My First Meditation

When getting into meditation I attended a class at a local school, the class was very well structured and the meditation was effective enough to make me want to go back.

So I would like to share with you the basic breathing meditation, as taught to me over 5 years ago.

• To start with it’s a great idea to find a location that is visually clean and tidy as well as quiet, as this will distil in you a sense of calm.
• Then about 5 minutes before doing your meditation, have a nice sit down and just sit in silence and try to just listen to the sounds around you and relax. The reason I say this, is that if you are doing something hectic and you try to do a meditation sitting, you will find it very hard to settle.
• Then sit cross legged (on a cushion allowing your bum to be higher than your knees) or on a chair whatever is most comfortable for you. The most important thing is to keep you back straight to allow you to stay alert to stop you falling asleep, but not too tight that its uncomfortable. Then allow your head to drop slightly so that your gaze is down about 45 degrees to the floor in front of you. Then place your hands one on top of the other or just rest them on your knees whatever feels most comfortable to you. When doing this posture for the first few times, it may feel a little uncomfortable but rest assured you will soon love this posture and the pain will go away.
• This part is all about relaxing the body. I use a three breath relaxation, where I take a deep breaths in and slowly exhale all my breath out, and as I breath out I imagine all the muscles in my body relaxing. After doing this three times I feel really relaxed and ready to start my meditation.
• When starting to do this meditation instead of calming the mind it seems as if your mind is becoming more out of control. This you will be happy to hear is perfectly normal and is a sign that you are becoming more aware of your mind, and how hectic it is, it’s just that we never take time to see how crazy our monkey mind really is.
• Now we begin the meditation itself. While in your relaxed meditation posture, you can keep your eyes closed, or slightly open, again whatever is most comfortable for you. Then bring your attention to the breath and the sensation it gives to your nose as the cold air passes through your nose and the warm air coming out as you exhale. Try to hold your attention on this as long as possible without distraction. Our minds are untamed and we will drift off and think about all sorts of things while in meditation, this is normal. Try to stay calm and not get angry when you realise you have drifted off and simply say in your mind "I have drifted and must go back to focus on the breath" and go back to the breath. If you allow yourself to get angry or frustrated when you have drifted, it can make the drifting worse. Please understand that every mediator has drifted off and even experienced mediators now drift off from time to time. You will notice over time that your length of time being focused on this object (the breath) will get longer, and you will also become more aware of the distracting thoughts before they have happened. Later you will be able to just acknowledge distracting thoughts, but not engage with them. When starting out doing these mediations its best to start by doing five to ten minute sessions as this will give the best results, as you become more and more comfortable, try to do fifteen or twenty minutes.
• After the session is over, there should be a sense of calm in your mind and body as you have calmed the mind. If you have not found it calming please don’t give up, but keep going and you will find that in time you will find this sense of calm. It has been explained to me that meditation is like going to the gym, the first few times you go its hard work and you may ache, but after a few times you start to feel good and enjoy the feeling of a good workout, however this is a mind workout. I feel that this can sometimes be the case.

I hope you enjoy your meditation experience and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. Happy meditating!