Meditation Secrets Revealed

Working at a computer all day can be difficult and puts strain and stress on the eyes leading to blurriness, redness,reduced vision, and headaches. Our modern lifestyle reduced the natural freedom of eye movements to a straight and short laser-like stare, aimed at our screens for hours at a time. To undo this strain, our eyes need exercise just like our bodies and minds. Here is a quick eye movement exercise to reduce stress, sooth, relax, and promote healthy eye motion.

Begin by getting into a comfortable sitting position. Taking a few deep breaths, get centered and focus on your eyes. Moving your gaze upward, begin to make gentle up and down motions with your eyes, tracing a nearby wall or just focusing on the movements themselves. Repeat this up and down motion approximately ten times then bring your eyes to center and close them for a moment.

To make the motion smooth, you can imagine your eyes tracing a straight and unbroken line. After the completion of each series of directional movements, bring your eyes to center and close to give them some rest.

Opening them again, begin to move them left to right, repeating this motion another ten times. Opening, look to the upper left corner of your vision and trace a line down to the bottom right, and back diagonally to the upper left. Do this ten times, center, close, and repeat the diagonal motion in the opposite direction.

Next, moving your gaze up, begin to trace a smooth clockwise circle, including as much of your peripheral vision as possible. Once completed, repeat in the counter-clockwise direction. After doing both directions, center and close the eyes. Keeping them closed, bring your hands together and rub them vigorously until you feel heat between your palms. Bringing the palms to your closed eyes, cup eyes and let the heat and darkness sooth and relax your eye muscles. Take a few deep breaths here to finish the practice.

In summary here is the order: up and down, left and right, diagonal, and finally circular in both directions. Rub hands together and cover. Enjoy and practice whenever your feel strain or pressure building up in the eyes. Done often, this exercise will keep your eyes healthy and strong!

In the science and philosophy of yoga it is said that, “whether pain or pleasure, both are the product of the mind.”  A friend related his sad and inspirational story bringing this axiom to life. He is going through a tough time in his relationship, experiencing much pain and anguish. As I listened and comforted him in his pain, I realized that he is looking at the situation as a means to remain motivated and focused on his life goals.

In Kriya Yoga there is a notion of tapas which literally means to burn or purify. While it is easy to to run away from pain, and the mind tries to do so constantly, what would happen if we were to accept it and learn from it? Performing tapas means to see that pain as a burning fire, consuming our inner impurities and weaknesses, purifying our spirit and making the mind stronger. In doing so, we can practice acceptance welcome these “negative” emotions with open arms and the warm embrace of a long lost friend. Tapas provide us the means to practice mental discipline and self-restrain in situations where that choice is the hardest and most challenging.

Sometimes, a thing can be pleasurable but eventually lead to something painful, however in this practice, we are taking something painful and turning it into something positive and good. This form of yoga can only be achieved in the active state, in our daily lives and through our interactions with the outside world. May we all strive to see the deeper lessons and practice a little yoga in our lives.

Meditation is like a vast unexplored continent, the further you travel the more splendor and beauty you will see. To begin the great adventure, one must prepare for the journey and bring appropriate equipment, clothing and fuel. A well equipped expedition will ensure minimal setbacks and determine the success of the journey. Here is an inventory list of some “equipment” you will need on your meditation journey in order to establishing and maintaining a successful meditation practice.

1. Set the intention: Be clear and realistic with your expectations. Ask yourself, what are you willing to sacrifice in order to set aside the time necessary to meditate?

2. Creating the atmosphere: Dedicate a little corner, mat, or chair for meditation, use it only for this purpose. Put on some music, make some tea, develop a meditation ritual. This does not mean you must be sitting there on a cushion, with lit candles and an incense stick, but it does mean that there should be a special place where you go only for meditation.

3. Set aside a time: This may be obvious to some, but have a specific time of day when you know you will be alone and in relative quiet. Be selfish in maintaining your inner peace and don’t let anyone disturb you.

4. Unplug: Turn off your phone, the computer, and the T.V. Without these distractions, you know you can have some peace and quiet to dedicate to your meditation.

5. Stay Consistent: Consistency is the major stumbling block for any practice and developing a good habit is crucial. How do you develop a habit? It takes three weeks of doing the same thing over and over again for your body and mind to adjust and then it becomes easy and natural.

6. Keep a journal: After every meditation session, take a few minutes to write down your experiences, thoughts, mental imagery, or bodily sensations. You can look back and check on your progress and its a great way to share your experiences with friends. Keep a record of the date, time of day, and duration of the meditation.

7. Experiment: There are many different types of meditations and you never know which one will work best for until you try them. Amongst the many types, the most common are: guided visualizations, music, no music, sitting, walking, slow repetitive movements, mantras, and watching the breath.

I am frequently asked by people for advice regarding their personal and professional lives and I usually start with questions such as, “What happens in your mind? What do you see, hear, feel, and think?” It is shocking how few people are able to answer these relatively straightforward questions, yet the answers are the key to overcoming many people’s challenges. The good news is that it is fairly easy to develop this self awareness.

A simple, yet powerful, meditation technique is to create a silent watcher over your own mind. Its a simple practice that you can begin to develop into a daily habit. Take a small part of your attention and assign this part the task of watching everything that flutters through your mind. Imagine this part as a video camera that records everything, to be stored and analyzed almost immediately after it occurs. Stop reading for a few brief moments, and try this RIGHT NOW! As you begin to develop this ability, you can notice thoughts, stories, narratives, emotions, reactions, and many other processes going on in your mind. By watching and then analyzing yourself at all times, in all situations, you can discover what kinds of thoughts are going through your mind, which will quickly bring realizations and epiphanies about your own beliefs, motivations, actions, and reactions.

The only way a fish can understand water is by getting onto the shore, and looking back down into the water. You are the fish and the water represents your thoughts. In order to understand, analyze, and ultimately steer your mind, you first need to watch yourself from the outside, as a passive observer. At first, this may seem to be strange, or daunting as the self now how has to pay attention to the self, but it quickly becomes second nature. I want to make it very clear that the watcher or observer must not participate or be in any way involved in what is going on in the mind. This means that it should not make comments or judgments on what is seen, but simply observe passively and report, similar to a surveillance camera.

Be patient and do not become discouraged if you forget or become distracted, this is completely natural. Keep with it, and in time you will develop the ability to keep mental track of the chaotic landscape of the mind without becoming distracted from daily activities. If I could recommend any one meditation technique in the world, this would be it. It is crucial key to opening the door to self awareness, personal growth, stress management, mental clarity, and peace of mind.

Breathing is something so automatic that we frequently take it for granted. It is directly tied to our emotions and state of mind. Have you ever noticed that in a deep state of concentration, it is as if you are not breathing at all and, after a while, you give a long sigh to catch up. When we are in this frame of mind we tend to automatically hold our breath. The reverse happens when we are agitated or energized -we tend to take many quick breaths. In a relaxed state, we can experience and become aware of the slow deep breathing that happens automatically. By first watching our breathing and how it affects our state of mind and emotions, we can then learn to use it to our advantage. Here are a few simple meditation techniques for controlling and working with the breath.

Three- Part Breath: Inhaling slowly and deeply, notice which part of your body appears to receive the breath and where does the air move to as you complete the inhalation. As you begin to bring air into your body, the first part of the inhalation fills your abdomen. You should feel the abdomen expand outward a little, filling like a balloon. In the second part of the same inhalation, the air begins to move to the middle of the chest, and finally the upper lungs. You should feel three separate sections of the torso filling, expanding, and contracting as you inhale and exhale slowly. The reverse movement should happen on the exhale. This is a very powerful exercise and can be done to a count or with a  mantra addition.

Alternate Nostril Breathing: Closing one nostril, begin to draw in breath through the remaining nostril – start with a count of five. As you reach the five count, stop inhaling through that nostril, switch and close of the nostril you were just breathing through. Now, exhale with the alternate nostril also counting to five. When you are done exhaling, keep the hand on the closed nostril, inhale for another five count and switch to the other nostril for a five count exhale. Alternating this way back and forth until you feel comfortable switching to a 2:1 ration. For every five count on the inhalation, exhale for a ten count. Keep this ration, you can vary the inhale and exhale count as you become more adept and your lung capacity increases. Notice any difference either mental, or physical as you alternate this nostril breathing. People frequently find that the sides feel different, are able to breath in longer or shorter. This is fine and over time this technique will balance the two sides.

Fire Breath: Begin by drawing a deep breath in, exhale in rapid short bursts through the nostrils focusing on the lower abdomen. Placing your hand on the abdomen, you should feel a pulsing outward push with every exhalation. As the name suggests, this is a highly effective exercise for creating internal fire and heat and should therefore be practiced with caution.

I recently wrote an article about the Law of Attraction, where I outlined 4 steps in a process of manifesting intent in your life. In this follow up article, I want to give specific ways that you can make your intentions more powerful and real. The more vivid, clear, and concrete your intention is, the quicker and closer the outcome will be to what you imagine.

See yourself in it: When you see yourself inside the scene that you wish to happen, you make it that much more powerful. Imagine seeing yourself in the exact mood, surrounding, and situation that you would like to happen, you can even bring in other people that will help you make this manifestation become reality. Clarity, focus, and realism are key.

Action: When you see the scene happening, try to create action, aliveness, and vividness. If there are people, they can be moving, talking, cheering, smiling. If there are no people, see yourself in motion, get some feeling into this mental movie and make sure you can actually feel the motion in your body, that is one sign that your body is going along with the mental movie.

Focused: Make sure that you clear your mind, before beginning this meditation. A clear mind is able to focus much more then a distracted and scattered one. It is the difference between a lightbulb that scatters light everywhere and a laser beam that hits a small spot with all it’s power – 100′ away from the source. You want your intention to be that focused, and clear so that there can be no doubt or confusion as to what you want to manifest.

Multi-sensory: Because life is perceived through all of the senses, the mental movie should mimic real life as much as possible. Therefore, if your intention is to have the perfect chocolate cake on Thursday, you should be seeing the cake, smelling the cake, tasting the cake. Meanwhile, imagine the feeling of holding that fork in your hand as you bring the first piece to your mouth. The more senses are involved, the stronger the intention will be.

Time: The frequency with which you repeat this meditation will also determine the speed with which it manifests itself. In my own life, if I want to attract something or somebody, I practice this meditation daily until the imaginary outcome becomes the real thing. Running through this exercise for the first time may take a while, but once it is well formed it becomes easy, quick, and much more clear. The power and effect increase dramatically with every repetition similar to practicing any other skill, the more you do it, the better you get.

While siting at a workshop last week, I noticed that several people around me were having trouble paying attention and sitting still. The topic was interesting, the presenter was being extremely engaging and yet here they were, fidgeting. As part of an exercise in non-judgment and listening, attendants were asked to pair up and take turns give advice on problem areas in their partner’s lives. I was not surprised to see that patience was one of the top resources that people frequently wish they had more of, but just don’t know how to get. In the past, I have frequently found myself becoming extremely impatient which quickly lead to frustration and anger. While I can’t say that I no longer experience impatience, I now have many tools at my side to deal in a quick and healthy manner. Here are a few meditation techniques for doing exactly that.

Chinese Man: See an old Chinese man standing with his hands clasped behind his back. He has a relaxed, calm, and slight smile on his face. As you see him standing there, begin to move closer and end up looking at his face. As you zoom even closer, move behind and step into him. Feel the patience, calm, and peace washing over you.

Clasped Hands: When experiencing a moment of patience, clasping your hands behind you, begin to lean back and take a deep breath. When you need more patience, repeat the patient stance and follow the breath – deeply settle into the experience.

Breath Sip: Take a long slow deep breath in, hold for a count of five, and then slowly release. As you do this, pay attention to how the breath is coming into your lungs, filling them up, and leaving. This is one sip. Repeat several times as necessary.

Here are a few of my favorite meditation techniques for achieving concentration when I really need it, but just not in the right  mood.

Distant Glow: Two walls closing in and a bright glowing light in the distance. As you focus on the glowing light, see yourself moving with force and dedication forward towards the light. Feel the wind rushing as the walls come closer and enjoy the feeling of knowing that your one and only goal is that light. Nothing else matters, nothing else exists, concentrate on the goal and move forward with power, speed, and concentration.

Laser: from the eyes, see a laser beam of such concentration and focus that it can burn a hole through anything. This beam is the carrier for your concentration. Let the warm, soft, red glow of this beam spread through your body and as you bring it up from your feet all the way up to your head feel your thoughts being pulled with it, concentrated, centered, and laser sharp. Now, focus that beam on the task at hand, and burn your way through it with the full force of your concentration.

Zoom Lens: Imagine the task at hand as a mental image, see it far away and small. Now, reach with your hands and your mind for that task and begin to bring it closer. Closer, even closer. All the while seeing it becoming bigger, and filling up the entire view of your mental screen. As it approaches, all else becomes hidden from view and only this image, this task, is left. As it fills your entire screen, feel the concentration bubbling up and reaching with your mind and hands for the image, grasp it. Now that you have it in your hands, your your concentration is total.

For more meditation techniques visit the Techniques Section here:

One of the simplest ways to begin learning meditation is to watch your breath. This meditation technique is perfect for beginners because it is natural, easy, and can be done anywhere and anytime. Begin by paying attention to the breath as it leaves and enters your lungs.

Take notice of any bodily sensations, thoughts, or feelings. At first, start with five inhalations and five exhalations, counting slowly and taking deep regular breaths. Make sure that you are paying full attention and giving all of your focus to the breath. If you find yourself getting distracted, do not worry or get agitated, this is a natural part of the practice. When this happens, gently bring your attention back to the breath and begin again. Once you are able to maintain a steady focus and count five breaths without becoming distracted, you can increase the number of inhalations and exhalations.

Take note of the moments when you become distracted, there you will find the greatest lessons and realizations and I always try to think of those moments as reminders and helpful reminders instead of failures. To use the metaphor of driving a car, if you momentarily drift off the road, you simply take control of the steering wheel and bring the car back to the center of the road. It is exactly the same with this meditation technique. Watching and counting the breath can be done frequently and in short bursts, and you may find that even a five count will dramatically reduce stress and anxiety while calming, clearing, and centering the mind. As with any skill, the amount of time and length of practice will determine the benefit and mastery.

The only way a fish can understand water is by getting onto the shore, and looking back down into the water. We are the fish and the water represents our thoughts. In order to understand, analyze, and ultimately steer our mind, we first need to watch ourselves from the outside, as a passive observer. At first, this may seem to be strange, or daunting as the self now how has to pay attention to the self. Be patient and keep with it, in only a short time it is possible to develop the ability to keep mental track of the chaotic landscape of the mind without becoming distracted from daily activities.

The watcher or observer must not participate or be in any way involved in what is going on in the mind. This means that it should not make comments or judgments on what is seen, but simply observe passively and report, similar to a surveillance camera.