how to create a daily meditation practice

[nube]

any tips?
I have wanted to start meditating daily for a long time, and I think I will make it a 30 day challenge soon.
I also need tips on methods, I seem to prefer visualization and watching a flame, but have only really been able to silence my mind in nature or while dancing.

[RichD]

I meditate daily (sometimes more than once a day). Basically I just focus on my breathing and be present in my body. If my mind wanders I just gently move it back to my breathing. That's it. My mind is not always blank or even focused where I intended, but there is always time to refocus. Its all about being mindful and present in the here and now. Not thinking about the future or the past. For that brief 10-20 minutes I am relaxed and I need nothing.

I breath normally but to my belly and not my chest

I focus on my breath and my Dan Tien (a point about 2 inches below my navel and about 2 inches in. Its a chakra and its a hold over from Martial arts training.

I try to kneel or sit cross legged but I often lay in bed or even sit on a bench in the park.

The style I am currently using is called Sum Faht meditation


RichD
Practical Journal Keeping

[veranadine]

Meditation has been a regular part of my life for 15 years. My style is to find a dark room or corner, light a candle and sit on a floor cushion. I too prefer visualization, but have recently added mantra on ocassion.

Check out my post on meditation for beginners and also one that is a visualization/tree meditation. The tree one might interest you as you are into nature. ;-)

[nube]

thank you both for replying
I will try the Sum Faht meditation, I am familiar with the chakra you mention from yoga.
I currently work as a gardener so the tree meditation is very interesting, and easy to do at work, will try to do it in my pause

[Janilla]

I used to have a daily meditation habit, I say used to because we had guests over Christmas and they stayed for nearly two months, great way to break a habit. Still, I will be doing it again

I think the best book I ever got was one by Paul Wilson called Quiet, search the calmcentre dot com and see if you can get it.

The book describes three kinds of meditation for slightly different outcomes.

My current favourite way is, or was, to breathe in, hold for 4, breathe out and hold to count of 4, a couple of times, then listen and watch your mind at work, noticing all thoughts for about a minute or so, seems like ages because it is hard to still the mind initially, then listening and trying to hear every sound in your house, the street/countryside and further, do that until you have at least a dozen sounds. It is easier in the city because you have noises of neighbours

Janilla

[Strangemagik]

Does music help you all? As a music lover I find it disturbs me a lot because I want to divert attention to it. Doesn't seem to matter if its instrumental only or not.

Anyone know of chants that may help?

[SlicK]

Yesterday after reading an article somewhere, after 2 clicks I got on some page explaining binaural beats. I knew about it but for some reason, the first time I read about that I wasn't very interested.

How To Be Smarter – The Science of Binaural Beats and Intelligence - Self Improvement

I opened up the program in which I make my music and quickly programmed 2 synthesizers to generate a binaural beat for 7 Hz. After a few minutes I couldn't concentrate anymore on my reading and everything else I was doing at my computer. After another 5-10 minutes I was F*cked up . I got into a sleep-like state and I felt almost exactly the same way I felt after smoking weed.

I have downloaded a trial of this program:

Neuro-Programmer Download

And I experimented a bit with it. I feel like a little boy that got his hands on a brand new toy
I'm very impressed by the sessions that also have visual content. There's some stuff that just ... I don't even know how to say it.. it drugs you!

I think it would be a perfect aid in meditation/visualization.

[NexusOfCompletion]

This has been a major issue in myself, but the most important thing I realized is to not make it an issue. The more you think about setting up times and having a meditation routine the more you will have difficulty maintaining it. For over 5 months I didn't meditate at all, I just for some reason couldn't do it. Then seemingly out of the blue I got the intense desire to start meditating again, so I simply did.

Find a time that works best for you, for me it is in the morning because the roomates aren't up and I am already in a relaxed state. But most of all, don't force meditation.

Something that also helps is breathing exercises. If you can't find time to sit in a pose, then just focus on your breathing for about 10 minutes.

[nube]

As I work as a gardener now, in a very quiet atmosphere (a graveyard) it is easier to just let go of thinking, I also try to do the tree meditation some days, and I like it. And I try to remind myself to be present in the moment and the action. I also like lying in the grass, relaxing all the parts of my body, following the breath and listening to all the noises around without judging anything. Lying in the grass makes me feel grounded and connected to nature too.
I agree on not making it an issue, it seems to work in my life generally, especially with smoking. I smoke occasionally and if I decide to completely quit I think about cigarettes a lot and it becomes a problem. The best seems to be just to think whether I really want a cigarette or not when I am about to smoke.
I went to a music meditation thing once, where we tried meditation to different kinds of music, jazz seemed to work best for me. But I use music all the time to work on different art projects, and it feels like a meditation too, like I connect to a universal source of creativity, and the ideas seems to be much better than ego-based ones. I recognized the process in David Lynch's "Catching the big fish."
I guess most people meditate daily in some way or another.

[ryanbiddulph]

All great tips guys.

I sit 1-2 times a day for 30 minutes per session. I sit cross-legged with back straight and following my breath into my stomach, expanding the stomach as I do so. I then allow my stomach to contract and follow the air out.

Sometimes I just focus on my breath, other times I use this method to calm the mind and proceed to visualize.