Meditation

We live in a world ruled by work, money, progress etc. Our lives are moving with an incredible tempo and sometimes it seems that the man himself has been completely forgotten. Enslaved by time, between work, grocery shopping, traffic jams and million small errands we neglect ourselves and our needs way too often. When was the last time you managed to sit back and relax or just read a book, without your cell-phone ringing?

Stress and worries make us unhappy, frustrated, we react in a different more negative way and can lead to serious health problems. Meditation is an easy way to work off stress and frustrations, to gain balance and inner peace, to restore your energy and improve your life style. It helps to calm the mind, free yourself from worries and negative thoughts.

With regular practice you will find that you are more relaxed, happier, more focused, effective and creative. You will find sustaining inner peace and balance way easier, no matter what situation you find yourself in.

Exercise 1:

Find a quiet place and make yourself comfortable (but not too comfortable, you do not want to fall asleep) sitting down on a chair, your back straight, both feet touching the floor.

Concentrate on your breathing. It must come to you as easy as possible.

Count up to 4 when you inhale, hold your breath for another 4, then count up to 4 as you exhale, and again hold your breath for another 4.

At the beginning you might find that difficult. However, make sure that your breathing is harmonious and be aware of how you breathe.

Try to clear your mind from thoughts. Your mind will try to occupy you; resist following the thought that pop up. But do not try fighting a thought too hard or the result will be the opposite. Just concentrate on your breathing, perhaps on counting when you inhale and exhale.

With practice, you will be able to clear your mind from all distractions and will reach a moment of inner peace and feel totally relaxed.

Exercise 2:

Repeat exercise 1, but instead of counting 4 * 4, count up to 8 when you inhale and another 8 when you exhale.

MEDITATION AND CRYSTALS

If there is a particular problem you wish to solve meditation with gem stones can be very helpful. For example if you find that you had a lot of communication problems lately, that either you were unable to communicate your thoughts, wishes or emotions to others, or there are more and more misunderstandings around you, you could try a meditation with a sodalite crystal. Or if you just feel that you lack energy and focus for whatever other meditation you had planned agate can help you a lot.

However, be sure that you know the crystal and its properties before you start your meditation. For further information on particular crystal go here

First, make sure that the gemstone has been properly cleansed, you do not want to pick up negative vibrations the crystal has absorbed in the past (read more about cleansing). It is always a good idea to just hold the gem under running water for a few minutes before you begin (some gemstones are not cleaned under water !).

Meditation and crystals

• Agate: helps to focus, increases energy
• Amethyst: encourages astral travel, releases stress, increases spiritual power
• Aventurine: optimism, self-esteem, increases the swiftness of the mind, luck, wealth, success
• Aquamarine: helps to achieve higher energy levels and to concentrate power
• Carnelian: protective stone, boosts intuition, clairvoyance, encourages astral travel
• Citrine: new beginnings, hope, faith, helps to balance material and spiritual aspects
• Cat’s eye: protection, self-confidence, clairvoyance, intuition
• Fluorite: perception, intuition, astral travel, creativity, inspiration
• Hawk’s eye: astral travel, intuition, cycles of life and death
• Hematite: optimism, self-confidence, courage, helps to ground energy
• Jade: protective stone, creativity, tolerance, better understanding, deeper insight, fortune, luck, wealth
• Jasper: protective stone, boosts concentration, gives courage, helps to achieve goals
• Labradorite: imagination, communication, releases stress, strengthens intuition, breaks illusions
• Lapis lazuli: wisdom, clears the mind, increases psychic energy
• Malachite: will, determination, self-esteem, self-expression
• Obsidian: for better understanding of energy movement and connections
• Onyx: protective stone, increases energy, understanding of cycles of life, death, rebirth
• Quartz: expansion, spiritual growth, clears the mind, helps to focus and transmit energy
• Rose quartz: peace and harmony, helps us to make decisions and follow them
• Smokey quartz: energy manipulation, grounding energies, recovering energies, relaxation
• Sodalite: communication, visualization skills
• Tiger’s eye: to balance opposite energies, harmony
• Tourmaline: regeneration, creativity, visualization, frees the mind

MEDITATION AND CHAKRAS

To read more about chakras …

Below is a very simple technique that can help you to “step in contact” with your chakras, to feel each chakras position on your body and of course to obtain balance. Being aware of your chakras and stimulating them can help you to solve many problems of physical and psychological nature. It is important to keep in mind that opening chakras should be a slow process; the more open the chakra, the more energy it absorbs, and also lifts us on higher levels of awareness. We want to avoid energy overloads or psychological problems that may arise, because our mind is unable to process the new insights.

This practice will only take some 10 minutes of your time and you will find it very simple once you get hold of the routine.

There is a list of associations of chakras with gemstones and incense that you might find helpful. 

Exercise 3:

Sit on a chair, your back straight, feet touching the floor, hands resting on your thighs. Relax for a moment, then start your breathing exercise. Try to be able to count up to at least 8 when you inhale and another 8 when you exhale.

When your breathing is steady, breathe in and visualize your root chakra expanding in red color and try to feel its location on your body at the same time. Maintain the visualization while you exhale.

When you breathe in for the second time, visualize your root chakra still expanding as before and your sacral chakra expanding in front and back of your body, orange in color, feeling it as you do so.

With every next breath visualize all the previous chakras still expanded and add the next chakra (visualize all chakras except the root (1^st ) and the crown (7^th ) expanding on both sides of your body). At the end you will have all 7 chakras expanded.

So basically:

Maintain the visualization with all 7 chakras opened for 3 more breaths (or longer if you wish).

If you feel the need to, you can spend more then just one breath on each step, for example 2 or 3. But make sure that you dedicate an equal number of breaths to each chakra (on each step).

Exercise 4:

Repeat exercise 3 and add spinning of chakras to your visualizations.