Meditation is a very useful personal development tool. However, some people seem to encounter great difficulty when it comes to trying to force silence and stillness for extended periods of time. If you are a person who finds meditating difficult, I have some great news for you! There are meditation techniques that are fun and simple to use which makes meditation a great option for everyone.
Check out some of these helpful ideas provided by care2.
While meditation has a strong reputation as a stress buster, not many of us can manage to sit there and do nothing—even for a few minutes. Recently, government officers in Central India were ordered to practice daily meditation for 20 minutes during work hours. The move was meant to help them de-stress, but many complained that the forced silence was actually more upsetting than healing.
If only the administration had thought of these fun, easy ideas that can help you revive your happy self without the slightest stress:
Smile meditation: Sit in a comfortable corner or lie in bed. Close your eyes, and smile. Conjure up positive, happy images in your mind, as if turning the pages of a family album. If you’re lying in bed at night, imagine that you have an open sky overhead, filled with brilliant stars. If you meditate before getting out of bed, stay there awhile, eyes closed, and imagine that the sun is pouring gentle gold on your entire being. Keep your eyes relaxed and your jaw muscles loose. Don’t worry about how long your meditation should be. Just think of happy things, and smile.
Candle meditation: why is ‘candle meditation’ done anyway? Simple: it helps you focus your restless mind on a moment. And the flame of the candle is a vital element of nature: composed of fire and light. Place a lit candle on a low table, and sit cross legged before it. Gaze at the candle for as long as you can, without blinking; try for 30 seconds or one full minute—it does not matter. Eyes watering a little? No worries. When your eyes feel tired, close them and imagine the flame in your mind’s eye. Even three full minutes of this candle gazing is wonderfully calming, and prepares you to face the day in a relaxed state of mind.
Image Credit: imagesbuddy
To see the rest of the article and learn more creative ways to meditate, care2
01/12/2016
Candle meditation can hurt optical nerves- less due to light that is mild, but more due to coercive concentration. Forced concentration to calm mind is bad as it will dull mind and sensitivity over time giving delusionary calmness of mind.
Our mind is like a playful child- running around, mischievous at time, ever-active; it is not good to lock up the child in a room to prevent it. Our mind is similarly spontaneous and ever-active. Attempt to coerce and put it in one track with forced concentration is not a healthy meditation.
Instead, relax and observe your breath or activities of thought, emotions, and memories as a witness, a spectator and not actor. It means be totally relaxed in meditation; let thought and memories float without intervention, direction or coercion. Initially more thoughts, memories will invade and crowd mind, but in days or months, such activities of mind will be reduced on their own allowing emotional equilibrium and innate peace of mind to prevail. That will bring natural joy and peace of mind.
01/12/2016
Thank you for your thoughts and feedback on meditation. It is always great to see different perspectives as everybody has a different experience with meditation.
01/13/2016
Sean May, Thanks for your open-minded approach. It is good to share actual meditation experiences of different people. Theoretical knowledge is often dogmatic lacking objective scrutiny. Also, there is need to have scientific investigative approach without burden of ancient theories. For more details you like to visit:- http://www.rewiringthebrain.org/
01/13/2016
That is the great thing about the world of personal development, you can make any exercise your own and test to see what works the best for you!
Plus, the most important part, always have fun during the process 🙂
Thanks again for sharing.