A Guided First Meditation (This article appeared before in my Helium.com page until the site closed down)
‘Meditation’ seemingly has elusive and almost pretentious aspects, which to some may be hard to grasp immediately. Engaged into by numerous masters throughout the ages, meditation’s benefits are well-known to its practitioners. An all-beneficial activity that can be done by anyone, it needs some time to learn and to master its requirements. You may consider reading all available coaching tips from practitioners on how they meditate; most of them will give you practical and easy-to-follow guidelines in your first tour along the meditation road.
There is no required religious belief system in order to engage in meditation. Your mind has to acknowledge the opportunity for more growth and learning when you decide to engage in meditation exercises.
1) Decide when you are going to engage in meditation. It can be any time of the day while you are awake and set your mind to the completion of this meditation activity on that day.
2) You don’t need to have a companion to engage in meditation. It’s actually preferable that you do this by yourself. It’s actually engaged by most practitioners mainly by being alone by themselves.
3) Decide about the place where you will engage in meditation the first time. Set a place that you believe you can engage yourself in meditation. Any place you choose will do, which for beginners would preferably be a space where you can be alone and devoid of the usual on-the-surface distractions. Actually, even in a very peaceful place, you can still expect to be distracted. Hence, it helps a lot if you will choose a place where you have already minimized the distractions coming from the outside. Distractions coming from inside you, i.e., your varied, free flowing thoughts, ideas, memories will be handled by yourself alone as you take steps in meditation.
4) It is also recommended that you sleep for a minimum of 8 hours in the evening prior to the day when you have set to engage in your first meditation exercise. It is actually best you sleep for 8 hours each evening for at least a week before your scheduled first-time meditation date. Why this suggestion? The rest that you will accumulate will be very helpful in making you draw more support from your powers of concentration and focus, which powers get more tested and difficult to reach into if you lack good amount of hours of sleep.
5) When the day that you have set for your first meditation exercise comes, just go on with your usual routine in your daily life. However, avoid taking heavy foods and liquids at least 2 hours before your pre-set meditation time. This will help you become better prepared physically. Avoid having coffee and other drinks. Avoid getting into smoking, too.
6) Be attired in comfortable clothes and shoes on this first-time meditation day.
7) During the pre-set meditation time, set your cellphone (or put it in vibrate mode if you prefer to do so) off. Keep it in your bag and away from your viewing distance, which at best includes the bag itself from your view as well.
8) Get into the space that you have assigned to yourself and where you have planned to engage in your first-time meditation exercise. It may not be enclosed, with doors shut, or with windows shut. You can actually choose to do your first meditation exercise in a quiet garden. Those who live in highly urbanized areas can choose to find a private or a public park where traffic of people is not heavy during their pre-set meditation time.
9) Avoid getting into an enclosed room where there are mirrors that dominate the space. You do not need to be watching before or even glancing at yourself from a mirror while you are meditating. A lot of the activities happening during meditation time take place in your mind, and as such, you do not need the reflection coming from the mirror to help you set your mind into your meditative focus.
10) When you are in that assigned space where you will engage in meditation, set yourself in a position that is relaxing to your whole body. Keep your back posture straight all through out to help you keep from becoming sluggish during the exercise. You may choose to be seated on a basic chair, and not a luxurious one. If there’s a bench, then you can choose to seat on it. You may choose to sit following what others call as the ‘lotus position,’ the description on how-to-do this is available in other authoritative sources.
11) Then continue the steps by having your eyes half closed. To do this better, cast down your view in downward direction and your eyelids will start closing. Then start drawing your attention to your breathing.
12) Your breathing is made up of inhaling and exhaling. Draw your attention to your inhaling. Then continue paying attention on your exhaling next. Repeat the process.
13) A lot of other thoughts will come into your mind as you continue paying attention to your inhaling and exhaling. You will even feel amused at the idea of paying focus on such activities as basic as inhaling and exhaling.
14) Inhale and exhale fully through your nostrils as you begin to recall the use of your stomach to gauge this process, which you may have not paid much attention to, or probably not for some time now.
15) Count the seconds as you go about the whole process of inhalation. Do the same with your exhalation.
16) If there is a persistent thought that comes into your mind while you pay focus on your inhalation and exhalation, go back again into the very minute details of your breathing. Relish every second of your action to inhale as well as to exhale.
17) If there are other distractions that will take place, acknowledge their presence. Then go back again to paying your attention to your breathing process.
18) Do these breathing exercises for at least 20 minutes for now, which you can time by using a tool or another that works for you. Other practitioners may advise differently.
19) The first time you do these exercises may not lead you to something spectacular and different. However, as you continue doing these exercises daily for the next three months, you will gain better insights on how your breathing is actually very much linked to opening up your mind to gaining the keys to doing more effective meditation exercises.
20) During meditation, a thought may come into you that may open up your awareness to your self and your surroundings. This is not bounded by any limiting element like time, beliefs, knowledge or emotion. Your whole being will open up to this thought that will guide you through your journey into the more encompassing aspects of your existence as a living being.
Learn to become more extra aware of the dynamics of your breathing, and you will soon open a door that will lead to a more heightened awareness of yourself and your surroundings.
Moving On 