Yoga Articles

Meditation ? An Introduction Meditation in itself can conjure up thoughts of Tibetan Monks sitting on mountain ledges in masterfully profound silence having had centuries of practice in the subject. While this is an accurate picture we, as novices by comparison, can enjoy Meditation in its simplest form and receive a multitude of benefits. Doctors recommend Meditation for a wide and varied list of ailments ranging form stress to cancer. Studies have concluded the benefits from a meditive practice are many fold and schools worldwide now teach their pupils? meditation as it has been found to increase focus and concentration.

Meditation allows the body to rest and the mind to quiet which in turn lets the soul realign with its other two counterparts ? in essence the three parts that make up the one you ? Body, Mind and Soul are given a chance to settle back into each other ? The benefits from this are so many I don?t think that we are able to comprehend them all????..

Learning to Meditate: So where do we novices begin? Simply with the urge to meditate! From there we find a tranquil spot where distractions are unlikely. Now sit comfortably and relax, allow all the muscles in your body to unwind, release the tension from your jaw, neck and brow???Become aware of your breath, aware of the gentle sounds created by this rhythmic motion. Feel the air as it enters through the nose, then down the windpipe and into the lungs. Focus on this most simple of functions; Breathing, just simply listen to your breath. Once you can do this for a minute or two, then bring your attention to an object that sooths you, a flower, landscape or something of that nature. You want to build up to 10 minuets a night. Start by listening to the breath and then bring your attention to a chosen object.

This sounds very simple and it is, but it may take a while for the mind to learn to slow down enough to enable you to focus on one thing for any given time, if you find your mind wandering just lightly bring it back to the object of focus you have chosen. Practise with Patient Persistence!!! Music may help, make sure however that there are no lyrics that you can get carried away with, maybe try and find music specifically for meditation.

Guided Meditations Guided Meditations are just that! You sit and relax as someone guides you into or through a meditation. This is a very helpful method to use as an introduction to meditation. Many of us may find this easier than sitting in silence or with music. Guided meditations can vary in length from a few short minutes to an hour or so, and there are very many different types, from those designed to simply help relaxation, to those of a deeper kind that will help resolve your own inner troubles. My favourite sort of guided meditations are the ones I have devised for my own meditation circles. They consists of an initial 15 ? 20 minutes of my own voice quietly guiding my subjects into meditation, then I gently leave them to meditate with only soothing music, or silence, for around 30 minutes. I then bring my circle softly out of the meditation. I like to encourage people to spend time in there own meditation rather than spend to long using guided meditations. You hold your own answers, and you are the only person who can find them. You also hold the only key to your own wondrous self and I feel it is important to find yourself in your own way, not be constantly led.

By January of this next year 2007 there will be a whole range of my own meditations on my website for you to download and play with. I promise they will be fun, profound and healing. Check out www.leonajanicegraham.com

Why Meditate? I have outlined here the least complex forms for anyone wishing to learn how to meditate. The rewards are enormous but very subtle in the way they appear. You will with a regular meditive practice feel: less stress and more joy, allowing you to become more at peace with yourself. Which, lets face it, is something a great number of us spend a whole lot of money trying to achieve. So with around 10 minuets of meditation a day, we could save a fortune on drugs ? prescription and other wise! Needless shopping, fad beauty treatments, nights out getting sloshed etc. 10 minutes a day folks ? meditating, and you will find the inner peace that most of us westerners are convinced is in an exclusive shop somewhere, delicately labelled and excruciatingly expensive!

All You Couch Potatoes All this really takes is the want to progress in life, most of us don?t funnily enough! We are all too happy with life as it is ? its what we know, change seams all too much bother, so we stick to our lives in front of the TV, a none exciting job, you know the story. Well how about igniting your passion for life? Dare you? Or is it just safer to sit on that settee night after night and go out and get sloshed every so often??..hmmmmmmmm????I invite you to meditate???I invite you to live and get to know the wonderful being you really are, no matter what you think of yourself, you really are a wonderful being who is waiting to make a start in life, you just needs to know how to begin. I invite you to meditate??

Leona Janice Graham www.leonajanicegraham.com