*Light encoded for your awakening journey.*
So how does one go about meditating? It’s easy and it’s hard all at the same time. Harder for some than for others as it requires some discipline. If you tend to be more antsy than others, it may be harder for you, but you will also see a greater benefit. First, find a quiet spot where you will not be disturbed (easier said than done). Get comfy lying or sitting. I prefer to sit as I usually fall asleep while lying down for a meditation. Be still, clear your mind and start with whatever type of meditation you choose. Start your mantra, start your music, start your recording. Take small steps, start with five minutes and build-up your time. Don’t allow your thoughts to wander on to anything negative like how your boss yelled at you at work today. Also, try not to get stuck on any one thought either. My friend, Alice, posted a quote on Facebook the other day by Shunryu Suzuki that is appropriate here, “Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” That would be the front and back door of your mind. Can’t you just picture door on your forehead and the back of your head with little clouds floating in and out?! Keep returning to your zero point and refocus your attention back on to your music, breath, mantra or guidance. The aim of meditation is to achieve “effortless presence” or a state of “pure being,” according to Giovanni Dienstmann of www.LiveAndDare.com where you are quiet, still and unperturbed by all. This takes time. Be sure not to get frustrated, sometimes it is very difficult to be still and quiet for five minutes. There are still days when I have a hard time focusing. If it’s too bad, I stop and try later.
For beginners, I would recommend either a guided meditation or a contemplative one. It helps to have a definite focus on something to keep your mind from racing around like it’s in the Indy 500. If you wander off the path, just return to it. No problems. No worries. Your first attempts may be kind of like this:
“OOOOOMMMMM, OOOOOOMMMMM. I wish that dog would quite barking. OOOOOMMMMMM, OOOOMMMMM, OOOOMMMMM. I’m thirsty, oh yeah, I need milk at the grocery store. Hope I remember that when I’m done meditating. Maybe I should have brought a pen and paper. OOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM, OOOMMMMMMMMM.”
And that’s OK! Perseverance is the key. Build up your time over a period of days or weeks. There is no rush. Be patient. It is not a competition. Try different methods, music, positions and/or places. Experiment until you find what works best for you. The best meditation you can do is the one that works well for you that you can turn in to a sustainable habit.
Personally, I do what I would call a combo of guided and open awareness mediation. I sometimes just use recorded music or chanting. I really like a Green Tara mantra mediation that I found on YouTube by Meditative Mind and binaural beats which can also be found on YouTube. My friend, Jeremy, turned me on to binaural beats. They are specific auditory patterns that synchronize the left and right hemispheres of the brain. They increase the electrical actively of the brain so that the whole brain works together simultaneously. Edgar Cayce considered proper meditation music to be a combination of wind and string instruments to mimic the breath and vocal cords where the musicians play with the intention of inducing deep relaxation/meditation. The vast majority of the time, I use guided meditation, but I remain open to whatever comes in to my awareness while I AM listening. I have discovered that when I allow my mind to wander (not too far, I don’t allow it to rehash the day), I find answers to problems, my next course of action or inspiration. The idea for this blog came to me during meditation!
As you meditate habitually and go deeper, you may start to see and feel things that you may not have experienced before. For example, I used to see eyes and faces. The faces were sometimes scary looking, but I was never harmed. The eyes belonged to angels and I would see only one eye of an angel. They would be an outline in white light on a dark gray background. I learned to tell them apart because the same eye (left or right) would show up in the same place in my “field of vision” (in quotation marks because I meditate with my eyes closed the vast majority of the time). I would ask who they were and they would give their names. I don’t see the eyes or faces any more while meditating. I see them sometimes when I close my eyes to go to sleep. I read that the faces and eyes are no longer there because I go deeper in to meditation now than I used to. Progress! I do kinda miss them though. I also see colors! They have not gone away. They swirl and blob together like a lava lamp. My favorites are gold and pink, but I mostly see violet and indigo. I have seen grids or lines in a wavy pattern and occasionally geometric shapes like triangles or pyramids. I even saw a wormhole graphic once. It looked like this:
(Image accessed at https://sp.depositphotos.com/178342988/stock-photo-3d-illustration-tunnel-or-wormhole.html 06/13/2018)
except it was in white light against a black background. Very cool!
Do not be afraid of anything you may “see” during your meditation. I know sometimes there may be frightening images. If you are approached by any being, ask them who they are. If they make you feel uneasy, ask them multiple times. For any new entity I may encounter, I ask for their name 3 times. The answer should be the same each time. I ask if they are of the Light and Love of God. Speak to these entities with authority. Do not be timid. You do not want anything that is not of the Light to stick around. Send a flow of Love their way. Tell them that you love them. It has been my experience that denser, darker energies do not like that and will pull back and leave (just like men on a first date). You may call upon Archangel Michael, the archangel of protection, to come help you chase it away. I usually ask Michael to please come to my house now and round up and banish any lower vibrational energies that do not serve the Light. That is the best advice I can give you. Don’t worry about offending a higher vibrational being. They expect to be challenged and understand that you are protecting yourself. My other piece of advice is to show no fear. Lower vibrational energies feed upon negative emotions like fear and anger. It will only encourage them to stick around for a snack, so to speak. Preparing your space before meditation will help with this. Sage/smudging will help cleanse your area of any lower vibrational energies. You may also burn incense or use essential oils with a diffuser to raise the room’s vibration after cleansing. I burn an incense cone of frankincense and myrrh every time I meditate (those Wise Men were pretty smart, after all, I guess). Other uplifting scents would include lavender, copal, peppermint and cinnamon among others.
I do not want to scare anyone away from meditation. These things did not happen until I was meditating for years. My intention in sharing is to inspire, excite, intrigue and reassure you. I just want you to make like a Boy Scout and be prepared in case something or someone should visit. Your experience may be similar or completely different from mine. Meditation will help you grow spiritually and bring you closer to your Higher Power (whatever you may call yours). It expands your mind and awareness and puts you in touch with your Higher Self. It is by using the senses of my Higher Self that I “see” or “hear” while meditating. This is why I “see” with my eyes closed and “hear” the names of the angels even though they are not in the room physically in 3D speaking to me with vocal cords. I also feel their presence or energy. I perceive it as a tingling or pleasant pressure in my heart or the top of my head or sometimes on my back or shoulder. I AM a Reiki Master and often the Reiki turns on spontaneously. And, no, I AM not crazy. And neither are you if and when you begin to experience these things. It is also not our imaginations running wild. Stay open minded and enjoy! You are opening to the fact that there is so much more to this universe than meets our three dimensional awareness.
In closing, I would just like to paraphrase Elsie Sechrist in Mediation Gateway to Light, if praying is speaking to God (or most often asking things of God), then meditating is listening to God. We would all be better off if we spent more time listening to God than speaking to God. As Dr. Amit Ray said, “Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing [or re-establishing] that connection.” So, stick with it! It’s one of the best things you can do for yourself and YOU ARE WORTH IT!
Thanks for reading!
Peace, Love and Light,
Aunt Jeannie
References:
Accessed 5/10/2018: https://lifeadvancer.com/7-types-of-meditation-which-one-is-best-for-you
Accessed 5/10/2018 https://liveanddare.com/types-of-meditation
Accessed 5/10/2018: http://mindworks.org/meditation-knowledge/different-types-meditation/
Accessed 5/12/2018: http://noetic.org/meditation-bibliography/meditation-types
Accessed 5/30/2018: https://www.monroeinstitute.org/catalog/hemisync%C2%AE
Accessed 5/30/2018: www.buddhanet.net
Accessed 6/22/2018: https://liveanddare.com/meditation-quotes
Sechrist, E., Meditation Gateway to Light, Virginia Beach: A.R.E. Press, 2005. Print.