There's no "right way" Saskia.
"Meditation is the practice of stilling the mind" - PRACTICE being the operative word.
It is about accepting that you have thoughts and images wondering about in your head and how to find a way to just let them be - and move on to not particularly focussing on anything.
And meditation takes a myriad of forms - including what is so popularly called "mindfulness" right now in the UK.
Beginning in short bursts of 5 minutes and then building up works.
You'll just find that once you have the hang of 5 minutes - a bit longer gets easier, etc.
You could:
- Stare at a marble, a ring, or your nail.
- Stare at the fire, or a candle flame.
- Choose a single word - say 'Joy', 'Peace' or 'Service'. Repeat the word over and just listen to what that word brings up for you.
- Repeat a mantra over and over - "As I breath in, I breath in Peace. As I breath out, I let go of stress". "Om, Shanti, Om" ("Om, dynamic peace, Om". Om=the sound of the universe, the place of nothingness where creation and destruction reside. The Divine/creator/ix if you prefer.)
- Be aware of and focus on, your breath - observing the sensations of the inhale and exhale - not just through nose, throat and lungs - but what happens to your tummy, back, and rest of your body. One section at a time.
- Imagine a circular pool of water in your mind, and focus on keeping the surface of the water still.
- Listen to an audio meditation tape. Doesn't have to be specific to meditation.
A favourite of mine is listening to "Waiting for Cousteau" by JM Jarre. This piece of music is a half hour long and makes me think of sitting at the bottom of a calm ocean. This is therefore what I visualise whilst I listen - and I know I've done 30 minutes when the piece of music is finished. Wahey!
- Visualise a calming colour.
- Go for a walk and focus on the sensations of the exercise of walking. Your heal strike, rolling your weight through your foot, your push off through the ball of your foot...etc.
Alternatively you could do a rhythmic counting of steps... one two three, one two three... (Left, right, left, Right, left, right...)
- Lie under a tree in a garden and just listen to all the sounds around you. Whatever thoughts you have - let them be and let them go, as you continue listening to all the sounds around you.
- Contemplate brushing your teeth. So as you do it, focus closely and slowly on every motion.
The act of picking up your brush and paste, unscrewing the lid, squeezing the stuff onto your brush, making contact with your teeth... ad infinitum until complete.
I'd never sit in the lotus position now - as I have dodgy knees they won't allow that.
Sitting comfortably on a chair is good. Not often lying down 'cause then I tend to fall asleep.
It depends...
I guess I'm just confused by what meditation
should be and feel like. I've meditated a few times and I start getting images, which I don't know am I supposed to observe and mentally record them, or try to rid myself of them to only experience nothingness (which I don't understand btw, what's so special about nothingness?).
I've tried to read about what to see/experience while meditating but I only get info about what changes happens in the brain, or "surrender to emptiness". And that is exactly the part I don't know how to do, thanks very much
(and how am I supposed to receive any messages if I should shrug the images off..?? Confusion overload
)
"Nothingness"... letting go of who you are and just experiencing being "a particle/part of the whole".The drop in the ocean that is the ocean, the grain of sand that is the shifting Dune, the reflection in the hawk's eye - that is all the pieces of a living breathing Gaia...
You are no - thing, and everything.
Sports people sometimes call it "the peak experience"
What should it feel like?... hmm - maybe like when you lie down to sleep, with no particular worries and you're in that space of just cosily resting and allowing whatever thoughts/images are there float past, A state of cosy allertness (so you didn't lie down so exhausted that you are desperate for sleep) whilst you trust that you will shortly be off to sleep. (except of course, you''re not going to sleep!).
Or - like when you''re lying wonderfully relaxed on the massage table and are in that mind-space where - you don't exactly know where your mind has gone - but you experience a peaceful indefinable... something. (time passes or slows down amazingly, and you can't tell until you are properly aware again).
Or - when you're sitting by a sparking stream or the ocean, and your mind has wondered somehow going to a place WITHIN the sound of the water - or the smell of the sea salt.
You are no longer you, and may be the water... you smell the smell, and are the smell...
(tried my best.
).
The difference between 'seeing stuff' and receiving pertinent messages.
Don't worry about that.
First - you just get comfortable with what meditation is for you, what works. And get practiced at acknowledging your thoughts and emotions floating about (or billowing, as the case may be), and being able to just let them be as they are - and let them float off (like a feather on a breeze), whilst you go back to the no-thing, or in-between place.
