin to form. It will become easier to access more pronounced as you continue.

In Tibetan the word for meditation is ghom. It means " to become familiar with". So, how do you become familiar with something?... You pay attention.  Just close your eyes, sit still - and pay attention.

.