I have been practicing with meditation for almost a week and a half now. I sit left leg over right in a comfortable position with my posture nice and straight. I cradle the back of my right hand in my left and allow the thumbs to connect.

I breathe in and then out, all through my diaphram. I try and focus on my breathing and nothing else. This is much easier said than done though. It's almost always music by certain bands that I like that I find playing in my head while I try to calm my mind. It's kind of frustrating.

I just acknowledge that the thought is there, and try to let it be.

I do two sessions of meditation every day. Two 10 minute sessions.

Can you guys give me some tips based on your experience and let me know if I am doing anything wrong here?
Do I need a mantra? Or can I keep at it the way I've been doing it? I have done some research online about meditation, but a lot of it is confusing, because there are so many different variations.

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"Take your last chance. It's not the end..."

I meditate a lot. It is best to empty your mind from a relaxed position. You sound like you are doing this. Some of the paths to meditation (goals) are Zen, Samadhi, and/or Nirvana. These are all kind of a "plane" of consciousness where you are thinking without thinking and thoughts flow at a different rate, almost as if you are sleeping. I am not sure which wavelengths are attributed to this "higher" state of consciousness, but you can learn at a high rate...

There isn't really a right or wrong when it comes to reaching Zen, Samadhi, or Nirvana. It's just a different state of mental "being". As long as your breathing is deep, relaxed and even, you can clear your mind and your memes (so-called mental flow) will bring you to a heightened sense of clarity and peace. This may not happen every time you meditate, but I heard that my old martial arts Master used to only have to sleep like 4-5 hours a night due to his meditation exercises.

It helps to have a relaxed environment where you are not to be disturbed. Thoughts will flow at first at random... fast, slow, medium and once you can quiet your mind, you will reach moments of "spiritual awakening" epiphanies. Sometimes it may be as simple as realizing you have nothing to fear or some really profound thoughts. I always feel more at peace with the world when I meditate...

As far as mantras go, there are many out there. My favorite is probably the simple "Om", which in many practices symbolizes a baby cry, Mother Nature, a very natural sound. It is sounded like "Oooooohhhhhhhhmmmmmm" either in your mind or out loud. This can produce profound results.

I hope this helps.

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Yea man thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it. I'll definitely consider trying "Om".

Could I also use, "love", or "freedom"?

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I'll post because I feel I can add to this. ive been meditating for about a year and a half, I started off with learning from the internet, downloading and buying stuff and then found a transcendental meditation teacher in my area and learned from her, ive done a lot of digging around and still read up on it whenever i find someone new or hear something new. I mediate twice a day for 20-30 mins.

Like chico said, you don;t want to be disturbed, depending on your meditation technique, getting disturbed, or coming out to fast can off set you for some of the day, making you have a headache, or feel irritable etc. so get some alone time where no one will disturb you, and as for coming out, just chill out 2-3 minutes after your done following your breathe or saying your mantra to relax then come out. i lay on my bed after for a bit to. also worth mentioning, is you get tired while meditating, lay down and if you fall asleep, fall asleep, this means you got accumulated fatigue and need the rest. the sleep that comes from meditation is different than normal sleep.

Anyways, you can use a breathe awareness meditation liek your doing, or a mantra meditation, or you can do both. If you want to do both, you can say i am, or so hum, I or so as you inhale, and am or hum as you exhale.

theres mindfullness meditation too, which is you just notice everything going on, and let it go, not to be attached to anything. its called witnessing. just let go, sometimes easier said than done. ive also heard this called by a master as "true meditation".

theres alot of different meditation techniques so i can understand why your confused. the ones i mentioned are more of an indian/sanskrit background. the ones chico mentioned and i was directed from a martial arts teacher is a controlled meditaiton more so, where you focus on your breathe, i dont want to say anyone is the best way, although my teacher would argue with that lol. as chico said to, if you do continue to mediate regularly, you may find you need less rest. in fact 20 min of meditation is more refreshing than sleep is.

The key is to be gentle and not forceful, relaxed calm and comfortable the way i do it. You dont want to try and force yourself to meditate, or force your thoughts to go away etc, although sometimes i get frusterated at myself even bcuz i do this sometimes lol, but its counter productive to do so. Focusing on your breathe can be good to calm you down, but once you are calm, you can gently follow your breathe, allowing it to do its natural thing while you just watch it if you know what i mean. the same goes for a mantra, you can say om, sat chit ananda, which is a sankrit mantra, you can actually use anything if you like really. its said that sounds instead of words are more powerful however.

It is normal in meditation to have a lot of thoughts like you said before, actually liek you said, bands playing, was exactly what I had going when i first started learning lol. its bcuz your actually going inside and ntocing how much you (and everyone else thinks). i listen to a lot of masters or meditation teachers, and its said you have 30 000 to 50 000 or so thoguhts a day, so if your not having a clear mind all the time, thats ok lol, its supposed to be that way, so dont worry if you dont get a "blank" mind everytime or all the time. thats not whats supposed to happen and thats not true meditation.

some signs you are meditating correctly is if you lose awareness of your body, you have clear spaces of no thought, or you seem to fall into a quick blip of blackness i guess you could say for a moment, and if you feel relaxed and better afterwards. worth mentiong to, my teacher would be pissed at me for sharing this but i think you shouldnt have to pay money to learn something that betters you and the world, if you might sometimes be in a mood after you leave meditation for a little bit. this is because some old stress has been released (depning on your technique) so just take it easy and it will usually fade off within a little bit.

4 things can happen when you meditate, you notice the mantra or breathe, you notice your thoughts, you have periods of no thought, or you get tired, in that case sleep if you fall asleep. just dont strain and youll be good. lots of benefits to come.

pm me if you got ne questions

Thank you Darkeyes for taking the time to post all of that information on here. I just read through it, and I plan on reading through it again, to get as much knowledge from it as I can retain. I'm going to try different forms of meditation. I'll try using "Om" in my head as well. It seems like a good way to help me start thinking without thinking.

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I would recommend meditating for more than 10 minutes. I often find that it takes me about 10 minutes do get into a state of deep relaxation, and so minutes 10-20 are actually the deepest meditation.

One guy that is really good as a meditation guide is a guy called Jon Kabat Zinn. He has guided meditations and books that are pretty good and not too woo woo.

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Thumbs up for hearing bands playing ! haha

Nothing to add further... people gave very good descriptions!

Thanks for all your info, guys. I dont think this matters much, buttt when I breathe using my diaphragm while meditating I inhale with my nose and exhale through my mouth and sometimes I can hear the slight whisp of my breath. No big deal, right?

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"Take your last chance. It's not the end..."

haha no, no worries, as long as your feeling relaxed during and after your all good, thats the basic rule, any other questions feel free.

and np glad to help

Hey guys. Update: I have decided to stick mostly with mindfulness meditation. So basically just silently following my breathing while trying to focus on that and only that. Yesterday, while meditating, I tried something interesting.

Upon inhaling through my nose, I imagined inhaling red air, and upon exhaling, I imagined releasing black air. I didnt label any of the colors as good or bad, as part of the practice of mindfulness is to just observe without judgment. These are my two favorite colors, and the ones that I identify with most, so I figured maybe it would help me focus better.

My theory is, if I can draw my focus to the colors in conjunction with my breathing, maybe other random thoughts wont pop up as much, and I will become more in sync with my own mind.

Any thoughts from you more experienced meditation advocates?

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"Take your last chance. It's not the end..."

that sounds like a not bad idea. it won't do any harm per se or anything.

i actually do chi kung, but not the chi kung meditation that goes with the exercises all the time though since i did my own different meditation style b4 learning chi kung.

however, in chi kung meditation, well some i've read about/heard of, they inhale blue cleansing air, any colour of blue to your preference.

you put your intent on inhaling cleansing energy, and when you exhale you exhale all the toxins, mental, emotional etc, just like your body does the work of clearing out physical toxins via your digestive system. thats the thought/idea of it anyways.

sounds like your starting to get your practice down good however though, which is good so just keep going, you'll see benefits, if you don't do it twice a day maybe try to start doing that, once in the morning, once in the evening, at least 6 hours between, and not close to bed time bcuz you might mess up your sleep cycle a bit for that night and it may cause u to stay up later than you want bcuz of the extra rest you've gained. check out some guided meditations to if you never have they're pretty nice too f you want to. theres tons out there

Thanks a bunch darkeyes!!! Yea i downloaded a shit ton of meditation torrents and now they're on my ipod. Some from john kabat zin and some from others. I try and do two 15 minutes session every day the way you described it. I'll try and sneak a few of the guided ones into my regimen as well.

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"Take your last chance. It's not the end..."

np bud, guided ones are nice cuz they can get to different parts of yourself i find whereas a silent breathe or mantra meditation cant.

here a site i just discovered recently actually, looks pretty good havent read 2 much on it, but from my experiecne with meditating that site looks prety dahm legit and they kow what theyre talkign about.

http://www.thewayofmeditation.com.au/


sweet dbz pic btw 2 love that shit lol

Haha thanks man. Yea I've been a fan since I was just a kid, and I think the quote is perfect too cause Vegeta is a prime example of an alpha male. Goku too, but a different kind of alpha. He's the pack leader, while Vegeta is more of a lone wolf.

When I make my ultimate list of fictional alphas from movies, tv and anime, they will definitely be on the list.

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"Take your last chance. It's not the end..."