Daily Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF DAILY meditation carves out a time to quiet your mind, calm your societal self, and connect into the deep well of inner peace inside so that you can hear the whisperings of your universal self. With regular practice, you will find resistance releasing and a sense of clarity about who you really are and what you most desire. Letting go of the societal self and connecting with your universal self allows you to experience what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls being in the “flow.” Ultimately you will begin to experience this flow feeling whenever you are showing up in daily life as your universal self and connecting from that place with the people around you and the task in front of you.

Developing a regular meditation practice is very individual. You need to find the type of meditation that works best for you, the most conducive time of day and the location that best fits your needs. There are many different types of meditation and you’ll ultimately find the one that most resonates for you. I’m certainly not a meditation instructor however I will describe the “mantra meditation” as the technique that I have found works for me. A mantra is a word or phrase that is silently repeated during meditation. I use OM throughout my inhale, AH at the apex of my breath, and HUM during my exhale. If have found this more effective than using English language words as my mind doesn’t attach any meaning with them so they don’t trigger thoughts. The whole idea is to quiet the mind, so we can access our universal self.

Once you have a mantra selected, the next step is to find a quiet location where you won’t be disturbed with comfortable place to sit. You can sit on the floor, or on a chair or sofa. It’s important to sit upright with your spine straight. Being comfortable is the priority though. You can support yourself with a cushion, pillow or blanket if you like. Sitting is preferable to lying down to prevent falling asleep. I find it helpful to meditate in the same place every day and at the same time. I find the mornings my most powerful meditation time of day because I’m not as tired as I might be in the afternoon or evening. I am much calmer and more centered, resilient, peaceful and conscious during the day, when I meditate in the morning.

Now it’s time to begin meditating.

• Gently close your eyes and begin by taking a few unusually deep breaths, inhaling slowly through your nose an exhaling out your mouth. After several of these deeper breaths, continue to breathe normally, in and out through your nose.
• Begin repeating your mantra silently to yourself, softly, gently, and relaxed. You don’t need to match your mantra with your breath although I have found it to be very helpful to do so. Silently repeat “Om” during your inhale. Pause momentarily at the end of your inhale and silently repeat “Ah.” Then silently repeat “Hum” on your exhalation. Allow your breath to find its own rhythm and the repetition of your mantra to become effortless. You can imagine that it’s being whispered in your ear.
• When thoughts appear in your mind, once you have noticed them, simply turn your attention back to your mantra and following your breath.
• Continue this process for 20 to 30 minutes. Even a few minutes of daily meditation is beneficial, play with this and find the amount of time that works best for you. I like to set a gentle timer (you don’t want to be startled out of meditation) so that my mind can relax and not turn to worrying thoughts about the time. After the timer goes off, spend a few minutes relaxed with your eyes closed before resuming activity.

I allow for an additional 10 minutes after meditation to write in my journal. For the same reason that the shower is one of the best places for creative ideas to pop up, intuitive messages will come up during meditation and I find it helpful to jot these down before moving on with my day.