Chapter Two – Meditation

Types of meditations

"What we focus on we create"

Why meditate at all? Depending on what you are trying to achieve will depend on the energy level required to achieve it.

 We are energy beings and what we focus on we create, we are like magnets, we attract what we think about, so the person who you are today, was produced in the past by you!

Understanding this powerful concept, we craft who we want to become.

Imagine always seeing health, happiness and success in your life, as you create that the energy behind those thoughts, this creates a resonant energy around you, over time this energy builds and changes the current energetic field, this then manifests, also the opposite applies, this is not a generic mantra that you blindly say over and over again, sickness does come to individuals for many reasons, but as we progress, we start to understand the link between disease and energy blockages.

I have meditated for many years and it can be a real struggle to calm the mind, I’ve tried chanting, music, and mantras, all with varying success. How can sitting quietly be such a chore? let’s face it your “doing nothing.”

From the day we are born we learn, create and develop, so to then turn around and say to the mind, ok, “it’s time to be quiet now,” requires a certain amount of training and development, so I liken the whole process to learning a new skill.

Many people have said to me “I have tried and it’s just not working.” I tell them “maybe that’s the problem,” trying too hard can be an effort and this produces stress, that then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in your life. Don’t try, just be!

Another problem is feeling great! You may say to yourself;

“I don’t need to meditate today I feel good, I’m pretty busy anyway so I’ll just skip it!”

Tomorrow comes along and the same thing happens, slowly any residual energy you have created around you is replaced by everyday energies, then next thing you know, your desire to meditate starts to fade away. We wonder why we may be  now feeling and sensing internal struggles, emotions, and dealing with more daily turmoil.  Suddenly we realize we have stopped the one thing which bought us the ability to clear and heal ourselves… and so we have another attempt at meditation.

So here are a few basic steps to follow.

One: Set up an area that is yours, it may be something you have to pack away after the meditation session, but at least it’s a purpose built area you have made available for self. If you have the luxury of space, then leave it setup.

I have a water fountain as the central focus of my place and have a few nice pictures hanging in the corner.

 I even went to the extent of getting a nice cushion made to sit on, so it all was all very personal to me. When I sit there, it means I have a purpose built area and it has a special meaning to me. Sometimes I use incense to set the mood and have beautiful calming background music, these things aide in the relaxation process.

Two: Try to make a time every day, so you can relax, meditating at night is ok, but if you are too tired to focus or end up falling asleep and your goal is to find peace, then falling asleep may not be what you are trying to achieve. It’s no use trying to meditate for an hour, get frustrated and then forget the whole process.

It’s like learning to rock climb in readiness for an expedition, you have to learn what each piece of equipment is for, how to use it, when to use it, how much to carry and the conditions you will be climbing in, and then you attempt the climb. Imagine loading up a person with equipment and sending them to a mountain, with no training, failure is assured.

So what type of meditation sessions are there, some of the basic ones are:

·  Guided

·  Finger Counting

·  Tapping

·  Non Guided

·  Grounding

·  Colour Grounding

·  Breathing

·  Nostril

·  Induction

Guided:

This type of meditation is a wonderful way to learn to relax and visualize many different situations and places. Guided meditations are freely downloaded from the internet, with this process; a person talks you gently through the session. Some of the best ones I have found relate to following your breathing and calming the mind. Use a search engine to find and download a few free meditations.

Finger Counting:

For most of us concentrating on breathing can be difficult, so I have tried a process, where by each breathe I take, I tap a finger and when I get to ten breaths I start again. This allows me to focus on something and allows the mind, if it drifts, to re-focus back on my breathing, this technique is good for building your focus by levels. Once you have attained a certain calmness of the mind you can cease the counting.

Tapping:

This is an affirmation exercise that I found to be highly effective and allows for a physical sensation to be used in the manifestation of positive words spoken to self. The process is very simple and works well, as each energy center (Chakra) is tapped it allows the energy stored to be released, and while you are tapping the center you speak an affirmation of self-love. Search the internet and use the keyword “tapping” to find very good resources for this process.

Non Guided:

The Meditator sits or lays quietly in a calm environment (following the breath) and allows the body to relax, as the person relaxes they will see flashes and pictures running through their mind. Observe each one and allow it to fade away, at this point don’t try to fight with your mind, and don’t get upset that the thoughts are coming. Gently focus on your breathing, as you do the mind will slow down and the body will become numb, you will be aware that your consciousness is expanded and that you are happy and relaxed.

Now the big question is, how do I get to this level of relaxation?  Well, spend the first few sessions at five minutes and then as you feel most comfortable extend them, try not to have any preconceived ideas as to what you will achieve.

It has taken me many years to develop different stages of meditation; some people find they can achieve this more quickly than others. As an example, if I’m going to do an astral travel session I would have to completely change my vibrational state to allow my astral state (some call consciousness) to separate from self. But if I’m asking my guide for help I just ask “them” to step closer.

What if I don’t have the time can I do a quick meditation?

Yes. I have a special stone, a grounding stone, and carry it with me all the time, it’s a crystal called “Hematite.” Although this is not needed, it’s a quick way to focus in on your intent, it’s the tactile feeling you have of holding an object.

If you are feeling uncertain, anxious, or unhappy, the ultimate cause of your distress may be a disconnection from the physical plain. While there are many ways to reconnect, an immediate way may be to pick up some hematite. Hold the stone in your hand, and rub it slowly. Focus your attention on the smooth feeling of its surface. Hold and rub it until you are feeling calmer.

Because of its grounding qualities, hematite is especially helpful in meditation.

I hold it in my hand and focus on my breathing, and imagine I am rooted to the earth, each breath takes me deeper, you find after only a few seconds you feel much calmer. Another quick meditation process is to visualise a place in your mind that brings you peace.

It may be the ocean, a place in the mountains or just something you made up, as long as you know that when you arrive in this place the silence begins.

Grounding:

One critical aspect of any energy work is to ground. Grounding ourselves, allows us to work from a balanced platform.

An example is a person who is highly strung, emotionally tense or worried about things, all of these states are places where unstable energies exist in your life, I say unstable because, if you remember a day you felt wonderful, alive, happy and grounded that was possibly a day when you were walking in a grounded state.

The following is a grounding visualisation that will help you to settle and ground for the day, our Aura’s are filters, and we receive and send energy through the etheric body.

Everything in existence has an aura, and is made of energy. When we have contact with others, you may notice either a draining or refreshing of the energies you hold. When you are out in nature you may feel a certain peace or feel much more grounded than normal, every object has energy and emits this in a form that can be felt by others.

When our energies are unsettled we can move into another objects energy field (like holding a quartz crystal) and receive calming vibrations that make us feel better.

Sit quietly with your eyes closed, imagine yourself breathing in white light, as you breath out, the energies dissipate down into the ground. You sense an attachment with the earth, it makes you feel like you are rooted into mother earth, as you breathe in and out, you notice your energies are starting to settle and any negativity or unsettled feelings you have are being soaked up by the earth.

Breathe light into the forehead area and then breathe it back out, this is the third eye area, one of psychic activity. There is a lot of mental energy in this area, keep breathing in and out and move down to the next energy centre.

The throat chakra (energy centre) is the place of communication, breathe in white light and breathe out allowing all the energy to slowly settle, move down the heart chakra, and do the same, then the solar plexus, sacral chakra (belly button) and finally the base chakra, which is the survival area.

Allow the white light to flow down through the chakras into the ground, breathing in white light, breathing out and allowing the energies to flow downwards to mother earth, see yourself attached to the earth, as if you are now part of the big picture, part of the earth itself. When finished, visualise all of the chakras closing like the petals of a flower. You may notice that you feel invigorated and very calm.

Colour Grounding:

Another way to ground is to use colours, sit quietly and focus on the base chakra, this is coloured red as we breathe in we breathe in the colour red, this colour is sent to our base area  and we see in our minds this area expanding.

We now move to the next chakra the sacral chakra we breathe in the colour orange and allow it to blend and expand this energy centre.

Next is the solar plexus chakra the colour needed here is yellow.

Then the heart centre, which is green

Blue is the next colour for communication (throat area)

Indigo for the third eye area

Then finally violet or gold for the crown chakra. As we finish our colour meditation we envisage the beautiful colours flowing down around us, flowing to the ground, we now feel protected and balanced and are ready for our next step forward.

One word on people who seem to be emotionally draining, these people seem to suck the energy right out of you, they either have a   lot of turmoil and drama around them  or when they speak to you they stand in your personal space and leave you feeling drained. They want you to take ownership of all of their problems; it is up to you how you receive these people.

Breathing:

Breathing is natural and part of the autonomic systems, we hardly ever think about it unless we are doing physical exercise and need to start breathing faster. However, on the opposite end of the scale if you following your breathing it can take you to depths that you may never have imagined.

The human breathing process contains within it harmonics, these harmonics allow us to move to many altered states.

The way we breathe in any meditation session, allows us to gain access to the harmonic gateways within the breath. We learn about our gateways by sitting and listening to our breathing, over many days, months and years we learn about the many facets of our breath. Generally the longer and slower the breathing the deeper the altered state becomes.

As we breathe we find after ten or so minutes our mind will start to settle, and our own energies will manifest around us, we can set the intent that our higher self or guide come and aide us in our journey, although we have no expectation, we offer the invitation and wait and breathe.

When we focus on our breathing, we give the mind something to do and it allows us to focus our thoughts and clear our minds, a good meditation session allows us to feel like only a few minutes have gone by, but when we look at the clock maybe twenty minutes to a few hours may have passed.

Time seems to stand still, and when we open our eyes we can feel very calm and balanced. I have noticed that after coming out of a meditation session, that if you come across someone who is agitated or upset, your energy is able to calm “them” down quickly, just by the way you interact with them.  

The way modern civilisation addresses stress is to “just move on,” “get over it,” or “deal with it later,” or worse anesthetise your stress into submission,

We hold in our breath, the breath becomes shallow, causing all of the muscles to constrict, thus we are tense.

We head to our next activity, our next responsibility, our next stress, without taking the time to let our bodies and minds recover.

The more stress accumulates; the more at-risk we are for illness and disease. (dis-ease)

 You might know the feeling of having chronic stomach aches, back pain, headaches, or numerous other symptoms as a result of “just waiting to deal with it” (the built-up stresses) when it’s more convenient.

Unfortunately, it is rarely “more convenient,” and the symptoms and stresses continue to build. Meditation can help deal with these problems.

The focus should always be on the breathing.

This allows us to see the underlying concepts that animate us, breath! This rhythmically produced process, created by the subconsciousness is a powerful tool to move into deep meditation. As we focus on this and start to relax we sense weightlessness, or numbness in the extremities.

We allow this process to take us to new areas of the inner consciousness, the mind will produce thoughts, we may not initially recognise that we are even entertaining the thought, but once our awareness returns to the meditation process, we gently guide the mind back to the “no thought” process; this is not easy and takes training. I prefer to look into the darkness and just see the patterns as they form.

As each moment passes the thought process starts to wind down, you can assure the mind that anything it wishes to present to you, will be dealt with after the meditation session.

 The progression now takes you to the level where you have the no thought process, and may start seeing pulsing purple or yellow colours, whatever you see, just gently follow it, and allow it to form and break down.

This will be repeated many times until you come to a juncture in the process, one of either, vibrational separation (that allows an out of body experience), or expanded consciousness, this is like the inside of your mind is now extended to an infinite distance, where you can see extended areas and thoughts inside your mind. This new dimension is an area where we can ask internal us (spiritual us) questions and receive answers.

Nostril:

This type of meditation revolves around breathing, but by regulating the in and out flow of air through the nostrils allows us to find our centre very quickly.

It seems sitting still is one of the hardest things we have to achieve; the mind wants to be active and will try any type of trickery to make you move or focus thoughts on something else.

Induction:

This process is fairly-simple, over a period of time as you practise this you will find the “hypnotic suggestion” will embed itself in to your mind.

Each time you sit and do this, you will move quickly to a relaxed state. The process is one where you “countdown” from 20 to 1, close your eyes, see the number 20 in front of you, as you breathe slowly count down, going deeper and deeper into the relaxed state. Continue to count down, breathing in conjunction to the number you are seeing and tell yourself as you get to “1” you will be relaxed, deeply relaxed.

 When I started this it took a daily process of doing the induction until I moved to an induction of just counting from 5 to 1, then I was deeply relaxed. This is great for going to sleep at night as well!