Meditating

[oookiritokunooo]

Hi, im new to this forum but not new to being spiritually opebed i have always had problems with hushing my mind and focus on meditating to find myself and see whats really out there. Anyone have any ideas that might help?

[Sozerius]

What helped me was meditation which involved relaxing the senses and focusing the mind on a single thing. Relax, and once you have relaxed your mind, pick one thing to focus on. Something easy for you to focus on, like a desire or an ideal, or on relaxation itself if you want to continue that process. Hold your focus on that for several minutes. It might help if you explore one of the many interesting avenues of meditation, such as astral projection, which can give you a purpose which motivates you to do this. You mind will probably become distracted throughout the process but, accept that this is normal, and when you catch yourself doing it, refocus yourself onto what your chosen focus is. Over time you will gain self discipline, and this will become more natural to you.

[Uma]

Just to add to Sozerius's suggestions...that if you can't keep a continuous focus, which is really hard to do, try following the advice given by Patanjali in his 8-fold "ashtanga yoga" method in his Yoga Sutras.

When your mind is bothered by guilty feelings or that word "should" or thinking of yesterday or worrying about the future, pay attention to the do's and don'ts (in Sanskrit niyamas and yamas) and get that out of the way and then try sitting to meditate.

When your body's aches, pains, itches and twitches bother you or you need some sleep, give attention to proper posture (asana), proper sleep, proper diet, proper exercise. A belching, farting, slumping body is not conducive to being able to focus in meditation.

Another one Patanjali recommended was to avoid receiving gifts because then one feels obligated to return them and this brings up more of those "should" thoughts. Better to free up that ego and in that free space, meditation comes easier.

And the list goes on.

And when the mental focus is still not coming, try learning some tools like mantra repetition, or watching the breath, or taking the breath-watching to a deeper level by learning pranayama because the mind will follow what you are doing and behave itself during sitting meditation. And if you are aware of life force energy (prana) then pranayama takes on a whole new dimension when the mind and ego are marinated in prana and get intoxicated by the whole experience, and then you need to keep a watchful eye on this as well using the objective witnessing part of you so you don't get lost in the whole experience and lose the whole point of the meditation.

There are many tools out there. These are just a few, just scratching the surface.

Unbroken focus is the true meditation - when nothing, not the senses, not the ego, not the body, not the intuiting intellect - nothing distracts anymore. And that's where the real spiritual journey begins. That's when the rocket actually leaves the launching pad.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by oookiritokunooo

Hi, im new to this forum but not new to being spiritually opebed i have always had problems with hushing my mind and focus on meditating to find myself and see whats really out there. Anyone have any ideas that might help?

Practice, practice, practice. There is no other way. It does get easier.

Peace.

[blossomingtree]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Practice, practice, practice. There is no other way. It does get easier.

Peace.

+1

BT

....

[Joe Mc]

Remember to begin meditation is to swim against the tide, to move against the grain. Even though Meditation is much more known even spoken about in this day and age, it is still revolutionary. You will project the resistance you meet in meditation onto various things and people, but you will begin to own this resistance too and by degrees the beauty of meditation will reveal itself to you. Don't be so concerned with the method you choose to begin with, you might end up practicing a few types but be wary of anything outlandish (cults basically) with outlandish claims etc. Happy hunting.

[Nerina]

There are three very good guided meditations on YouTube that will get your started. I cannot post the link here but you can find the videos titled as -Samadhi - guided meditation (#2,#3 and #4 respectively). Listen to these 3 videos to learn how to meditate and to learn about the essence of meditation.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by oookiritokunooo

Hi, im new to this forum but not new to being spiritually opebed i have always had problems with hushing my mind and focus on meditating to find myself and see whats really out there. Anyone have any ideas that might help?

Are you using a method of any kind?

[OEN34]

I started - and I think many do - by following your breath. So, 1-10, 1 inhale, 2 exhale, and rinse and repeat.

Very basic and very simple to do. The mind will undoubtedly get restless, it always does. ''1.....2......''I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow.....3....4'' etc - it is going to happen, but surrender to it, allow it, and keep bringing yourself back to where you were each time.

You'll then realise after a few weeks that you're getting to number 7 or 8 without the mind interfering, which feels great.

When you do bring yourself back to where you were, do it gently, non-aggressively, this will help.

But as others have said, there is so many different types of meditations online, it's really a case of what you prefer.

[Starman]

Originally Posted by oookiritokunooo

Hi, im new to this forum but not new to being spiritually opebed i have always had problems with hushing my mind and focus on meditating to find myself and see whats really out there. Anyone have any ideas that might help?

Try meditating as soon as you awaken from sleep, before your mind has kicked in an becomes busy. A few minutes after you have awakened, whether from a short nap or an overnight sleep, do some formal meditation. Also meditate on your lunch break or while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, etc.

You can not let your mind run wild all day and then expect for it to stop and be quiet when you are ready to meditate. Meditate when you awaken from sleep before your mind kicks in and also meditate throughout the day and your meditation practice over time will become more effortless.