How do I meditate?

[Came]

How can I do it? I keep trying but every time I do I get frustrated and have to stop. Any tips on how to meditate successfully? I've tried listening to audio books and reading articles but with no success.

[trees]

Hi Came,
You've got to commit to sitting for a certain amount of time (say, 10 minutes). Tell yourself beforehand that you will NOT get up under any circumstances (short of your house burning on fire of course..) Then just sit; focus on your breathing. If your mind wanders (it will happen!), just go back to the breathing. The most important thing is that you simply notice that your mind wandered and return your focus to your breath. I can tell you get angry at yourself for not "doing it right". There is no doing it right. Tell yourself that just having the discipline to sit for 10 minutes without getting up or checking the time and making an effort is success. This will in turn likely keep your self judging thoughts from creeping up as much.
What helps me personally is that every time I catch myself wandering off and when I'm successfully able to return to my breathing, it's a little accomplishment in my mind. The more times I'm able to do that, the better. Meditation isn't about being blissed out....it's about noticing what's going on at the present moment (even if it's a lot of junk!) and being at peace with it.

Good luck! It's not easy, I know.

[WisdomDome]

Meditation is one of those things that sounds incredibly easy to do, but it's actually quite difficult to begin. It requires tremendous patience and willpower if you aren't used to calming your mind, relaxing, and sitting in one spot for X amount of time.

The best way to get better at meditation is to meditate. You can read all about the theory of art, but until you actually hold a pencil or paintbrush and begin to practice, you're never going to make any progress - and meditation is no different.

If you aren't patient enough to develop meditation skills, you should look into binaural beats. They're kind of like an instant-results meditation and give you something relaxing to focus on.

You can find a lot of information about them on google.

[wstein]

Practice, practice, practice. You got to just do it. The above comment about committing a certain amount of time to it is a good way. Even if you just sit and fidget (a form of resisting) for the entire time it is worth doing. This sets a habit and lets the internal nay-sayers know that you are serious. Incidentally it also lets people around you know you are serious and they should stop interrupting you so much. Slowly at first you will get just a few seconds of mediation, then minutes.

Most sitting meditations (most common type) tell you to focus on one thing (breath, thoughts, candle, whatever). Whenever you notice you are not focusing on that, start again. This is an effective method. Personally, I found thoughts to be the best of these. If you are having trouble with ‘focus’ then simply gaze or just notice.

[ChrisGinsburg]

Originally Posted by Came

How can I do it?

As I mentioned in another thread, stop trying to 'do' it. There's nothing to do. Only to be. The frustration is the illusory sense of a doer who's run out of things to do. Look and see if there is something that is aware of this frustration and be with that awareness. See where it goes.

[gene2009]

I'm in the same situation. My thoughts fly around when i try to meditate with closed eyes.

[ChrisGinsburg]

Originally Posted by gene2009

I'm in the same situation. My thoughts fly around when i try to meditate with closed eyes.

Yes, that's not uncommon. Why is this a problem?

[gene2009]

Originally Posted by ChrisGinsburg

Yes, that's not uncommon. Why is this a problem?

When i gaze on spot it works. If i close my eyes i lose my focusing. However, i just did a meditation a few days.