Meditation Techniques

Helpful suggestions for all meditation techniques:

Select a meditation technique that you like and stick with it. Meditation is a skill that
is easiest to master if you practice one technique consistently. This allows focusing
on the present moment to become a habit of the mind.

Sit comfortably, lengthen spine, and relax before meditation. Breathing exercises
such as Ujjayi Pranayama, NadiShodhana (alternate nostril breathing), or the Four
Purifications help the mind settle down and the body relax.

Review your intentions and desires, and practice feeling how you most want to feel
before and after meditation. This plants seeds in the fertile field of consciousness so
your intentions can manifest in your life. Scientifically speaking, repeating thoughts
or intentions creates neural pathways. More repetition creates the stronger neural
pathways (mental habits). Neurons that fire together, wire together! Establishing new
neural connections in the brain is called neuroplasticity, and this enables us to learn
our whole life. We can learn skills and habits of thought like focusing and positive
thinking!

While meditating, know that thoughts are a natural part of the process. When you
catch your mind wandering, gently come back to your meditation technique. It
doesn’t matter how many times your mind drifts. Return to your meditation as soon
as you notice the distraction. Every time you return to focus, you enhance your
focusing skills. Remember—you’re practicing!
Let go of any expectations about what will happen during your meditation session.
Just accept the experience and don’t compare one meditation to the next. Instead,
look for changes in your life over time.

At the end of your meditation it is important to spend a few minutes sitting quietly or
gently stretching before resuming activity. Take a moment to scan your body and
practice your most desired feeling. This transition helps you integrate your
experience. Getting up too quickly can be unsettling and produce agitation.

If a technique produces discomfort or distress, try another technique. There are

many paths. Find one that is positive andpeaceful for you.

Mindfulness Meditation:

Close your eyes and gently allow your awareness to be on your breathing. Do not try
to control or alter the breath in any conscious way. As you observe your breathing,
you may notice that it changes in some way. It may get faster or slower, deeper or
shallower.

There may even be times when it appears to fade away completely. No matter how
your breathing changes, continue to observe it innocently, without resisting or
causing change. At times your attention will drift away from your breath to thoughts
in your mind, sounds in the environment or sensations in your body. Whenever you
realize you are not observing your breath, gently bring your attention back to your
breathing. Remember to let go of expectations. If you notice that you are focusing on
a mood or emotion, or looking for a particular experience, treat this like any other
thought and gently bring your awareness back to your breathing.

Zen Meditation:

Eyes are partially open, lowered to a 45 degree angle, unfocused, gazing towards
floor 3 to 4 feet in front of you, minimizing blinking. Hands are in cosmic mudra with
dominant hand on bottom, palm up, blade of hand on lower belly and non-dominant
hand on top, with middle knuckles overlapping, thumbs slightly touching, forming an
oval.

Gently follow your inbreaths and outbreaths. As you do, count one for an inbreath,
two for the outbreath, three for the next inbreath, etc., until you reach ten. At ten
begin again with a count of one. If you become distracted, always begin again with a
count of one.

Every moment is an opportunity for a fresh start. When your mind becomes stable in
following your breaths and not wandering, you can change the counting to only
counting the outbreaths to ten.

Mantra Meditation:

Sound, even when repeated silently, affects our physiology and alters thought
patterns.

Follow the same technique as for mindfulness meditation, except focus on a mantra
“instrument of thought ”or “ vehicle of the mind,”

man=mind, to think; tra= tool,vehicle instead of the breath. Common mantras

include:

Hum-Sah -(the sound of the breath)

Om (Aum) -​the sound of the Universe (vibration of all living things);

Sat Nam,truth; and Shanti, Shanti, Shanti - peace, peace, peace.

One can also obtain a personalized mantra from a teacher as part of a meditation
class.

Ma Om Meditation:

On each inbreath silently think or hear....Ma....breathe in divine love

On each outbreath silently think or hear....Om....breathe out divine light

Inhale Ma, divine love...exhale Om, divine light

Morning Meditation for Manifesting– “Ah” sound meditation:

In all languages and spiritual traditions, whether primitive, western or eastern, the
name of the Creator shares the sound 'Ah'—the sound of joy and the sound of
creation.... Buddha, Krishna, God, Tao, Ra, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, Kali, Durga,
Ishvara, Svarog, Adibudda, Father, Adonai, Brahman, etc.

'Ah' is the sacred sound that can create something from nothing.

Technique: Bring your attention to your desires, and suspend doubts you may have
about manifesting these desires. Feel and visualize your desires as if they already
exist. Chant “Ah” for up to 20 minutes, feeling the sound go from your root chakra to
the third eye. The Ah meditation helps you connect with the abundance of the
universe. With consistent daily practice you will feel lighter, clearer, centered, more
focused and you will manifest anything you want in life.

Evening Meditation for Gratitude– “Om” sound meditation:

Om is the sound of peace, harmony and joy in life. This is the sound of serene inner
bliss that you want to go to sleep with at night.

In the Om meditation you let go of your desires and experience the sheer joy and
gratitude for being who you are and where you are in life. The spirit of gratitude is an
essential component of manifestation, because appreciating the abundance we
already have in life acknowledges the gifts of the universe and allows us to
experience our prosperity. Ah and Om meditations are companions, just as the good
things in life flow to us when we feel thankful for what we already have. Chant “om”
in the evening for up to 20 minutes.

A selection of affirmations from Meditations for Manifesting by Dr. Wayne Dyer: I

know in each moment I am free to decide. I am totally responsible for everything that
happens to me in my life. The more I listen the more profound the silence becomes.
I know that my highest self is always ready to lift me up beyond the world I
experience with my senses. I know that I can connect my mind with the divine mind
and guarantee myself peace in any moment. I know I am strengthened as I seek to
make truth my personal reality. I know that I am already whole and complete. The
very essence of my being is love. I will work this day at my purist intentions for the
highest good of all.

Resources for further study:

Soul-Centered: Transform Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation, by Sarah McLean.

A great read for modern life.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, by Eckhart Tolle. A
wonderful handbook for the spiritual journey that helps the reader let go of ingrained
thought processes, beliefs, opinions, and obsessions in order to plunge directly into
the reality of the moment. Awaken the spiritual dimension in your life and find inner
peace.

Wherever You Go, There You Are,by John Kabat-Zinn. Good resource on
mindfulness & Zen.

Meditations for Manifesting CD by Dr. Wayne Dyer. Short program which focuses on
“Ah” meditation for manifesting desires and “Om” meditation for gratitude, and
includes affirmations. Available at 800-654-5126.

Creative Visualization and Creating True Prosperity. By Shakti Gawain. Learn the art
of mental energy, affirmation and gratitude.

How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali.Translated by Swami

Prabhavananda & Christopher Isherwood.An easy-to-read version of this classic
yogic text.