Learn To Meditate - 7 Different Ways

This week we learn to meditate In 7different ways at the meditation challenge at Awake Is Good .

The different meditation techniques like "The Pause Practice",Chakra Meditation,Tonglen practice,Metta meditation,Creativity as a meditative practice,Dancing as a meditative practice and Jewish Meditation were explained with clarity.

Meditation helps you to mirror your soul! Lets Learn To Meditate In 7 Different Ways!

"The pause practice-the practice of taking three deep conscious breaths at any moment when we notice we are stuck-is a simple but powerful practice that each of us can do at any moment."

Jan shares a short but profound message ...

It is a simple practice to help us in a world of complexity! In the busyness we need to try to remember to take many pauses to breathe.Just keeping coming back to the breath. This has an amazing effect on us.

This powerful technique is given to us by Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron in her article, "Waking Up to Your World," appearing in the anthology The Best Buddhist Writing 2009,edited by Melvin McLeod.

May we all pause to breathe...again and again.

Chakras are energy centers, intersections of mind, body, and spirit, associated with certain physical locations in our body.

The basic chakra meditation technique as explained by Lisa Erickson, creator of the blog Mommy Mystic, a meditation teacher in So. California, as well as the Buddhism Editor at Bella Online

1. Sit comfortably, with a straight back if possible (but don't stress about that!)

2. Start with 10-15 minutes and gradually increase the time if you wish. Divide your meditation time into thirds. You can use a simple kitchen timer for this, or select three musical selections that are about the right length. You can also just wing it, and let your intuition decide when to move from chakra to chakra - don't worry about meditating on each for exactly the same length of time.

3. Picture a luminous, gentle, white ball of light about 1 inch below your navel. You can place your hands over your belly if this helps you focus. This is your third chakra, associated with personal power anself-definition (note that in some systems the focus for this chakra is a little higher, in the solar plexus - either location is fine.) Each time your mind wanders, just gently pull it back to your visualization.

4. When you are ready (or your timer or music signal to you) shift your focus to your heart chakra, in the center of your chest at your breastbone. Picture a luminous white ball of light in this area, again holding your hands there if you like. This center is associated with love, compassion, and joy. Take some deep breaths if you are feeling stressed, and relax into this center.

5. When you are ready, shift your focus to your 'third eye'. This is located in your forehead, a little above the midpoint between your eyebrows, and is the center of intuition, insight and wisdom. Again, picture a luminous, gentle sphere of white light.

6. If you like, you can complete your meditation by focusing on each chakra one last time for a fewseconds, and then just sitting quietly with no particular focus.

7. I like to conclude with a bow to the universe, in gratitude for this opportunity to sit, but this is a personal choice.

Note that on any of the chakras, if you start to feel a warmth, tingle, or tickle, you can focus on that physical sensation instead. The visualizations are meant to be aids for beginning to feel the chakras, and work better for some people than others.

Happy meditating!

The Meditation Timer will allow you to meditate, practice yoga, or conduct a therapy session without having to keep an eye on the clock. Its gentle gong will ease you into and out of your session, and the beautiful wood finish and organic shape will naturally blend into the environment. The meditation timer is built to the perfect proportions of the Kheops Pyramid of Gizah, which Feng Shui specialists consider a source of powerful energy, stability, and balance.

When something uncomfortable arises, instead of trying to get rid of it, we breathe it in. We take in the pain, rage, fear, or hopelessness of others. Then we breathe it out, sending out a sense of spaciousness,freshness, freedom. As Pema Chodron advises, "We do this with the wish that all of us could relax and experience the innermost essence of our mind."

Tonglon affirms our kinship with others. It acknowledges that everyone wants to be happy. No one wants to suffer. Aligning ourselves with the suffering of others opens our hearts and builds compassion.

Jan guides us to do Metta meditation

Simply bring your attention to your heart center. Breathe in deeply and allow it to open. Imagine the others whom you wish to serve with your prayer as standing in front of you. Send beams of love from your heart to theirs while saying these phrases. Pause and breathe between phrases:

May you be safe.

May you be healthy and strong.

May you be happy.

May you be peaceful and at ease.

Within your own heart is a limitless source of supreme energy - the energy of love. No other force in the universe compares to it. The world's great spiritual traditions, both past and present, agree on this simple principle. Can love be harnessed and applied to others - used as a "tool" for changing lives? Lovingkindness Meditation teaches a traditional practice for cultivating love, and applying it as a life-changing force. Dating back 2,600 years, the practice of metta (an ancient Buddhist term meaning "lovingkindness") is a timeless method for unlocking your heart's immense healing resources.

We all know meditation as mindfulness,living this moment and concentrating on our breath.

All these can be acheived through creativity is the message our guest for today by Joanne Rose, a wildly creative woman from Breathe As Me.

She describes, creativity as a dynamic, breathing form of meditation. To create is to be awake and alive, experiencing fully the sensuality of sights, sounds, smells and textures.It is a reminder to be here right now, to notice, to give back in gratitude, and in so doing increase the value of every moment.

Creativity as a meditative practice can help bring us into better alignment with what we want to invite more of into our lives when we inhale, and likewise respond to in our lives through our exhale.

Christine Reed, from Bliss Chick offers us a fresh and completely different perspective on meditation. It's about getting up and moving, dancing your way into calm, clarity-bliss even!

Christine opens us up to a new way of thinking about life and meditation.May we allow our bodies to feel, express our inner wisdom, and revel in the fullness of life! As she describes...

For many, the process of meditation implies that consciousness, for example, resides in the Brain/Mind. I come at this from a completely different perspective.

"I sense and move, therefore I am."It is through dance that I achieve a state of utter and complete awareness.That state where I just am.That state that is purely of the Now.I do not have to ward off, fight off, observe away thoughts, because I am Pure Being, Doing, Sensing when I dance.

We think that to find peace or enlightenment, we must control or lessen movement but dancing,the integration of mind, body, emotion and spirit in a sensual expression of interconnectedness ,is a joyful meditation.

Laura Hegfield, from Shine the Divine, a soulful and creative woman and a creativity coach who delights in companioning others into a greater daily experience of the Sacred, especially through creativity and "Soul Collage.", shares a beautiful practice she does every morning .

A recitation of the traditional Jewish prayer of gratitude, Modah Ani.It is a great way to start the day chanting to yourself as you wake up.It fills your mind with gratitude and joy.when the prayer first comes into the mind it begins as words and melody and gradually that changes and it becomes a true mindfulness practice.

Here is the transliteration of the Hebrew and a translation of the prayer into English which Laura chants...

Modah ani l'fanecha, melech chai v'kayam shehechezarta bi nishmati v'chemla raba emunatecha.

I thank you God, eternal One for lovingly restoring my soul to me, filled with your eternal trust.

You can listen to the chanting in laura beautiful voice over here.

Waking up to gratitude grounds your soul in the here and now.

With the gentle authority of a good yoga master, Michaelson, chief editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, offers not so much a mind/body lesson in Kabbalah as a map to a mindful, spiritually rich lifestyle. Having "chosen to emphasize those aspects of the Jewish and world wisdom that treat the body as a sacred site for contemplative practice," he uses a combination of simple meditations, prayers, Talmudic excerpts and wisdom from historic rabbis to guide those seeking to embrace the "God in your body." While most journeys begin with a single step, this one begins with a single breath. Throughout, he reminds us that "a practice is done 'no matter what' not for strictness's sake, but so it can be a prism which casts light upon the mind"-whether that practice be one of breathing, eating, walking or even using the bathroom. Yet, the calls to practice are balanced with a fascinating cache of tidbits. For example, the Amidah, or Standing Prayer, is sometimes called "The Eighteen," referring to the 18 blessings within it that are believed to correspond to the body's 18 vertebrae.

1. The Pause Practice
2. Chakra Meditation
3. Tonglen practice
4. Metta meditation
5. Creativity as a meditative practice
6. Dancing as a meditative practice
7. Jewish Meditation

Please share your views on different types of Meditation