Almost everyone who wants to meditate or has tried it comes back facing the the following problem:-
“Generally I am not able to meditate. When I sit for meditation or chanting my thoughts go haywire. By end I think I just wasted my time. How to overcome this?”
It is my aspiration that every Amarantos Certified Pro PLR Therapists, reply to this post with your method of mediation which has always worked for you.
And in the process collect 101 meditation techniques on this thread for anyone to follow and benefit from.
That is really a very common thing that happens to each one of us. In my opinion, Meditation requires “complete surrender” to build up on that connection. So my technique is very simple & has worked well for me. I started with guided meditations so that I would keep focused (don’t ask me how many times I dozed off😜). Then, some mentor shared his opinion that guided meditation should not be a long run thing as that will make you dependant on that voice. I tried & failed several times. Then, I recorded my meditation in my own voice & eventually, I was able to condition my heart & mind to focus well. However, I prefer to begin with 5-7 mins if focused deep breathing (inhale-hold-exhale), followed by chanting, gratitude prayer and then whatever I need to meditate upon.
Mantra meditation is something which has always worked for me. I learned alot from here - https://youtu.be/SYZVYMVto64. Few of my tips-
Have a specific place and time. Asana siddhi as I was taught in PLRT assignments 90% of the time I complete by 8am, either in my sofa/prayer room mat if I take bath.
Engage all the senses in the meditation-
Eyes: I have Krishna pictures in room/Tv video muted/ when eyes closed- imagining Krishna Balaram deities hands raised mercifully - and each line of Mantra glistening over each Hand of theirs. 4 hands - 4 lines of maha mantra.
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
Ears: chant loudly so that I can hear myself or I have Prabhupad’s 16rounds japa on my Spotify while I silently whisper the mantra
Nose: No dominant smells in places I sit, at times I light agarbatti.
Touch: I do it on clicker mostly. If taken bath, then Japa beads. 108 recitations of the above mantra above count to 1 round on japa mala, I strive to do 16 rounds everyday.
Tongue: Tongue has to chant the mantra, can’t be idle.
Like Shachi ma’am rightly coined - SURRENDER. I pray to Krishna “Dearest Krishna and all the Gurus present, apologies in advance for my inattentive japa, I am still trying to do my best. Please let me be of your service somehow”, then recite Guru pranam mantra, Panchatattva mantra & start with the Maha mantra.
I stopped beating up myself. It’s okay I feel. Let me try my best and rest is upto God. If I see atleast one positive change in a month, I am content with it.
The background mind chatter won’t stop for me, so it’s a constant tussle to “Plug out” from them, and “Plug in” to the mantra - Like I heard from Mahatma Das- a senior devotee, an excellent Japa practitioner (ISKCON). I try to stay plugged in to my best.
From last few weeks I stopped eating heavy dinners, so I can get up early and have a clean stomach and mind to chant. Night routine is as important as morning routine.
Note: The above mentioned tips are not ideal. Ideal self is to take bath, chant on japa beads, in the prayer room,with agarbatti on at 5am. I am yet to reach that stage. I only mentioned what I do on regular basis, and the tips I follow. Please feel free to correct me Hare Krishna
I forgot to mention that practising some “mudras” while chanting an affirmation or mantra also helps in maintaining the focus.
Another useful tip is that if you are chanting a mantra & not doing it with a “jaapmala”, then instead of virtually counting the chants, make a little effort & note the time period in which u finish the required number of chants. This will help you in the way that while digressing thoughts cross your mind, you will not lose the count. As such, not having to worry about the count & just glancing at the click/ timer serves the purpose better.
I just want to make 2 suggestions (observations) that you might choose to reflect upon:
1.) Seeking an advance apology for incomplete presence is OK. But try replacing it with the intention of requesting your focused presence from the Divine & Gurus. Think what u wanna create & see the magic happen - subconscious conditioning (U r subconsciously allowing urself to be OK with this as you acknowledge the forgiveness for the same).
2.) I am not able to recall the source but during my learning days of Reiki & Pranuc healing followed by self study on various healing techniques, I came across the logical explanation of taking a bath. It is not at all necessary to hv taken a bath before meditating. The simple fundamental (that all religious scriptures recommend too) is that a bath helps open up all ur senses & helps in developing rha faith of having a cleansed auric field. Likewise, in healings, the recepients are suggested to avoid taking a shower for the next 2-4 hours after the healing, for the simple reason that the aura that has absorbed the healing vibes will get affected by shower. So, if u take bath & then meditate, you simply have a better probability of maintaining a vibrant aura through the day. This one was the best logic I related to the significance of bath.
Reading and meditation both are acts of introspection and for people who cannot meditate as their mind is too restless, reading is an excellent alternative.
Step 1: Sit down comfortably turning off any potential disturbances,
Step 2: At the place you’ve reserved at the time you’ve fixed
Step 3: Pick a book authored by a genuine Master
Step 4: Read a few paragraphs slowly, feeling the content and
Step 5: Imagine/ think / ponder over what you have read
Step 6: As soon as you notice that you mind has drifted or distracted, continue reading…
So this is how I do my meditation
1…Sit in the comfortable position
2…Same place if possible
3…it can be before or after bath anything
4…Time to be the same
5… back to be straight
6…fragrance of the room to be as per your personal choice
7…drape a simple white cotton cloth around you
8…Start with a gratitude prayer to your Guru
9…start with the observation of your breath
Breathing in and out and feeling the air near your nostrils
air within your nose
The warm air coming out of your nostrils etc
(VIPASANA)
10…after completing prayers for everyone in this universe to be happy
11…ending with gratitude
I usually meditate with Insight Timer App with 30 random interval bells. Every time the bell rings, I imagine Almighty’s white light is slowly passing through my body from top to bottom till the next bell.
I have also tried progressive relaxation for meditation. One by one I relax all the muscles and then imagine white light slowly spreading my body. I have also tried chanting ‘Om’.
But neither of them has worked with me 100% of the time. However, I contine to try as, I feel, I am learning slowly and may perfect it one day. I am happy with this as after all, we are here ‘to learn’.
Wow thank you Shachi ma’am! Till date, this is the closest logical explanation I read for the significance of taking bath before meditation. And I shall include the first point in my prayers too!
For an update on this, here is what one of them who tried “The reading meditation” sincerely wrote,
Hi
Trust you are doing fine.
For assignment 3 - reading the book Messages from the Masters, I thought it will take just few days …maybe 2 or 3 days because I had read all the books of Dr Brian Weiss atleast 3 to 4 times over last 20 yrs.
However, this time it took me almost three weeks to read it and understand it. I had to read many pages 3 - 4 times to understand and I actually felt that Masters are actually guiding me how to negotiate the present phase of life.
I have read this somewhere, and found it very beautiful and helpful. I came across this when I decided to meditate and wasn’t able to sit at one place, close my eyes for long or stop the mind chatter. It explained that Meditation is indulging into something where we are so focused on either an object, thought or activity. That made me realise that I was in fact meditating everytime when I was so involved in doing anything that I liked (i.e. our hobbies). That realisation was very helpful to me and eventually I was also able to meditate sitting at a place…even just 10-15 mins but I could and I know with practice I will be able to do it longer. I hope this helps someone who has just started with meditation.
Sometimes I meditate simply by closing my eyes and focusing on the breath; sometimes I use guided meditations from Insight Timer (theme based on what I want to deal with at the time of meditating). Listed some of them here …
Faith Meditation ~ LouAnn Swogger
Making Friends with Sadness, Fear & Anger ~ Matthew Young
Transforming Fear ~ Sarah Blondin
Learning To Surrender ~ Sarah Blondin
Accepting Change ~ Sarah Blondin
Clarity And Guidance ~ Camilla Sacre-Dallerup
I Am Consciousness ~ Giovanni Dienstmann
Be in Your Body ~ Hilary Jackendoff
Anapanasati Dhyana i.e. watching the breath is the technique to meditation which works for me . Initially it was difficult to stop the chit chat going in mind but after Practise ( Abhyasa) it started getting possible.
Though still thoughts keeps coming & going but the best way is to acknowledge them & just refocus on breath.
90% of the time I complete by 8am, either in my sofa/prayer room mat if I take bath.
Hare Krishna 
