The Focus Of Your Meditation
Do you have trouble freeing your mind of the flood of thoughts that come your way when you sit down to either relax or commit to a session of meditation?
Naturally, we are increasingly a faced-paced, stressed out society. Calming our minds during meditation is an increasingly tough challenge - especially for someone just starting out with meditation or yoga or for someone who is returning after not practicing for a time.
One question that often comes up is what should be the focus of your meditation?
If the objective of meditation is to focus intently on something until your mind is so tuned into that "something" that it eventually gives way to "nothing" what should that original focus of your meditation be?
Traditional meditation suggests that you either focus on nothing (not very realistic for beginners since the feeling of "nothing" is not even something that they understand) or focus on your breathing.
The challenge with focusing on your breathing as a focus of meditation is that your breathing is tough to control when you are anxiety ridden and cannot calm your mind -so for many, using your breath as a way to meditate is simply a chicken and egg scenario that cannot be reached.
Focusing on my breathing did not work for the first year of meditation in my case. I am very picky about my focus during meditation - in fact, what works for me are the relaxing CD's with either repetititive nature sounds (like a babbling brook or ocean waves) or any repetitive sound - even music if you can get something that repeats the same thing enough times.
The sound is both relaxing and serves the purpose of being repetitive enough my mind is eventually free enough to get to that magical "nothing" place where true relaxation and introspection emerge from their normal shackles of daily existance.
So - what is your best focus of meditation?
Could it be a consistent sound of a metrinome (you can try the many free metronomes that are available from sites like www.download.com), a relaxation CD, your breath or even visual objects and/or smells could work.
Don't fall into the trap feeling like you have to respond to someone else's focus of meditation, instead find your own - what works for you and soon you will be feeling the same benefits that we all are lucky enough to have experienced.
Naturally, we are increasingly a faced-paced, stressed out society. Calming our minds during meditation is an increasingly tough challenge - especially for someone just starting out with meditation or yoga or for someone who is returning after not practicing for a time.
One question that often comes up is what should be the focus of your meditation?
If the objective of meditation is to focus intently on something until your mind is so tuned into that "something" that it eventually gives way to "nothing" what should that original focus of your meditation be?
Traditional meditation suggests that you either focus on nothing (not very realistic for beginners since the feeling of "nothing" is not even something that they understand) or focus on your breathing.
The challenge with focusing on your breathing as a focus of meditation is that your breathing is tough to control when you are anxiety ridden and cannot calm your mind -so for many, using your breath as a way to meditate is simply a chicken and egg scenario that cannot be reached.
Focusing on my breathing did not work for the first year of meditation in my case. I am very picky about my focus during meditation - in fact, what works for me are the relaxing CD's with either repetititive nature sounds (like a babbling brook or ocean waves) or any repetitive sound - even music if you can get something that repeats the same thing enough times.
The sound is both relaxing and serves the purpose of being repetitive enough my mind is eventually free enough to get to that magical "nothing" place where true relaxation and introspection emerge from their normal shackles of daily existance.
So - what is your best focus of meditation?
Could it be a consistent sound of a metrinome (you can try the many free metronomes that are available from sites like www.download.com), a relaxation CD, your breath or even visual objects and/or smells could work.
Don't fall into the trap feeling like you have to respond to someone else's focus of meditation, instead find your own - what works for you and soon you will be feeling the same benefits that we all are lucky enough to have experienced.
posted by Ideaguy | 9:32 PM
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