meditation timer mp3
Meditation Basics
MEDITATION – Basic Types
Meditation in general can be classified into 3 types:
1. Focus Meditation- looking or focusing at a spot, or a flower, or nature without thinking or analyzing. It can also be plain observation of for example a flowing river. All done without feelings or without thinking. There should be no forced thoughts, but just a gentle returning to the calm gazing of the object. A variation of Focus Meditation is Breath Meditation.
2. Relaxation Meditation – either through listening to classical or smooth and mellow music, or through following the “instructions” in a Guided Meditation audio. Through regular practice, the mind and body learn to become relaxed, calm and peaceful in any environment.
3. Guided Imagery or Creative Visualization- using audio mp3s which have a soothing background music or ambient nature sounds such as rain, waterfall, waves on the seashore or crickets at night. The preferably female voice will guide you through the scenario, for example, an imagined garden. This meditation strengthens your imagination and creativity, 2 faculties sorely needed in today’s world.
Variations of Focus Meditation:
A) Breath Meditation – focusing on the breath as it goes out and again as it comes in. You should not in any way try to control your breath. Just simply observe, and when any thought comes into your mind, acknowledge its presence but gently bring back your observation to the in and out breath. As an aid, the reference point can either be the nostrils where the air enters or is exhaled, or the rising and falling of the abdomen.
B) Mantra Chanting – choose a comfortable syllable, a phrase, or the “Aum” and gently repeat it in time with the rythm of your breath. Focus on the sound. Immerse yourself in the sound.
A variation of Visualization is Chakras Meditation, which can also be done the first few times with a Guided Meditation audio, listening preferably to a calming voice going through the 7 chakras one by one. The chakras are the core energy points along the body’s meridian.
8-Minute Breath Meditation
Although simple and easy to use, Basic Principles are activated.
8-Minute Breath Meditation
1. Set your timer with alarm for 8 minutes
2. Choose a quiet place
3. Lie down or sit comfortably
4. Your eyes may be open or closed
5. Start to observe your breath. Simply observe, and not try to control.
6. As you notice the air coming into your nose, tell yourself quietly, “IN”. And as it gently goes out, say in your mind, “OUT”
7. As soon as you notice a distracting thought, very gently bring your attention back to the IN… and OUT.
8. If you notice that you’re trying to assess your rate of breathing, such as , “I am breathing too fast”, gently bring back your attention to IN… and OUT
9. There are no goals, no assessments, no judgments, no forcing
10. What should remain is simply observation
11. Once you hear the timer, end the session, and go back to your everyday chores. Do not evaluate whether or not your meditation session was “successful”. The practice itself is “it”.
Simple . . . and highly effective.
Why is Meditation Effective?
The Why’s and the How’s
a) All of the types of meditation I have described here are simple. The simplicity calms down your mind and gives it a few minutes rest from its usual hectic and feverish pace. As they say, the mind is like 7 horses all pulling at different directions. Try this small experiment: sit down and try to calm your mind. In a few seconds you will notice that about 10 thoughts have already raced through your mind. You cannot just sit down and “calm your mind”. You have to anchor your attention to something, preferably rythmical. That’s why it’s so refreshing to stand by the beach and see and listen to the waves. The passive act of seeing or simply gazing, without any attempt to analyze, is like the state of mind of a meditation practitioner “in the zone”.
b) After a few sessions you get to “discover” that you cannot control some things, actually you cannot control a lot of things! The illusion that we can control things, people, events, is one of the major causes of needless tension, frustration, worry, stress and anxiety.. The realization that you need to accept many things like traffic during peak hours, or floods after continuous heavy rains will start you on the road to more peaceful thoughts.
c) You don’t need to join a special meditation group to start a useful practice.
d) You can do it anywhere.
e) Long-term, you will get to enjoy the many benefits of regular meditation if done through several years, such as, lower cholesterol, less anxiety, better and deeper sleep, better listening skills, greater understanding and tolerance, smoother and more loving relationships, etc. All of which have already been proven through scientific research since the 1960′s, when Transcendental Meditation grew in popularity.
Suggested Program:
Start off with the simplest – the 8-minute Meditation. Do one session of 8 minutes per day. Morning, afternoon or evening is fine, as long as you try to do it around the same time. No need to fret if you can’t, or if you miss a day or two. After 3 months (shorter or longer is fine. Just don’t force anything. Remember, there are no time goals, no performance goals) or so, try to do two 8-minute sessions per day – one in the morning and one in the evening. Eventually, as your body adapts and feels comfortable, and maybe by that time you’ve enjoyed the benefits of a calmer and sharper mind, you may think of increasing the number of minutes per session to 10 or 12 minutes.
Later, you may think of using guided, visualizations embedded with binaural beats or isochronic technology.
Just remember that the benefits of a meditation practice is cumulative, meaning, the more regular you do it, and over a longer time period, say, 3 years or more, the higher level of benefits can be enjoyed. Also, after regular practice, you can almost automatically use the calmer attitude you have, and your sharper mental abilities to carry you successfully over stressful situations like negotiations, or immigrating to another country with a totally different culture, or dealing with an unreasonable boss or partner.
Note: By the way, why 8 minutes? It’s been proven, by testing brain wave patterns of long and short term meditation practitioners, that this is the minimum amount of time needed before the practice can be really useful.
That’s it! Wishing you the best of the benefits, and all you’ve got to do is start now. . .
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About the Author
HRD and Organization Development Consultant for small and medium businesses. Actively engaged in personal coaching with focus on values formation. EDUCHILD Parenting Program-Certified Case Moderator and Facilitator. PAREF Peer Coach and Mentor. NLP Practitioner. I have a lovely wife, and 3 loving daughters.
