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Posts Tagged ‘audio meditation’

A regular meditation practice can be rewarding and beneficial in many ways, but the act of sitting completely still and silent for a long time is intimidating to some people.  Either they struggle with random thoughts that they can’t seem to quiet down, or they simply grow bored and end up abandoning their meditation routine.

Have you had similar challenges with your own meditation practice?  If so, take a look at the following alternate methods of meditation.  They are less intense than traditional meditation techniques and therefore easier for many beginners.

1) Get back to nature.

When it comes right down to it, meditation is nothing more than the practice of quieting your thoughts and focusing on something soothing.  Natural settings provide the perfect forum for releasing stress and connecting to soothing sights and sounds!

Choose a beautiful natural setting and take a slow, leisurely walk through it.  Pay close attention to the beauty surrounding you, the breeze on your face, and the feeling of your feet moving in a steady rhythm.  

Another option is to simply sit silently and observe nature.  There are few things more calming than listening to the birds sing or a brook babbling softly nearby, while watching various forms of wildlife go about their daily routines.  Just a few minutes of this every day can soothe even chronic stress away.

2) Immerse yourself in music.

Listening to music while you relax is also another form of meditation, especially if you focus on the notes and consciously release feelings of tension, irritation and negativity.  Try to choose music that has few lyrics, or at least soothing or inspiring lyrics.  Sit or lie in a comfortable position and allow your mind to drift pleasantly with the music.  You can engage in some creative visualization if you like, or just relax and enjoy the experience.

As an alternative to music, you can also purchase audio recordings of natural sounds like ocean waves, rain and storms, wind and wind chimes, birdsong or whale songs, and more.  

3) Practice mindfulness.

Sometimes meditation is a simple matter of staying in the present moment, rather than allowing your thoughts to drift forward or backward in time.  Try focusing solely on whatever activity you happen to be engaged in at the present time.  

Make it a point to consciously detach from external distractions and thoughts that are unrelated to your current activity and simply concentrate on BEING in this moment.  It may take some practice at first, but the more you do it the more easily you’ll be able to remain in a state of mindfulness.  

When you tune in and focus your full attention on an activity, you automatically let go of worries about the future and regrets, anger and sadness about the past.  You are here in the present moment only; and therefore not stressed or anxious.  You can do this with both physical and mental activities, such as household chores, work related tasks, errands and shopping, cleaning and organizing, and much more.

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Meditation is most often considered an inactive process of quieting your mind and engaging with stillness, but there are also several ways to use physical activity to enter a meditative state.  Both types of meditation can be incredibly effective in inspiring a sense of peace, harmony and well-being, but they differ greatly in their approach.

Mental meditation involves sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing or a soothing mantra, or emptying your mind by disengaging from your conscious thoughts.  Physical meditation at first glance seems to be the complete opposite because your body will be in motion the entire time, but the mental result of peace and stillness is very much the same.

If sitting quietly in silence has always been difficult for you, you may want to explore various forms of physical meditation instead.  In fact, you have probably engaged in physical meditation before and not even realized you were doing so!

Here are a few of the most common types of physical meditation activities:

1) Walking.

Walking is not only good for your body; it helps clear your mind too!  Repeatedly placing one foot in front of the other while you breathe deeply and observe your surroundings can be incredibly meditative.  Just a few minutes of this can melt away weeks’ worth of tension.  

Start by choosing a pleasant location, like a park or pretty tree-lined street; lace up your walking shoes, grab a bottle of water and you’re ready to go.  As you walk, try to avoid thinking too much.  Instead, do your best to set your conscious thoughts aside and focus instead on the sensation of your muscles flexing, and oxygen flowing in and out of your lungs.  Or tune into your surroundings more completely and focus on the beauty of the landscape, sky and wildlife.

2) Dance.

Dancing is more often considered a recreational pursuit, but it can also be quite relaxing and hypnotic in its ability to distance you from fear and worry.

For stress relief and strengthening your spiritual connection, choose slow, soothing music and move your body gently and smoothly too.  Set your conscious thoughts aside and focus only on moving your body along with the music.  In no time at all you should feel refreshed and renewed – just as you would from a mental audio meditation program.

3) Hobbies and menial work.

You may not consider hobbies and chores to be meditative, but they are powerful in their ability to move you from a state of thinking to a state of “being” – and that’s exactly what meditation does!  The next time you engage in any physical activity like cleaning, yard work, hobbies or organizing, make a point of focusing your attention fully on it.  Let go of worries and scattered thoughts and immerse yourself fully in the act of moving your hands and body.  As you do so, you are releasing stress, calming your thoughts and entering a stress-free state that will stay with you for hours.

Nearly any physical activity can be turned into a meditative experience, as long as it’s one you don’t have to focus intently on.  (Obviously, driving and skydiving wouldn’t be good candidates for physical meditation.)  With ordinary activities, however, simply get into the habit of stepping outside the flow of your conscious thoughts and allow yourself to settle into a state of calm, steady movement – and you’ll be meditating!  See, it was easier than you thought, wasn’t it?

Meditation is most often used on an incremental basis to help prevent and relieve stress or develop a deeper spiritual connection, but did you know that you can also use meditation techniques to handle an emotional crisis when you need to feel better quickly?  It does help if you’re familiar with meditation before attempting these techniques, but they can work moderately well even for beginners.

Before we get to the techniques, it’s important that you strengthen your resolve to use them in the first place, which is not always easy to do when you’re feeling unsettled or frightened by a crisis.  Most of us are used to blindly reacting to our outer circumstances without a thought of how we might better handle them.  However, in order for these techniques to work, you’ll need to be willing to distance yourself from turbulent emotions long enough to choose a different response.  Doing that might take a bit of willpower and practice, but like any habit the more you do it, the more natural it will feel.

Begin by practicing saying phrases like these as often as you can:  “It’s okay, I can handle this.  I’m strong enough to handle this.  Everything is going to be okay.”  These calming words will trigger your emotions to begin shifting from fear and agitation to peace and acceptance, even if the transition is a bit shaky at first. Even if you haven’t been practicing these calming statements for long, you may still notice that they help you feel more settled.

Enhance the calming effect even further by taking slow, steady, deep breaths.  When we find ourselves in a tense situation we automatically begin breathing quickly and shallowly, which only keeps us feeling tense and constricted.  If you instead make a conscious decision to slow and deepen your breathing, you’ll notice that the rest of your body begins to relax, and your emotions will also follow suit.

Finally, close your eyes for just a few moments and consciously release turbulent thoughts and emotions.  Imagine that your mind is an empty vessel, and try to keep it that way for a few minutes.  This can be incredibly helpful because our natural impulse is to focus obsessively on the situation that has upset us – which keeps us locked into a cycle of negative thought and negative emotion.  If you take just a few minutes to break the circuit and clear your mind, you create a space for peace and calm to enter.

Just minutes after beginning these techniques you should feel much calmer, more optimistic, and able to handle whatever comes your way.  Then you can focus on possible solutions to the problems, or simply work on coping if that’s the only available option.