by Haven Logan PH.D

        
While many of us in the West think of meditation as a New Age phenomenon that began in the 1960s, in fact it has been part of most religious and spiritual traditions for thousands of years. In addition to the continuing meditation practices of Buddhism and Hinduism, both Christians and Jews are reviving the meditation traditions of their own faiths. Ten million Americans say that they practice some form of meditation daily. In addition to being offered in places of worship, the practice of meditation is also found in schools, hospitals, corporate offices, and even on the Internet.
           
Much of the present interest in meditation has to do with its emotional and physical health benefits. Studies have demonstrated that meditation lowers high blood pressure, reduces anxiety attacks, decreases muscle tension and headaches, helps in post-operative healing, enhances the immune system, and increases serotonin production which influences mood and behavior. Research is showing that meditation can reorient the brain from a stressful fight-or-flight mode to one of acceptance. You need only to think about a rush hour traffic jam to see how the acceptance mode is often more useful in modern life than the fight-or-flight mode.

Meditation is a self-directed process for relaxing the body and calming the mind by focusing on the present rather than the past or the future. For most of us the greatest challenge to developing a meditation practice is finding the time for it. For several years I meditated for at least an hour daily. Then the demands of adult life took over and my meditation practice faded away. Realizing recently how much I wanted to bring back this quiet time of daily inner reflection, I knew I would need to find a way to make meditation work with the realities of my present life.

If you are not already practicing daily meditation or prayer, let’s look at some general guidelines that might help you begin to incorporate meditation into your life. Once these are in place you may want to explore other techniques from specific spiritual traditions to broaden and deepen your experience. Getting started with a meditation class or instructional CD can be very helpful, and the Internet is also a useful resource for many forms of meditation. Experiment and find the approach that fits for you.

Before You Start

1. Find a time that works for you.

Ideally the best times for meditation are early morning and late evening. In order to develop regularity in your practice, what is most important is to pick a time that will work for you and those you live with. Think about what will be practical in your household. Is the best time before anyone else gets up, later after your morning routine is completed, or after your family has settled for the night? Next consider how many times a day you will meditate and for how long. Allow yourself flexibility on the duration. For example, many people set as a goal to meditate once a day when they first get up for 30 minutes. On the weekends you might extend this to an hour and on a busy week day you might have to cut it down to 5 or 10 minutes. Even this brief time can bring you into a calm place and help reinforce your daily meditation habit. It is the consistency that is important in establishing your practice.

2. Find a comfortable place.

Just as it is important to try to meditate at the same time every day, it is also useful to sit in the same place. It is best not to meditate on your bed since your unconscious mind associates that place with sleeping. Find a quiet spot, which ideally you use just for meditation. It might be a chair near a window looking out on nature or a cushion that you can sit on with your legs crossed. Though your spot should not be cluttered, you might want to arrange a special object or some flowers nearby.

3. Make sure that you will not be disturbed.

If you live with others who are not joining you in meditation, ask them to not disturb you during this time. Perhaps you will want to post some sort of sign on your door to indicate that you are meditating. Don’t forget to turn off anything that might disturb you─your phone’s ringer, bright lights.

Beginning Your Meditation

As you sit comfortably with your back straight but not rigid, allow your eyes to close. Begin to notice the sounds around you and then how it feels to be sitting on your chair or cushion. Feel the different parts of your body. Relax any place of tension as best you can.

Now begin to feel the movement of your breath. Notice how your belly rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale. Notice how your chest expands and contracts with each breath. Notice how your breath enters and leaves your nostrils. You are not controlling your breath but allowing it to come and go in its own pattern. Rest your attention on its flow.

As you are sitting, all sorts of thoughts will appear. Allow them to come, notice them, and then allow them to leave. If you find your mind being carried away by one of the thoughts, notice where your attention has gone and allow your breath to again be the center of your focus. This is a time to rest your mind from constant activity.  
         
After learning to meditate on your breath, you may want to add the use of a mantra, sacred word, prayer or chant as another focus for your mind. Each spiritual tradition has words and sounds that are used to instill concentration and that bring their own unique energy. Some people like to choose a word in their own language which has special meaning for them.

However you decide to proceed in your meditation practice, remember that it is a gift you are giving yourself which can have great benefits for emotional and physical health. If you make it a priority every day you will reap the rewards. Enjoy your time by creating a practice that fits for you and appreciate your efforts to bring more peacefulness into your life.