Meditation

What do you actually do to meditate ?

I am not sure if you know the real answer to the above question; just in case you didn't, we are in the same boat, or were at some point.

Often and so very easily people speak of meditation as a gateway to a calm and peaceful mind; as a window to your untapped potential; and to be in a joyful and healthy state of mind.

As you see through pictures and videos, and so did I, people sitting in a comfortable, crossed leg position with their eyes closed. Sometimes chanting and often in silence.

But what then ? What do they do with their eyes closed; with their legs crossed; and just being in silence ?

Summary [For those I-don't-have-time folks]

1. Sit on the floor, with back straight and eyes closed (Use Vajrasana to keep your back straight)
2. Bring yourself in the NOW and do not react to any thought that comes across your mind.
3. BREATHE naturally and observe where are you breathing from. Are you breathing from your lungs, stomach or chest.
4. After 2-3 minutes of natural breathing, start deep breathing i.e. breathe from your diaphragm, without putting any extra effort.
5. Inhale in a flow for 4 seconds, hold for another 4 seconds and then exhale in a flow for 6 seconds. Hold again for 2 seconds. Repeat the process in a loop.
6. Do this for 4-5 minutes everyday and gradually increase the duration.

Because when I did that, I was clueless about what next. What do I think ? Or perhaps, I did not have to do much, as so many thoughts came rushing already. Whether its something from the previous day or anything from the past to what worries me about future or just about any plan that are yet to be executed. All those emotions of happy times, those of regret, that thing I wish I had done or that decision I wish I had taken, what next, what do I have to do to make life worthwhile, where do I start, how do I change things, that stressful relation, oh that work load or that client, and so on..

I may have been shut from outside for a while but it was a chaos inside.

Soon i came to know that it is all about shutting down from inside, that what meditation is.

So at this point you would probably be thinking I am running like a tortoise and that you already knew this. But wait, the big question is how do you actually shut your mind from inside. Like how ? There is no magic pill to it.

This is where my journey began to go deep into meditation and to find that magic remedy or just to be realistic, that point of switch from all those worldly thoughts to just zero; being one with myself.

There are two things you need to know before I give you the exact 'what next.' One is your 'BREATH' and the other is 'NOW.'

Let me give some real life examples to help you get along. Otherwise I know it will be just another read and two days later, you won't even remember it.

One of the afternoons, I had felt tired from work and decided to take a break for few minutes. As lazy as you are, I too never felt like going back to that chair for a while. While stumbling through Youtube lying on the couch, I came across a video of an ultra marathon runner, with some life advice in it. Just like I had seen dozens already, I thought lets glance at it as well. Also I was finding ways to motivate myself to run. Now I won't take you through the whole video, but what the guy told me was that the best way to do things and not procrastinate or be lazy about your tasks or even goals is to not think too ahead. You see, the uncertainty messes up with our mind. And we loose track of what we want to do, why we want to do. All it does is give you a few reasons why not to do. Or in the best case, it does not give you anything but confuses you. And trust me that is all enough to not do things. So the key is to think of NOW. Like what exactly you want to do now or how much you want to do now. Be there with every step, not 2nd step, not last step. Like in case of the runner, what helped him went further and complete unimaginable races was his training to think only of the step he is taking now. What we can do is to stay in NOW either all the way to the end of destination or atleast till the end of the day. That way we can practice and make it our habit.

This was about the NOW experience. I know you would be wondering how is it relevant to meditation. Let me tell you a thing about meditation, and I don't mean to scare you, but it is extremely difficult for a beginner to sit for hours or even a minute, think of nothing or have an empty mind, with eyes closed. Only unless you are in NOW. Well, most of the people who do it, do it with the help of a teacher. Because that eliminates the element of NOW and puts a watch over their head. If you want to practice and master the art of meditation by yourself, you need to understand these two variables.

Speaking of which, BREATH is next. Well, ultimately its all about your breathing. We are using NOW only to focus on our breathing and achieving that calm state of mind. Its very easy to get lost in breathing or loose track of breathing while meditating. But the essence is in staying connected with it.

There is a term called Diaphragmatic Breathing or Deep Breathing. It is nothing but breathing that is done by contracting the diaphragm, a muscle located horizontally between the thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity. Air enters the lungs, the chest does not rise and the belly expands and contracts during this type of breathing.

Taking deep breathing into use, we meditate. Remember I had to tell you about 'what next.' Now this is how we go about next. Make sure you are sitting in a quite place where nobody will disturb you or you can also let people know, if it is possible, to not disturb you for a while. Sit preferably on the floor, with your back straight and eyes closed. Keeping your eyes closed is very essential, right from taking this position to completing meditation. A lot of thoughts can come to your mind, like you forgot to do something, or why is your neck hurting, or are you even doing this right, and many more. Do not pay heed to any of these thoughts; which may require you to open your eyes or even get up and take care of something (which can wait or has no particular significance). Remember to just be in NOW. Also, to keep your back straight, you can sit in Vajrasana; its not necessary though.

Now breathing normally, notice what part of your body is your breath coming from. Is it coming from your lungs, or your stomach, or is it just your chest. Continue to observe your breath, without trying to control it. If you are breathing primarily with your chest you will not be able to relax. Let your breathing come primarily through the movement of the diaphragm i.e. using your stomach more than your chest. Keep observing your chest, shoulders, rib cage, and belly, but do not try to exert pressure or control the intensity of your breath. Make sure to come back from your thoughts to your breath whenever it wanders. And it sure will wander more than once.

Next, after a few minutes, say 2-3 minutes, start taking deep breaths in. Breathing-in should be in a flow of 3-4 seconds. I know its very difficult to keep breathing-in for 4 seconds (you can count in your mind, need not be exact). It will only happen with practice and over time. Even if you are done inhaling within 2 seconds, the next cycle of holding that breath starts after 4 seconds only and then you need to hold for another 4 seconds. You see, initially you may inhale in 2 and had to hold for 6 seconds. That is fine. After holding for 4 seconds, exhale and keep exhaling in a flow for 6 seconds. Remember that the flow will only come with practice. But it is absolutely fine and right, to do it the way you can possibly do, till the time you are following this pattern of time. Then again hold for 2 seconds and start the process again with inhaling, in a continuous flow.

Slowly you will feel calm and your focus tends to shift in the middle of your eye brows. It will not be 100%. If it will be 100%, we have an enlightened soul [haha]. Remember, meditation is the art of dissolving/ deleting your thoughts to connect with your inner self without any obstacle.

There are various experiences you can have, if you end up applying this or end up meditating, as they say. Do share your experience, I will share mine.

Voila ! What do you actually do to meditate, there you have it. Now that you know the whole story and process behind it, just read the summary at the start to get it in a snapshot. And, if you want to know the benefits of meditation, I will not be telling you because there are already countless articles on google.