Meditation...Rhythmic Breathing

Have you been trying to figure out what all this meditation talk is all about. Yeah it's been around forever but it's not as complicated or whimsical as the youth of the 60's would like you to think.

Let me guess you keep hearing people talk about meditation and you are lost, right? Don’t feel bad I know exactly what your feeling. Not only have I been trying to figure out this magical practice and how to do it, but I have literally scoured the internet, libraries and bookstores trying to find someone or something who could explain meditation in simple English.

Maybe I am a little thick headed on this one, but finally I think I have figured out the basics.

Don’t mistake this for an expert dissertation on how to meditate. On the other hand I promise you will not only understand the objective, but also who finally explained it so well that I actually began seeing results.

So in a nutshell there are a variety of types of meditation ranging from Biblical to Zen. We will not go into all of this today, but you can at least search these terms which will open the flood gates for you in your search on this topic.

I know your thinking enough already “How do I meditate?”

OK here is the simple practice without special oils, incense or Gregorian chants playing in the background. None of that just the simple get down and meditate principles. Ready?

• Put on some comfortable clothes, it doesn’t matter what kind just what you think is comfortable.
• Find a quiet place you enjoy, notice I said “Quiet” and “YOU enjoy”. There is no right or wrong if you like it then it’s perfect
• Now sit or lay down comfortably, If your comfortable then don’t worry about the rest. As you learn more and more about meditation you can modify your posture as you please. For now just get “COMFORTABLE”
• Here is the tough part Relax and Breath. Pay close attention to your breath in the beginning. In and Out, In and Out
• Words and thoughts will undoubtedly pop into your mind. “What kind of words you ask?” Well those kind of words.

The trick if there is one is to realize how undisciplined your mind is. You will see how unruly your thoughts are and how you have very little control of them. It is typical to begin meditation and really focus on your breathing simply thinking “In and Out” while you breathe. The amusing thing is in just a matter of seconds your mind will be off to the races.

"What am I doing?"

"Am I doing this right?"

"Did I turn off the iron?"

When these thoughts come up realize you have lost focus on your breath and allow your active thinking mind to quiet down for a moment. With practice you may even discipline your mind enough to experience real silence for a flash in time. One trick that really helped me was subtly counting my inhales. Invariably I would get lost in though and have to start counting again.

Don’t worry about doing it right or wrong just observe how little or how much control you have of your active thoughts.

Now you may have asked yourself at some point during this article “Why”. Why would someone meditate or what is the point? Your not alone, personally I couldn’t figure out the big deal for a while at least until someone helped me understand the basics as we have been discussing. What I have discovered is increased productivity on a scale which I couldn’t have imagined before.

How? Well imagine you have a lot of work on any given day as most of us do. You begin working on a project 10 minutes in you get an email which takes you away from your project for a minute.

Then the next thing you know you have taken 4 or 5 calls researched a few things on the Internet and 3 hours have past. You have been busy no doubt about it.

Problem is your project only has 10 minutes work spent on it and the rest of your day has been a whirl wind of unrelated tasks.

This lack of focus was often the pattern of my day.

Will meditation make you perfect, of course not. However from my personal perspective I get better at staying focused on the task at hand because I have come to recognize much quicker when I am controlling or monitoring my thoughts vs. my thoughts controlling or running me.

The payoff? Well, about a 50% increase in productivity, not bad if you ask me.

To discover this topic in the greatest detail my personal recommendation is anything by Dr. Deepak Chopra. The man is a genius and if you really want to master your life then you could do far worse and waste a lot of time searching other sources.

To Your Success

Ken

P.S. A great Free Recource on meditative breathing can be found here