Meditation is such an amazing tool for keeping ourselves psychologically happy and healthy. When we come to appreciate that our thoughts and feelings, and the conversations we have with ourselves have the power to define our happiness, it is such a joy and a relief to discover the rewards of meditation. In essence, meditation is the practice of bringing stillness to the mind, calming our thoughts and feelings, to put ourselves back in control of our mental function and the quality of our inner dialogue.
Sitting in meditation for only a few minutes a day supports us to create a relaxed and happy relationship with our mental function and psychological selves. The peace and freedom that comes with thinking harmoniously is immense, and mediation is a good way to fine tune our psychological state.
Let me share with you my favourite ways to meditate.
Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for about twenty minutes, or more if you would like. Preferably a place you can lie down comfortably. Lie flat, with your head supported and uncross your arms and legs. If there is any chance you could get cold, cover yourself with a warm blanket. And before you close your eyes take a good look around to be sure everything is as you would like it to be and maybe set a timer, so you do not need to guess the passing of time.
When you are ready, close your eyes and take a deep breath. If you are feeling any tension in your body, do some tension-release relaxation exercises. These include stretching, making tight fists of your hands and feet, and then releasing, lifting your shoulders up towards your ears and releasing, and twisting with one leg going one way, the opposite arm going the other, and your head following the direction of your leg. Do both sides and breathe freely as you do these exercises.
When you have finished return to lying flat, or sit upright if you prefer, comfortably relaxed with your head supported and your arms and legs uncrossed and slightly apart from your body. With your eyes closed, take a look inside your head to feel the dynamic expansiveness of your mind. Imagine the architecture of your mind as a heavenly, luminous, cosmic cathedral. And as you do, float in the softness of your mind. Now you are here, you can try our first meditation that will calm your thoughts and introduce you to your witnessing self.
Meditation Number One
Start to count from one to ten. With each in-breath count one number, and with each out-breath count the next, climbing the numbers from one to ten with each in and out breath. One, breathe in, two, breathe out, three, breathe in, four, breathe out and so on. Let your body do the breathing. Do not try to regulate your breath. Let your breath be whatever it will be. A quick in breath, perfect. A long out breath, this is perfect too.
Every breath is a joy, quite literally! As with every breath we breathe in, our lungs give our heart a light squeeze, and with every breath we breathe out, we relax our heart and lungs. These gentle hugs cause delicate emanations of contentment to flow from our heart. The ebb and flow of our heart and lungs continual motion is one of the most reliable generators of wellbeing we have, and why so many spiritual practices recommend deep breathing for relaxation and healthy centring.
Witness your body breathing. Count up to ten, and then in reverse back down to one, then climb again to ten and down once more to one, and so on. Repeat as often as you like until you are feeling the flow of your breath. Let yourself simply observe your body breathing, however it likes to breathe, without any judgment or control. The relaxed watching self you create with this exercise is your witnessing self.
We all have thoughts and feelings, and we all have thoughts and feelings about our thoughts and feelings. Enter the vital expensiveness of your mind and this inner dialogue will be running most of the time.
The ambition of meditation is to still the mind, to stop the inner dialogue for a given period of time. In doing so we passively take back control of our mental function. Following the simple exercise of counting your breaths will still your mind. When you find yourself breathing peacefully with your thoughts only counting your breaths, let go of the counting and experience your empty and peaceful mind. Keep breathing. And if a thought enters your mind go back to counting the breaths.
This is meditation and achieving a still and peaceful mind, even momentarily, is a success. We call meditation a practice because every day it will be different. One day it will flow, and you will experience long moments of a wonderfully empty, still, and peaceful mind. Other days it will not go so well. But then the lovely long moments will return, and every day helps us to strengthen our witnessing self.
When we have become tranquil in the practice of witnessing our breath and regularly enjoy a still and peaceful mind, there is a second meditation that supports us to affirm and align with our most true and authentic, essential sense of self, also known as our higher self. Our higher self brings wisdom and harmony to our relationship with ourselves in many ways, but especially with the practice of spring cleaning of our thoughts and feelings. This second meditation does not replace the first but can be used alongside on better days when we achieve a still and peaceful mind readily.
Meditation Number Two
This second meditation uses a mantra. Traditionally mantras are used to focus the mind on one beneficial thought instead of the breath. There are many mantras but the one I like best is, “This is me”.
In this meditation we align with our most authentic sense of self through the resonance of our voice. As we say the words ‘This is me’, we hear our unique and distinctive aural signature, our most genuine expression of self through our voice. We may hear our essential voice immediately, or initially recognize some other voices we use for particular circumstances. But it will not be long before the phrase “This is me” reveals to us our most personal and preferred voice, the one we are always happy to speak from and listen to.
Begin with the breath meditation and when the still and silent moments are flowing, in these peaceful gaps, replace the counting with the phrase, “This is me”. Silence any budding thought with the phrase “This is me” and remember that any thought other than “This is me” is not our choice at the moment and so not our thinking right now. Give yourself plenty of time to listen to yourself saying “This is me”, for as this abiding truth bathes our energetic field a harmonious realignment of our consciousness unfolds. In the peaceful solitude of our meditative mind we can feel the energetic pathways of our intellect, intuition, and physical form flowing harmoniously together, creating a tangible experience of our essential self radiating through our being.
As these pillars of our consciousness activate, our essential sense of self shifts to our higher self consciousness, and our awareness becomes its most discerning and profound. Tensions fall away as our newly aligned, expanded, and refined consciousness, the wise me of “This is me”, becomes our active thinking principle and the mediator of our thoughts. Now we can allow our thoughts to flow again and witness our inner dialogue from the third person perspective of our higher self consciousness.
As your thoughts flow freely witness the conversations you are having with yourself from your higher self consciousness. Notice whether you like what you are seeing and if you don’t, now is the time to release yourself from any thoughts that have become an uncomfortable rut in your mind rather than a happy groove. Our mind is built to be super flexible and supporting or rejecting our thoughts at the heart of its purpose. Our ever blossoming, evolving sense of self is born out of these choices, so go ahead, evaluate your thoughts, and if you don’t like one replace it with the phrase “This is me”. Replacing unwanted thoughts with the phrase “This is me” allows us to remove unwanted thoughts without engaging in them, freeing us to return to thoughts we feel more happily aligned with. This practice of ousting lower level mental energy gives us the space to create new, refreshed thinking or maybe a different way of looking at the same thing.
Spring cleaning our thoughts can be challenging, so it is important to feel relaxed, with our inner flame of joy burning brightly, when we begin any practice of personal enquiry. Don’t ever let yourself feel anything less than absolute love for yourself. You are and always will be the best friend you can ever have. Self-esteem, self-respect, and self-love are the foundations of any practice of personal enquiry. And whenever exploring your inner dialogue feels even the slightest bit stressful return to counting your breaths until you feel completely relaxed in your still and peaceful mind once more. Only return to spring cleaning your thoughts when you are peaceful, contented, and happy to do so. And if you ever find that you cannot pull yourself out of a slump, do this meditation number three, it is the best!
Meditation Number Three
Now we come to my most happy meditation. It is super easy and a pleasure to do any time of day. This meditation is about refilling our energy reserves with the most beneficial, refined, and powerful fuel the universe provides for us. This wise and divine frequency positively charges and enhances every aspect of our life experience. It will elevate our psychology, strengthen our physical form, and connect us to divine wisdom that supports us to make the best choices, attracting into our life all that is best for us, and drawing from us our highest and best self. This fuel is the frequency we call love.
We can do this meditation anytime, anywhere, for a moment or many minutes. It requires only a conscious centring and settling into ourselves. A momentary removal from our outer gaze to notice how energy is entering and emanating through our body and etheric field. The most important ingredient of this meditation is our sincere appeal to the universe to fill us with love. We all know who we are communicating with when we connect to our personal experience of the most sacred essence of them all. It is this vital force that you want to connect to now.
Settle yourself in a peaceful, comfortable place and centre yourself with the breath meditation until you are enjoying the quiet, calm, stillness of your mind. And when you are ready, ask to be filled with love. You will feel love entering through the many receptive energy centres running up, down, and across the back of your body, from above your head to below your pelvis. If you are sensitive you will feel the energy entering through the back of your legs, arms and from beneath your feet too. The important thing is that you can feel it at all. If you are struggling to connect to it, focus primarily on the feelings running up and down your spine and across your back as these will most likely be the strongest. A major axis of two powerful energy channels crosses behind our heart. You will feel it entering strongly here too, close to the location of your heart.
As the energy fills you, you may feel it billowing out in front of you, this is because our etheric field is larger than the perimeter of our physical body and the essence of love, as it fills us, will extend between a few inches to multiple feet beyond our body, depending on the size of our etheric field. When we have absorbed much of the frequency of love it will start to form in our energetic system, joining with the energy flows already running within us. You may feel a clockwise circular motion ascending and descending in and around your spine, this will be your central energy channel being stimulated by the inflow of love. It may take a little time, but soon you will feel your body vibrating with the energetic pulse of love, and when you feel this you might want to add the thought, “I am love”, to this meditation. For some people this affirmation can greatly enhance the experience.
The fuel of love can only do good and is incapable of hurting you, but you may experience some discomfort, sometimes even headaches, as the frequency of love activates purification and dissolves stagnation in our body and energetic field. Regular refuelling with the frequency of love helps negative emotions such as aggression, resentment, jealousy, and competitiveness subside. When the frequency of love is filling us, we cannot help but feel more vitally alive and loving in everything we do. Our appreciation of the little details of our life increases, and these positive feelings amplify our experience of happiness. Over time, the fuel of love cultivates a peaceful mind, a harmonious body, and a compassionate benevolence towards ourselves and the outside world.
The ultimate ambition of meditation is to bring the consciousness we realise in meditation out into our everyday life. These three meditations are best practiced in a quiet meditative place initially, but when we become accustomed to their processes we can use their techniques anytime, anywhere, out in the world. Whenever we are feeling the slightest bit stressed or overwhelmed we can breathe deeply, remember who we are with the words “This is me”, and refuel our reservoir of love with a sincere appeal to the universe to fill us with love, which it will do, immediately and every time.
Good luck and enjoy, meditation is wonderful.
