The most powerful meditation available is as old as humanity itself. Many people believe that meditation originated in the orient. This is not true. Meditation, as the practice of stilling the mind and the emotions, has been part of every civilization the world over, and without fail. Christians, Jews and Muslims practice meditation every time they pray. Throughout Asia meditation has always been central to the Buddhist, Hindu and Yoga disciplines. But even the pagans of ancient Europe, Africa, North and South America, Australia and Asia all practiced some form of meditation, prayer or trance.

Meditation is the act of introspection. It is a focused and conscious process of relaxing the body, emotions and mind. From this space it is easy then to access true thought and to access the divinity that dwells within each and every one of us. The most powerful meditation of all is not found by contorting your body into weird positions, nor does it require hours and hours of free time.

Meditation is merely the ability to completely still the mind and observe each of your thoughts as they pop in and out of your head. It is the process of reclaiming your own power by realizing that you are in charge of what you think, and you decide what thoughts you will give your attention to and which thoughts you are going to chuck in the cosmic trash can. See the movie the Peaceful Warrior with Nick Nolte to understand this better.

To do this requires only ten minutes of your day. Yes. Ten minutes of sitting down and literally just observing your thoughts. Now do not be fooled by the simplicity of this. The modern mind is so used to complex thoughts and likes making things far more difficult then they need to be. So when it sees something as simple as sit down and observe your thoughts for ten minutes a day, your mind is going: yeah right, no ways.

And then it will proceed to sabotage your attempts to do the exercise. That is why the first and most powerful meditation is the process of observing your mind. By doing this you are observing what that amazing tool, your intellect, is doing when you are on autopilot. There is an ancient esoteric truth that goes: The thoughts you dwell upon perpetrate and perpetuate your reality. If you have watched or read The Secret, then you know what that means.

Now there is a special trick to observing your thoughts. The trick is to literally observe your thoughts. Do not become involved with your thoughts. Rather watch your thoughts like images on a screen. Let them simply pass by. No analyzing, intellectualizing, interpreting, judging, criticizing, compartmentalizing, in fact any zing. Someone has coined a phrase observing your thoughts zinglessly.

Observe your thoughts zinglessly for ten minutes every day. Now depending on your lifestyle you may need to break those ten minutes up over 5 two minute periods or into 2 five minute periods. It is up to you. But all that is required is ten minutes of zingless observing. Make sure that during this time your mobile phone, radio and television are off. Also ensure no one or thing is going to disturb you, all pets outside.

If you combine this with a focused fifteen to thirty minute relaxation meditation every day something amazing begins to happen. Your entire life becomes a meditation.

And that, my friends, is the most powerful meditation of all, when every moment of every day becomes a conscious meditation.

By: John Gamble

So you want to learn how to meditate. Meditation can be very beneficial to your health, both mental and physical. Meditation can help reduce stress, calm your mind and boost the immune system.

For beginners, meditation can seem very mysterious. Anyone can learn how to meditate and it can be easy and fun. You don’t know it, but you’ve probably done it already. Meditation is simply the act of changing the frequency of your brain. It is also sometimes known as going into trance.

“I’ve never been in a trance” you say. Think again. If you’ve ever daydreamed or been in an elevator and stepped out on the wrong floor just because the doors opened, then you’ve been in a trance.

Going into trance means that you shift your attention from the outside world to the inside one.

A simple meditation technique that is easily learned and can be used almost anywhere is the breathing meditation. It can be achieved by following these steps:

Find a quiet and comfortable place where you will meditate. Make sure that you will not be disturbed during the time you will be meditating. You can do it either sitting down or lying down. Make yourself comfortable. Loosen any tight clothing and be sure not to cross your arms or legs as this may cause you to move during the exercise. Note: it’s ok to move, but less is better. Once in a comfortable position, take a deep breath, inhaling slowly but steadily from the bottom of your lung. A bit like you were filling a jug of water. Hold the breath in for the count of two and then release it. Repeat this deep breathing two more time. Now breathe normally and start to shift your attention to your breath. Notice that your breathing is deeper and steady. Pay attention to your body as it relaxes. Imagine that with every “in” breath; you pull in fresh energy and that with every “out” breath; you release your stresses and worries. Don’t worry about doing it right or what you should be feeling. Every time you practice this meditation exercise, it will be different. Go with the flow of the experience. Practice makes perfect.

The more you practice how to meditate, the more you will be able to deal with things that would have bothered you in the past. This simple meditation exercise has allowed me to reduce stress and aggression from my life.

Another method that can really help with meditation is called “anchoring” and will be explained in a future article. Stay tuned.

By: Dave Rope

What do sales, hypnosis, and meditation all have in common? Yes. All three involve internal acceptance, or saying “Yes.” We have to soften ourselves for any of these to happen. We have to relax the mind-body. We have to accept.

In sales, obviously, a customer must say “yes” in order to make a purchase, but more important than the external yes, is the internal yes. Usually, the customer must say “yes” to themselves (internally) several times before they will actually make the purchase. The satisfaction of acceptance is the primary reason for most purchases.

Hypnosis puts a client into any variety of altered states in order to learn faster, change habits, deeply relax, etc. In order for this to happen, though, the client must accept the instructions of the hypnotist. Even if self-hypnosis, you have to relax and accept the process: you have to say “yes” to yourself! The depth of trance is directly proportional to the acceptance of the subject.

In meditation, this ability to accept is sometimes referred to as equanimity or non-judgment. Not only is this paramount to your ability to sit in silence, but this is also the skill that will allow you to bring your practice of meditation to your day-to-day life. When you sit quietly, thoughts inevitably arise. Fighting this will only make it worse. Accepting it will not only reduce it, but will also give you the power to direct it as you see fit.

The reason I am pointing out this similarity is to emphasize the necessity of acceptance in change. Making a purchase involves acceptance. The use of hypnosis (on self or others) requires acceptance. The meditative (transcendental) experience is based largely on the practitioner’s ability to accept whatever comes up. When you build a momentum of acceptance in your meditation practice, it will gradually spread to every moment of your everyday life. Now that you have an acceptance of what is, you can begin to transform it as you see fit. This holds true whether you are working to achieve tremendous success in your life, or to simply change your state of mind.

Go ahead and give it a try right now. Say “yes”. Try it internally and externally. Play with using different tonalities. Notice any tension in your body. Know that it is okay to have tension. Say “yes” to it. Notice any frustrations in your life. Know that we are all human, and we all have frustrations. Accept your frustrations. When we say “yes”, when we allow the mind-body to relax, we experience a satisfaction. The depth of this satisfaction is directly proportional to the depth of the acceptance.

The deeper you say “yes”, the deeper your experience will be!

By: Benjamin Langley

Hello, sample some of the arguments below. But mind you, this is not an opinionated writer that is trying to forward his profound knowledge on an altruistic art that is meditation. All I can ask you is to go about this page with an open mind. Because, meditation is something that is physical and tangible. And it can always be sensed but the same can not be said about the results or benefits of meditating. This is the essence of meditation. This is the state of mind and body that it promises. OK. Here we go.

o Human brain is an electro-biochemical organ and that it reverberates to cosmic powers.

o Meditation activates the brains neural networks and brain chemistry to achieve and maintain meditative states of mind.

o Through meditation your mind and body acquire some energy field.

o Meditation shows the meaning of life and it helps achieve peace within ourselves.

o You can realize god through meditation (that meditation is the path to god and salvation).

o Your any activity in the right earnest and undistracted mind is meditation.

o You need to concentrate hard to meditate.

o No, let the mind free, do not concentrate.

(The word meditation is a Latin derivative of meditari and mederi (think and heal).

Now, my friends, should we go about these arguments one at a step, we understand some are acceptable and some are not. Why so? (Are you keeping your mind open?) After all, these arguments are made by the stalwarts who practice meditation every day!

Simple! Meditation is applying mind over body in a very organized way to concentrate more. Best way to do so is concentrate on your own breathing. It is usually done at a pristine time and place though there is no such compulsion. And while you are at it you tend to forget the rest of the world around you because you concentrated hard. This is realized once you are out of that state (Should we call it trance?)

I say, my friends, would you not agree such tranquility brings balance to ones mind that otherwise wanders? And that it is not some thing achievable only through meditation? Well, what ever that may be, if you just took the generic meaning of meditation, you know what to seek in it and how.

The controlled mind is what many have attained without knowing they meditated. To me it is a genuine way of over powering the fickle mind. Hey, did I hear someone just mention an idle mind is devil’s work shop?

By: Alevoor Rajagopal