When you have read about or tried a couple of methods of meditation, you can narrow down the field to what suits you best.
Meditation on the breath
A very easy meditation to start out with is following your breath. You can do this as a traditional sitting meditation, or in any movement meditation.
Walking is an easy way to follow your breath. Take 2 steps while inhaling and 2 steps while exhaling. Or use another similar rhythmic pattern.
Following you breath, paying attention to a breathing pattern distracts you from rambling or troublesome thoughts, giving a taste of peace and harmony in body and mind.
Breath is the tie between body, mind, emotions. When upset, turn your attention to rhythmic breathing to calm both your body and mind.
Meditate while using a mantra
Mantras are sounds, vibrations, that evoke a response in your mind and body. Mantras that are known to generate feelings of peace include: Om; Om Shanti; Om reveal; Hari Om; Peace; harmony; love.
Using a mala or prayer beads to say your mantra aids in keeping you on task. Move ahead on bead per mantra repetition. The photo illustrates how to hold the beads.
If you are using prayer and a rosary you probably already know that you move ahead one bead per prayer.
Choose a mantra that you are comfortable with. If you are following a religious tradition, stick with that in choosing your mantra. This advice was given to me by my spiritual teacher, Sri Swami Satchidananda.
Summary
Meditation methods are personal choices, and like a buffet there is something for everyone. When you are out in public and want to regain your peace, try the rhythmic breathing. No one will know what you are doing and you can regain a feeling of harmony in your mind.
When you are sitting privately, you could do mantra repetition using a mala or rosary. I keep my mala with my altar. Even just looking at my mala calms and focuses my mind.
Try out one of the meditation methods and choose what feels best to you.
For teens and adults:
Gentle Yoga and Meditation – for All AdultsGentle yoga poses and meditations for adults of all ages, plus a dose of yoga philosophy and virtues. All poses illustrated. 107 pages. Table of contents at this link.
For kids
Yoga for all KidsIncluded in the text are 4 styles of meditation for balance, harmony and instant stress relief, plus 15 gentle moving yoga poses that can also be used as a basic motor skills lesson plan, followed by 18 chapters about how to live social skills, and a dictionary of 40 one sentence definitions of happiness. For kids of all ages and abilities. Fully illustrated with photos of poses.
I invite you to join me in a world-wide cyber meditation every day of the year. Click on this link to read about it. And if you’d like to receive our free weekly newsletter of updates to the meditation site fill in the blanks below.
Article by Susan Helene Kramer; photo credit Stan Schaap
