Basic Meditation Techniques

Simple Eastern-Style Meditation Activity

Eastern style meditation is generally oriented toward finding quiet within an otherwise noisy mind, often called the monkey-mind. To get a taste of how an eastern meditation might feel, follow these steps for a simple meditation:

• Sit perched at the front of a chair, on a cushion, or on the floor.
• Straighten and extend your spine, keeping upright. Imagine the balance point of your body is on the lower part of your abdomen, just below your navel.
• Look forward to the floor at a 45 degree angle and relax your eyes. Your gaze should be about three to four feet ahead of your body.
• Place your hands comfortably in your lap.
• Breathe deeply, filling your lungs from bottom to top, making sure to fully exhale the air you take in.
• Focus your attention on your breathing. Don't think anything about it, simply pay attention to it. Should your mind begin to wander, simply reset your concentration to your breathing once more, and keep doing this as frequently as you need. As other thoughts drift into your consciousness, simply let them go, returning to the simple rhythms of breathing. This is the practice of meditation.
• Continue this practice, focusing on your breathing, for 5 to 10 minutes at first, and extend this time when you become more experienced.

Simple Visualization-Style Meditation Activity

Visualization is a kind of directed meditation. Through focusing your attention on the visualized object or scene, visualization works with your perceptions while reducing your stress levels and encouraging a more balanced mind and body. Visualization meditation is used in many Western styles of meditation, including contemplation and prayer, and in several Eastern styles, such as those drawn from Hinduism. Visualization is also the core technique of the modern self-improvement/self-help movement.

To practice this visualization-style meditation, start with a few basic techniques in visualization. Take your time, and systematically work through the following list. This will develop you ability to visualize images and sharpen your responses. Close your eyes, and in your mind's eye, visualize each of the following, employing as many of your other senses (hearing, smell, sensation of heat and cold, texture, etc.) as you can:

• The face of someone you know
• A horse that is running
• A budding flower
• The headline of a newspaper
• Raindrops on a rooftop
• Tasting a lemon
• Waking up
• Dropping a pebble into a pond

When you have some experience with these visualizations, try the next practice. For this meditation, you'll need to find a quiet place with a chair or pillow, indoors or outdoors, where you will not be disturbed. At first, try this meditation for 5 or 10 minutes, increasing as you gain experience.

Sit in the chair or on the pillow in a comfortable position with your back straight. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing, the rise and fall of air in your chest. Relax, and feel your body sinking into the chair.

Now visualize yourself sitting in a grassy field, in the bright sunshine, at the base of a beautiful, green mountain. At the top of the mountain is an ancient stone castle, shrouded in mist. The air around you is clear and fresh, and the sun is pleasantly warming your body. As you visualize this place, make it as real as you can by adding sights, sounds, colors, smells, insects, birds, animals, trees, and other details as you might find in such a place.

In your visualization, imagine that a large bell has rung in the castle above. Feel the deep sound vibrating through the air around you, moving through your body. Let the sound overtake the visualization. Follow the sound of the bell as it fades away, and as you do, it becomes more and more faint. Follow the fading sound of the bell into silence, the empty space at the end of the sound. Hold this sense of emptiness and quiet for as long as you can.

Open your eyes and end the meditation with a deep breath.