01-26-2011, 12:02 AM
Greetings to you Kindle. I cannot claim to be experienced in meditating. But as I gather, its not how well one does the meditation, its in the daily and honest attempt of it that matters. I've found very quickly once I sit down for a meditation, I hear constant ringings in my ear. If thats not enough, then surely the songs will fill my head, or a dumb TV commercial I don't really care about, or thinking of things to do tomorrow, or this, or that. It seems the list never ever ever EVER ends. And then theres the constant struggle of fighting NOT to fight the thoughts so thats goes into more thoughts, so I'm back to square one.
I'm not a good visualizer so the visual technique described by many does not work well for me. The technique that I do, (and by the way, no real claims on how well it works) is a relaxing technique. Let me elaborate. I put relax into two groups. Theres the relaxing of the brain, and a relaxing of the muscles. And then theres different levels of relaxing in both brain and muscles.
For the muscle relaxing, close your eyes, and focus your attention to your joints. From a joint relax the joint. You'll find out relaxing the joint will easily relax the muscles associated with the joints. If the joint you focus on is the wrist, let your hand sink into the cushion. And then leave it there, don't move it. Which ever joint you do, repeat the same on the other side of your body. Continue to do so on all the joints throughout your body. Very very important to note here: Don't forget your fingertips! You'll be suprised at how well your hands will relax if you focus on those fingertips.
Continuing with muscle relaxing, you can target your belly area if theres tension there. The way how I release the tension there is like UNSTRETCHING a plastic bag. OK, you know how a plastic bag looks like when you stretch it. Now if you don't put as much tension on the bag, the bag will loosen up a bit. Well, thats how I would describe relaxing with the belly area or any area with muscle associated with it. Just try to "unstretch" it by not putting any more stretching into it. Sounds strange, but it works (for me).
For relaxing the brain, I remember Quo said to let the thoughts come and go. Don't ask me which session, because I can't pinpoint it to save my life if I have to. It does take a lot of practice to allow the thoughts to come and go. You are on your own there.
I hope this write up is a contribution to a starting point on the how-to for your meditations.
L/L Chucky
I'm not a good visualizer so the visual technique described by many does not work well for me. The technique that I do, (and by the way, no real claims on how well it works) is a relaxing technique. Let me elaborate. I put relax into two groups. Theres the relaxing of the brain, and a relaxing of the muscles. And then theres different levels of relaxing in both brain and muscles.
For the muscle relaxing, close your eyes, and focus your attention to your joints. From a joint relax the joint. You'll find out relaxing the joint will easily relax the muscles associated with the joints. If the joint you focus on is the wrist, let your hand sink into the cushion. And then leave it there, don't move it. Which ever joint you do, repeat the same on the other side of your body. Continue to do so on all the joints throughout your body. Very very important to note here: Don't forget your fingertips! You'll be suprised at how well your hands will relax if you focus on those fingertips.
Continuing with muscle relaxing, you can target your belly area if theres tension there. The way how I release the tension there is like UNSTRETCHING a plastic bag. OK, you know how a plastic bag looks like when you stretch it. Now if you don't put as much tension on the bag, the bag will loosen up a bit. Well, thats how I would describe relaxing with the belly area or any area with muscle associated with it. Just try to "unstretch" it by not putting any more stretching into it. Sounds strange, but it works (for me).
For relaxing the brain, I remember Quo said to let the thoughts come and go. Don't ask me which session, because I can't pinpoint it to save my life if I have to. It does take a lot of practice to allow the thoughts to come and go. You are on your own there.
I hope this write up is a contribution to a starting point on the how-to for your meditations.
L/L Chucky