How to Meditate Properly: Images, Sounds and Music During Meditation and Breathing Exercises
There are several ways to meditate, but whichever one is chosen, complete solitude, a comfortable posture and absolute detachment are a prerequisite. In a person’s life, there were certainly at least a few pleasant moments. Before you meditate properly, you need to focus on them.
Meditation is a way to be alone with yourself and not with your disturbing thoughts.
Breathing exercises for meditation
For breathing exercises during meditation, choose a secluded place, sit or lie down comfortably, close your eyes and begin to listen to your breathing, feeling how the air fills the lungs, washes them and goes out. You don’t need to breathe deeply or often. Let the breaths be natural: you do not control them, you are only an observer. You may be tempted to count your breaths. One should not resist him, but one should deceive oneself. Count as follows: inhale-exhale – one, inhale-exhale – two. When you count to twelve, start over so that you are not tempted to set a specific goal for yourself. Meditation is an absolutely pointless exercise.
Perhaps your brain decides that now is the time to think about what is troubling you. Don’t give in, but don’t actively fight either: just slide out of those thoughts. For example, you remembered the upcoming meeting on Monday. Tell yourself, “Those are thoughts about work. There will still be time for them: later, not now" — and mentally leave them behind.
During breathing meditation, remain in a calm, relaxed state for as long as you need. There is a high chance that you will fall asleep. It is very good.
Meditation on color, image and sound
Color Meditation. Do you find it hard to concentrate on nothing? Then, while meditating on the color, choose the shade that best suits your mood. Mentally imagine any surface painted in this color. And now drip water on it, and gradually the paint will become twice as light (watch how stains spread over the surface and it slowly changes its color). Then mentally add more water and dilute the color again. Continue until the space in front of your eyes is white, with only the slightest hint of its original color. Contemplate this color for a while. Now open your eyes and check how things are going with your mood.
Image Meditation. Imagine that on a clear sunny but not hot day you are walking along a country road. Maybe it will be a road from your childhood or some imaginary path. Go through it step by step, carefully examining everything you see around you, listening to the sounds and inhaling the smells. Suddenly, along the way, you will come across bushes of ripe raspberries or a spring with clean, icy water? Don’t rush, but don’t hold back your imagination either. You can go to the seashore, see an ancient city in the distance or get into a dense forest. When meditating on the image, be sure to fantasize!
Here is one simple way to meditate: imagine that you are in a garden that is full of weeds. Rolling up your sleeves, you get to work: clearing paths, pulling out weeds, planting flowers, trimming dry branches on trees, hanging a hammock or building a gazebo for tea parties, maybe even making a fountain or cascading on a stream. Finally, sit back and enjoy your work.
Perhaps, after this image during meditation, you will want to clean up the apartment, make it more your own. Walk around the rooms and see if there is a lot of furniture in your favorite color. Should I change the upholstery on the sofa or curtains? Do you have things that are not utilitarian, but simply beautiful or associated with pleasant memories? Maybe put some shells on the bathroom shelf? Hang some pretty still life in the kitchen? Or take your favorite child’s toy out of the box and put it in the bedroom? The apartment should please the owner in every possible way, because this is your home.
Sound meditation. As sounds for meditation, choose something soothing from your favorite poems or songs and mentally slowly repeat the work, following the images that arise in your mind, but not getting carried away by them. When you reach the end, start over as if it were a prayer. Allow the sounds and music of meditation to reach the very heart and bring peace to it.
If you need support, remember the person who truly loves you. If no one comes to mind, imagine that you, like Cinderella, have a fairy godmother who always takes care of you and comforts you. Imagine that you met her and tell your godmother about your sorrows and anxieties (now it’s time to remember them). What does she tell you? If he suggests thinking about what your fault is and what you did wrong, then most likely this is an evil witch who pretended to be your godmother. Drive her away!
A real kind sorceress will remember your strengths, what will help you cope with troubles, whether it be the ability to build relationships with other people, the ability to learn and delve into the essence of things, courage or creativity. It will remind you of those situations from which you have already emerged victorious, of the good that you have already done. She will tell her beloved goddaughter that she has every right to be angry, offended, to fight for what she considers fair. She will never judge you. Often mentally meet with the sorceress godmother.