I meditate every day. In the morning when I get up, I usually try to meditate for five minutes. In the evening, I will typically meditate for approximately half an hour.
If you want to use my technique, it is fairly simple.
1. I sit upright on my bed with my legs stretched out in front of me. I use a sheet or blanket as necessary to maintain a comfortable temperature (Cool, not cold, no direct breezes, no direct heat).
2. I close my eyes, and breathe in and out steadily. I do not try to control my breathing, but allow changes in breathing to happen naturally.
3. I let my mind fix on my focus. You can use an object (as long as you can see it in your mind), a word, a feeling. I use my breath. Each inhalation, I mentally say ‘inhale’. For each exhalation, I say ‘exhale’.
4. This focus helps me center myself, settles my breathing into a pattern, and clears my mind of extraneous thoughts. In addition, I am able to return to that meditative state when it is disturbed by some extraneous thought or disruption happens.
I will often set my cell phone with an alarm set at the outside limit of time I want. The alarm on my phone is limited to vibration and a very quiet single beep. This brings me out of meditation without destroying the state of mind I have reached.
You must build up to your ideal amount of time. Do not move too fast. Start with five minutes, then after a few days or a week increase it to seven or eight minutes. Increase by two or three minutes every few days or a week. If you begin to feel a dramatic disorientation, dizziness, nausea, or other unusual symptoms, return to your previous amount of time, and stay at that length of time until you feel ready to increase the time again.
You may have pictures, feelings or noises pass through your mind while you are meditating. Do not FORCE yourself back to that meditative state. Allow yourself to drift back to it. Accept anything that intrudes and release it. If, for example, you begin thinking of your grocery list, do not add items, do not think about where you will go, do not think about the costs, accept the thought and release it to drift away from you.
If you have any abnormal thoughts or visions, things that fill you with caution or fear, back off. You are trying to push yourself too far or too fast.
