What to do in and before Meditation?

Literally, anything can be called meditation. Thinking quietly was ‘meditation’.  Obviously, we do not think so. By meditation, we mean that you go into a state of mind (and body) which otherwise is not achievable. This post tells you how meditation would benefit you big time.

How would you feel:

Nope, this time I can’t cook up things as I wish to. Rather, let us jump into the components.

During meditation you usually do these things (or at least you should be doing):

Time

Psychology today has something interesting to say about this.

1. Right after a full night’s sleep. There are no better times than that.  Everything’s well set-

• Everything’s asleep or yet to become disturbing.
• The trees have released oxygen immensely.
• All the dusts are well settled.
• No sound pollution.
• Temperature is down.
• Light had not become irritating.
• You will always get morning breeze.
• People are not going to disturb or even knock you.
• You are not tired of the day’s work.
• Your body had rejuvenated in a number of ways.
• All the chatter patter in your mind eradicated.
• Your body is not yet fully awake and it’s not running on the fifth gear.
• Every hormone, neurotransmitter and all other things are at the most neutral position hence ready to trigger.

2. Right after you finish everything and prepare for a sound sleep.

3. You’ve done a good exercise, you are partially cooled down.

4. It can also be midnight or just before dawn.

5. Any other time that suits you. It should be calm.

Place

1. Believe me, if you are doing it in the morning, there’s no place like open air. Not your bed, not any other air conditioned, suitable room. Maybe it’s your roof. It better be your rooftop garden. Or your yard. I don’t know whether the nearby park would be great for you or not. Try to get these things around- green leaves, water, air and the sky above.
2. The second most valuable place for morning or before bed meditation would be your bedroom, or a private room.
3. It always helps while I’m traveling. You need big seats though. The soft bump always help me concentrate.

Sound

1. There should not be any disturbing sound around you. Not at least while you are learning or deepening your levels of meditation. I regularly use a soft pillow over my eyes and ears to eradicate extra light or sound.
2. If you could manage open air for meditation, it would be awesome. Natural sound will do it for you.
3. But basically, complete silence is the thing for old meditators. New practitioners regularly find this awesome.
4. I’ve used natural sounds like birds chirping, waterfall, wind flowing through leaves, Tibetan singing bowls, raining, calm bells tolling and so on. I’ve used monotonous single instrument audio and all of these worked well depending on my moods. None of these are necessary though.
5. Many of us do some guided meditation and the meditation contains all the necessary sounds.

Preparations

1. Wear something comfortable. Loosely attached to your body so that you can breathe at ease and your blood can flow without a bit difficulty.
2. You better wash your hands, face and legs if convenient. You can even wipe your head with your wet palms. It helps immensely. It reduces the dart or sticky things, takes away some of the extra heat and you know what? Washing body parts always ease tension, excitement and disgust. If you can do it regularly, this will act as a buffer to prepare you for meditation. You do not need it after an exercise or in the morning right after you’ve gotten yourself up from the bed.
3. Don’t start meditating right after a meal as at that time body concentrates mostly on digestive system. Your stomach sucks a lot of blood in. It releases a lot of different juice and consequently other bodily activities become dull. Take time, at least 30 minutes.
4. It is better not to start while you are too hungry like starving.

Posture

1. You can meditate while walking but that’s somewhere deep down the road. We better forget it.
2. For the first timers, it is better to sit straight in comfortable chairs. No asymmetry in your right and left side. No added curves. Why should absolute beginners be sitting straight and not leaning backwards? That’s because if you fall asleep, there’s very little benefit of meditation.
3. After a week of twice a day meditation, you can start doing it lying on the bed. This is more supportive. You can let yourself go in this posture. Just be naturally straight.
4. Later, you can get numerous postures- the Sufi postures, Yogi postures and Monk postures. There are hundreds. Each has its own benefit.

What do you do in your meditation?

I’m not gonna describe everything here. Each point below needs series of articles if not one deep write up. These are the things you would like to for the first year of meditation before you add more advanced techniques-

0. Breathe. There are numerous breathing techniques but pick only three of the basic breathings to start with. Breathing is crucial. More crucial than you think. You may not need or want anything more than-

• Abdominal breathing
• Deep, slow breathing
• Breathe observation
• Quick breathing.

1. Shut your eyes down. Comfortably, at ease.
2. Stay still yet not stiff.
3. Deep relaxation as if it is deep massage. Let go every muscle contraction. It can be achieved through focusing on every part of your body, gradually from head to toe per se.
4. Get into your level of meditation, usually by counting down or by visualizing a path or something like that. This is when you enter the trance-like state. It is the meditative state.
5. Build your imaginary, very private recreational mansion. You will get a separate section below on that as this can benefit you in a number of ways.
6. Increase your power of all-sensory visualization. Feel these as you progress through days of practice:

• Colors- this simple one is immensely important.
• Shapes and sizes
• Still pictures
• Moving images/ imaginary videos
• All sorts of sounds
• Taste
• Touch
• Smell

7. Tell yourself how meditation benefits you. Tell yourself how you are going to make everything better- your body, your mind, profession, family, thoughts and habits and all other things. Do these each time after you’ve reached your level.

8. Practice plenty of autosuggestions.

9. Practice whatever you are serious about in your real life. Imagine how good you are getting at working out over time, or if you really play violin, practice every string and listen to the music. Look how people at your work are beginning to love you, care for you. Look, why are they doing this to you? What very special things have you started doing? Did you reach work 10 minutes before it starts? Did you just smile at your boss and subordinates with a big warm smile?

10. This is the place you would like to talk to your boss about the next promotion or the projects, the kids about their school or friends, relatives about the next family meeting and so much more.  

11. Rejuvenate through calm music. Focus on your organs and limbs. See how they are and how they should be.

Your Private Meditation Mansion

It could be anything and anywhere. Build everything around it. Create a habit of going there every time you start meditating.

It will rather be your thoughtless sanctuary. Your own reserve forest where you and/or anything you love roams, swims and flies.

Build certain rooms in the mansion to do certain things or states of mind. You can start your meditative state from there, by reaching there and by taking care of your thoughts and body parts.

My house is made of a number of white tents. It has three floors, including one underground. Everything inside is made of polished seasoned wood. Floors, stairways etc. It is situated on a coral island. Palm and coconut trees cast shade over my meditative home.

Behind my tend house, there’s a grassy field with a few trees, then a deep green jungle upon entering which you would find the big, wide lake. There are lilies, big freshwater fish. I sometimes sit under a very old, wide tree. I have a floating platform tied to that tree which is made of dried corn straws. Sometimes I use it as a boat. Behind the forest and lake, there’s a mountain from which waterfalls flow into this lake and some of which meet the ocean flowing right beside my tent house.

The front side? It starts with the sandy beach. After a few yards you will find my front lawn. Lots and lots of seashells and corals scattered underneath your feet. You don’t need safety shoes there. There are very few wild bushes coroneted with flowers along with the entrance. Some rabbits, a few sea gals, some wild birds (i’m planning to bring some Amazonian big birds there, you know, fortunately it does not cost a dime).

It is never too hot or sunny there, the sun never sets as I don’t need it to set, nights never come as I visit it for a few minutes.

After meditation

1. Count up while breathing deeply.
2. Open your eyes and stretch your body.
3. Express your feelings aloud.

Please remember that you must find a good book for meditation or a good audio guided meditation system. It is always better to have a personal guide or trainer. You must learn the aforementioned techniques in detail.

It is always good to keep an eye on physical fitness and mental strength.