Greetings people, thought I'd share my meditation routine. It's taken me a while to figure out how to make most of a session and still consider myself an amateur, but nonetheless want to give some ideas and direction to people new to the art of meditation. 1. To start with, I sit or lie in any way that's comfortable; it really depends on the time of day/setting. If it's the the beginning or middle of the day, I will almost always assume a sitting position. If my body is a little too tired towards the end of the day, I'll meditate whilst lying. 2. Once the right position has been assumed, I'll take slow, uncounted deep breaths and as I do so, just try to relax my whole body and mind. During this relaxation, I will focus on the "here and now". I will understand and accept that I exist in the "here and now", or at least that my physical body does. I try not to dwell on it too much but sometimes we have a tendancy to forget about what is going on around us. I pay attention to my senses, noticing anything that's peculiar, pleasurable etc. 3. Upon entering a state where I feel comfortable, I begin what I like to call the "cleansing phase". This consists of visualising a white light that enters my body through my lungs as I inhale, holding the breath to allow the light to cleanse every part of my physical and energy body and as I exhale, any negative energy is expelled as "black smoke" from the lungs. I repeat this process for about 20 full breaths (inhale-exhale). This whole process of "expelling negative energy" is an attempt to let go of any spots in my subconcious of psyche that I don't need; I don't know what they are necessarily, but whatever they are, I don't need them. If that makes sense. 4. This is the point where I begin to draw energy into the body. For those inexperienced with energy work, I would CERTAINLY read around this subject; there's loads of stuff online about Chakras/Kundalini, etc. I draw energy by visualising a corresponding colour entering the energy centers, starting with the base and ending with the crown and I do this for 10 full breaths per-chakra. When inhaling, I imagine the energy rushing towards the appropriate chakra from a great universal source. Upon exhaling, I imagine this energy actually charging the chakra and try to "feel" this energy and its warmth. 5. Once I have worked through all my chakras, I visualise the energy accumulated surging around my body. Sometimes I just imagine it travelling up and down the spine a la Kundalini. I don't count breaths for this, just focus on the charging and distribution of energy. 6. After I can feel the energy flowing through my body, I visualise a brilliant blue light descending from a kind of heavenly vortex and entering my head through the crown chakra. I relax and here I might try to communicate with higher energy, asking questions and addressing problems that face. In this state, I am most likely very relaxed and I sort of let my mind just wander and do it's own thing. Anything can happen during this stage really so I can't write any more about this. 7. When I am finished, I slowly open my eyes and as I do so, continuing the deep breaths, I "feel" the energy of my chakras settling and becoming less charged and imagine these centers relaxing slightly. Afterwards, I usually feel quite charged and seem to have a better focus on reality. I think there are many reasons to meditate and many different methods that a person can try. I am, as I've mentioned, still quite inexperienced in the art but with personal training and experimentation, the expansion of knowledge, hopefully I can learn more about life and conciousness through this art.
what would you say to people who say you need to have a teacher or guru to access these regions of yourself? I've even heard people say it's "dangerous" to dabble in meditation without knowing what you're doing. It gets to me sometimes and I block myself from receiving the energies. I'll have some amazing breakthroughs at times but it's not very consistent.
My meditation routine is almost totally spontaneous and random. I don't really try to visualize anything, I let the visualizations come to me after my breathing is totally deep, steady, and under control after counting up and down to calm my mind.
