Meditation Rocks! » Overcoming Obstacles

Taking Meditation beyond Closed Eyes & Crossed Legs

King Sidharth — Mon, 24 May 2010 05:00:33 +0000

You will often find people in meditation close their eyes. Why would they do that? They do that to stop looking at ‘reality’ in a way that they are looking and look at it through the eyes of God or Source which really is you.

It’s good in the beginning to close your eyes; but wouldn’t it be fun if we could take it beyond in day to day moments? Being that aware and being that calm most of the time? And being that observer?

I think it will be great fun to be an observer of life and then choose in what parts you’d like to be involved rather than just an observing.

Meditation gives you that choice. That’s exactly what Zen is about – being aware, always.

So let’s see how you can take your meditation beyond:

Reduce your passive meditation time

Let’s admit it; we are not much active during meditation. I don’t know about you but I’d rather be in passion then in meditation. Now it’s hard to be passionate when you are feeling bored or angry or something like that.

So I can always do quick meditation for 5 minutes and get in the vortex (vibrational vortex of pure positive energy) and then access passion easily. So stop prolonging those meditative moments and just use them as keys to better feeling places.

Skip Your Life

This one is awesome! Often we find ourselves in position where we just can’t take it. Either you are too bored or too annoyed. Now a spiritual person like you knows that it is not much fun to be dependent on outside conditions to change in order to change your emotional reaction.

Meditation comes in handy here. Meditation will take you into a better feeling place within minutes – from anxiety, nervousness, anger, annoyance or any sort of negative emotion to a place of ease & flow. Guess what? You have a situation where you can practice this feeling of meditation and take your control back.

Things will begin to change as you change the way you perceive it.

Find Answers to Questions

You can find answers to all your questions (solution to any of your problems) in meditation. You know why? Because when you ask, it is give. Always! So when you asked the questions or when you had that problem the answer and solution were there. But thanks to your observation of problem – the Law of Attraction keeps it right there.

Now when you go into meditation, the questions or desire is still there but there is no resistance because there is no observation of problem. So now you find the answers you were looking for.

Ideas will flood in! Insights will shower on you, you will remember things and people that you have forgotten which can be helpful to you in many ways. Wonderful things happen and you just sit back and enjoy.

Share Good Moments

Find people who are near you who like meditation, and make a list of friends that would also like to meditate. Make a small group of such people and meditate together. This is a great way to stay inspired about meditation and see the growth it brings about.

Often people, especially teens, complain that these gathering turn into parties so easily. And there is nothing wrong in that, meditation is path to joy and so is party. Perhaps a party meditation?

These were my ideas of taking that feeling of well-being which you experience in meditation into other aspects of your life. What are your views? Do you have ways you take it into wonderful new direction?

Photo Credit: chefranden

5 Deadliest Myths About Meditation

King Sidharth — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:00:26 +0000

Myth #1 Meditation is Concentrations

This is the most common myth. People just blurb it out. “Concentrate!” It is like launching a rocket upside down when you want to reach moon. Meditation is opposite of concentration – yes you do focus but focus is not same thing as concentration.

Concentration has element of trying and force which are complete ‘NO NO’ in meditation.

Myth #2 Meditation is Relaxation

This is second biggest myth, especially in western cultures. People take stress for granted and then they want to manage it (instead of eliminating it altogether) and then they go to people who don’t know meditation from relaxation and build stuff around false premises.

Myth #3 Meditation is done with Closed Eyes & Crosses Legs

Ha! It’s like saying eating is cereals. No it isn’t! Cereals are just one component of diet! Likewise sitting with closed eyes and crossed legs is just one form of meditation. You can meditate with music, sitting, standing, laying, walking, open eyes, laughing…

Myth #4 Meditation is Religious and for Spiritual People

UNO is for US, is it?

Crops are for farmers, are they?

Milk is for Cow, is it?

No! They just begin there. It’s for everyone. Like wise spiritual and religious people just practice and explore it more but mediation is for everyone.

Do you know of some myths about meditation that people carry around? Or do you have a doubt / questiont that you’d like to clarify? Let’s talk in comments section below.

Photo by scragz, on Flickr

Room Cleaning the Mind

King Sidharth — Mon, 03 May 2010 05:00:48 +0000

Look around yourself, how much stuff is there? How much of it are you using regularly? You have to admit – not much! Most of the stuff is either kept with invisible tag of ‘someday’ or it is there just to represent your success.

But think again, that ‘someday’ never came and even if it comes – will you really have access to all this? No! And does this stuff really tell how successful are you? No!

Don’t Clean Your Room

Now, this is not one of those posts which tell you to go and clean your closets or clean your room. Far from it! I am not one of those people who will call you to action – I am no one to do that. You are authority in your life and you have enough wits to judge on your own.

I just want to share a new insight with you. I was one of those preteens who always yearned to get a personal room. And when I got it – I filled it up to the top with things that represent me. And as I did that – my mind too filled up with stuff till top – there was no room for anything more. But I was too filled to realize that back then.

Later, in craze of getting a new computer (I love technology) I cleaned up to make room for it and that made a lot of difference in my mindset and just few days ago – during meditation – I realized how much what is around me is affected by my state of mind and vice versa.

Why Teens Have Messy Room

You know why teens have messy room and no matter how hard they try they can’t get it right? Because that is state of their minds too! And poor parents keep trying to get them clean up where if they could direct them to inner guidance; they’d sort out their mind and room too.

So I decided, a week ago, to pick up 10 items time-to-time during a day and ask myself ‘Do I need it? How long has it been since I’ve used it? What does this mean and represent in my life?’ and I saw how many things I was harbouring which didn’t represent where I wanted to be and so they kept activating old negative thoughts in my subconscious mind and the Law of Attraction kept delivering me more thoughts, things and circumstances like it.

I took time to change those thoughts and feel better about those subjects. And then it was so easy, no it was so joyous to let go of those things. And now my room is emerging super neat and so is my mind and life.

Why You Yearn for a Holiday

Now I see why people are desperate to go on holidays, they don’t want to be away from what they love – but what they have. That’s why one feels refreshed with new place and new things – they don’t have a bad thought attached to it.

I’ve also started to spend 5 min each night writing rampages of appreciation to people and things that I love in my life. I write about you a lot. Because you keep this dream together – you keep meditation rocking.

Meditate.

Photo Credit: clean room by gabrielsaldana, on Flickr

Meditation: Anytime – Anywhere

King Sidharth — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:00:51 +0000

Meditation is the quickest way to raise your vibes or just get into better mood. So whenever you are feeling not so good or just want to feel better – meditation is the key. I often did this whenever I felt angry or sad or just bored – but now I am so buys being excited and passionate that I don’t have time for all of that.

If you’d like that too then read on and see how simple it is to do it.

The Floating Cork You Are

Meditation is state of no-thought and there for no vibrational resistance to the well-being that is flowing to you and through you. It’s like a cork which floats on water. If you will not deliberately push it under water it will float. Just like that if you are not thinking negative thought natural tendency of you is to be positive.

[Off topic: Did you see the new newsletter thing on our sidebar? You should really join it]

So we are going to use sound as a medium to go into meditation. Do it right now with me. Read this whole page and as soon as you are done – do it.

The Anytime Anywhere Meditation Process

Unless you are in a sound-proof room there must be a rhythmic noise going on around you. Maybe a ceiling fan, air-conditioner, heater, distant bird chirping, and traffic noise – anything will do.

If there is no sounds that you’d like to focus on then just focus on your breathing. Or put your hands on your chest and listen for your heartbeat.

Now close your eyes and listen for the sound.

Open your eyes after 10-15 minutes and you will feel awesome. That’s meditation – anytime anywhere.

Photo Credit: After Work Traffic by RobeRt Vega, on Flickr

3 Sure-Shot Ways to Find Time To Meditate

King Sidharth — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:30:32 +0000

Anita is one of the most regular readers of Meditation Rocks! No, you won’t find her commenting she is a bit shy about that but she writes me mails – everyday, we discuss all sorts of things – from meditation to money. Ideas for so many posts came when we were talking.

Thank you Anita for this awesome friendship that we share and thanks for letting me publish your name.

Anita has two kids – both of them under 4 and she has hard time managing them. Every time she’d mention stress in her emails – I’d suggest only one thing – meditation. She tried so hard, she said, and finally gave up:

Ok, It’s official. I give up. I can’t distress unless I meditate, and I need time for meditation and I am stressed because I’ve no time!

This seems to be catch 22 situation – doesn’t it? If you are facing same problem, then you are not alone. Good news: there are sure-shot way to deal with this problem.

1. Stop Trying

Really folks, it’s time that you stop trying to meditate. There is no try and when you don’t try and just let it be – it’s meditation. It really is simpler than it seems to be.

Meditation is doing nothing and since doing nothing, everything about it is opposite of doing something. That means:

It doesn’t take effort.
It doesn’t take ‘mind’.
It doesn’t take ‘thought’
It doesn’t take negativity or positivity.

And so on… c’mon be creative and add to the list.

2. Forget it

The best way to meditate is to forget it. Don’t put it in your to-do list. Because it is not a ‘do’ it’s opposite of ‘do’.

Instead of all this ‘make it ritual’ stuff – let this be a fun sneak out that you do every now and then – whenever you feel like.

3. Meditate Whenever & Wherever You Want

Yes, it’s your secret ritual which you do whenever and wherever. It does help to have a meditation corner but what about whole world as your meditation corner?

Whenever you feel like meditating (hint: you always feel like meditating) just focus on something that doesn’t have a tendency to grow in thought like – breathe, meaningless sound, natural sound, tree, sky … and there you are! Hmmmmmm…. It feels good!

Here are some more things you can try:

Conclusion

Meditation is timeless, you can never find time to meditate. That’s why when you meditate – time flies by so quickly.

The only way I can suggest you is: stop thinking about meditation in terms of another thing to check off list, take it easy and let it be fun. And do it whenever and wherever. That’s how it is supposed to be.

And when it’s fun, time will make sure you meditate.

Namaste

Photo Credit: Time Ticking away… by Michel Filion, on Flickr

Its World AIDS Day Can Meditation Help?

King Sidharth — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:54:48 +0000

It’s 1 December, its World Aids Day. Today humanity has chosen to remind itself of — itself. It’s not a day to mourn over a deadly virus. It’s not a day to fight. It’s a day to live.

Expectations are crazy, sometimes they make me crazy. But today I will expect something of you. Today, as a practitioner of meditation, I will expect you to be beacons of light to those who are lost, ocean of love and acceptance to those who suffer.

We will meditate for money, prosperity and everything we want, we will be selfish, we will do everything for that is what we humans do and there is no shame in that but not today.

Today we will mediate for well being of others. We will meditate to find strength in ourselves to overcome anything. Today we will meditate for each other. Just close your eyes and pray for everyone around you – Your mom, you dad, your wife, your boss, your bad work buddies, your friends and for everyone who has suffered.

Today we will not let a virus outlive a Human, today we will encourage, support and let a human outlive a virus for that too is what humans do and it’s a matter of pride.

Today, we will donate 5 min to those who need it. Today, we will donate meditation to those who can use it.

Today we will be humans.

Why Noisy Environment is Awesome for Meditation

King Sidharth — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:04:11 +0000

Sounds sarcastic eh? On one hand we think of meditation as peaceful activity to be performed in silent coroners of world. People even go to the mountain tops and retreats to meditate. Cutting off from rest of the world.

Is Meditation Powerless?

But here is the thing, if meditation needs so much of peace before it could be practiced, if meditation needs you to run away from your lifestyle doesn’t that mean that meditation is powerless in front of all these things?

Is the honking of horn, laughing of people, shouting crowd, raging traffic, chattering mind more powerful than meditation?

I’d say meditation is far more powerful than all these things put together. Meditation is so powerful that Buddha was enlightened, Jesus defeated Satan and You rocked your life!

So Why Go to Silence?

So why do we go to retreats? Why do we run away? Why to we need silence to create silence?

There is not one reason. People what to create a mood, take a break, it’s easier, distractions are less and all sorts of stuff expect ‘I want to meditate.’ And when you really do want, it will happen, right there and then. No matter where you are standing, what you are doing.

Personal Experience

I’ve meditated in my school, in libraries, in public parks, at discos and many places that I will not utter here. And there was no hardly any difference. In fact, I find it quiet amusing and it helps me a lot to feel detached.

When I am meditating, I pay no heed to the meaning of sounds around me. Though I am highly aware of them because of raised sense of awareness but all sounds are meaningless. And this practice helps me render all the struggles meaningless at any point of time and I can walk out of problems with my heart full of gratitude.

Peace is a bridge and so is violence. But bridges can never hinder my practice.

Group Discussion

So after reading this don’t you feel that noisy environment is not only good but in some ways awesome for meditation?

Tomorrow I will discuss with you how to meditate in a noisy environment. Till then let’s discuss what other benefits it could offer. And if any of you have tried that already, please share your experience.
Photo Credits: The Living End White Noise Tour Perth by Michael_Spencer, on Flickr

Meditation is Dead

King Sidharth — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:43:01 +0000

Yea you heard it right! Quiet a statement, isn’t it? I too was shocked when I heard one of my friends saying this. He clarified further (after seeing the look on my face and remembering that I blog about Meditation), “Dude, I respect your passion and creativity and the amount of hard work you are putting into it, but trust me it is dead. Dead as in not in use anymore.”
He took a brief pause and if you are wondering, I was quiet calm (I meditate, you see). “Let’s put it this way”, he continued, “I am the future generation and I don’t meditate and as far as I know I won’t meditate ever. And the 100 instant friends I know are like me expect the 101th like you. So, meditation is dying art, in fact it is dead. Anyways, all the best with it.”

What do you think was my reaction? Did I burst with laughter? Or did I give him a long lecture summarizing all the content I had in my mind?

Well, none of above! I just smiled and said, “Yeah Dude! It’s so dead. Let’s grab a bite.”

Surprised again? Don’t worry, I am not planning to close the blog since my friend(s) think that meditation is dead… just I am going to share with you what I think about it(that’s what I always do).

So here is a guy who consciously knows nothing about meditation and subconsciously meditates (he is huge fan of country music). Here he is breathing and saying that breathing has no future.

I just have one thought about the whole thing, and it is quiet calming. Meditation is an experience that every being goes through (consciously or unconsciously) and give it the best name he could. And lives a whole lifetime trying to achieve it. While it is here, in now – in the present moment.

Humans are funny; they spend a lifetime preparing for a lifetime.

Let meditation be dead, for humans have always dreamt of bringing back the dead (it’s thrilling). Here, meditation gives you a chance to experience that too.

So is meditation dead for you?
Photo Credit:Dead vlei by benny_bloomfield, on Flickr

Improving Concentration with Meditation

King Sidharth — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:34:35 +0000

Whenever I try to sit and study, I just can’t concentrate! There are so many distractions. I just want to open facebook once, check my mails, call that friend or just sleep for 5 min. No matter what I do, I just can’t concentrate. I don’t want to do it.
This is story is not only close to a student’s heart but also to professionals and many more people. So why does this happen and can Meditation help?

Relax

Most of the time we just can’t concentrate because there is so much going on in mind that it becomes hard to focus on a task. Meditation can help in quieting the chatter of mind. Here is a simple exercise you can begin with:

Close your eyes and sit comfortably
Relax every part of your body.
Focus on breathing in and breathing out for few min.
Now, in your mind, start counting from 1 to 10 with your breathing.
When you breathe in, count 1 and when you breathe out count 2
When you reach to ten, start again from 1
Let mind think whatever it wants, just concentrate on counting from 1 to 10
After repeating this for sometime, you will notice that your mind is quiet and under your control.
Now open your eyes and get down to accomplish the mission

The important thing to remember here is that you cannot force the mind to become quiet. Mind is supposed to think, that’s it’s nature. You can ignore, shift the focus away from mind to breathing and counting. This will result in mind becoming calm itself and under your control as you affirm and choose to be in control.
Try it now and let me know how you feel.

Photo by Randy Son Of Robert, on Flickr

5 Obstacles to Meditation and How to Overcome Them

King Sidharth — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:19:44 +0000

When idea of writing this post came to my mind. I thought, “Boy, this is gonna be an endless list” but it was not. Obstacles might seem too big or too many to start with. Once you genuinely start doing it, all obstacles are lost. Here are 5 of my all time favourites:

I don’t know how to!
Who’s got the time dude?
It’s boring stuff!
When I close my eyes, I feel so bad!
I can’t concentrate, I just don’t have patience

But How?

This is so human, we want to know ‘how to do it’ before we could actually do it, otherwise sounds illogical to us. But I don’t remember how I breathe or how heart beats, but still I am breathing and my heart is beating. Meditation is natural, it comes from inside.

For starters, to make it easier for you, sit with eyes closed, relaxed body and focus on your breathe. Feel yourself breathing in and out.

Methods like Zen Meditation etc. are some developed ways of meditation which can enhance your own or can help you reach a specific state of mind. But the way you meditate is as personal to you as the way you walk, talk, breathe and live.

Finding Time

This was my favourite excuse. I have school, friends, homework, parents and yes the movies I always wanted to watch (this was the biggest one) and why not, if meditation is all about good, then (I thought) watching movies will do me more good. But little did I know what good it could do.

I kept on writing ‘Meditation’ in my to-do list, sometimes I did sit down (only to get up getting bored – we will cover this in next heading). Finally I stopped putting it on list, and stopped bothering myself and found myself sitting in solitude, silence, closed eyes, clam mind and deep silence. I was meditating.

I stopped thinking of it as a task, and it happened. Try breathing intentionally, you can’t do it for long – you will get bored. Most important things in life like breathing, heart-beat are natural and happen automatically. So is with meditation, let it happen to you. Don’t force it and all time will come.

Boredom – Oops! I slept

I try to motivate my friends to meditate, and most of them try (Yeah! I have good friends). Many of them complain about getting bored and many of them say that they dozed off to sleep. And guess what? It’s a good sign!

It might seem boring in beginning, stay on the line… you are headed in right direction. In time you will find, in this boredom, the treasure – yourself. Put on some light instrumental music (not Bon Jovi!) on very low volume to help a bit.

Emotional Storm

As soon as he closed his eyes, all his extreme good or bad moments replayed in his mind. Emotions started to surface and soon it was a storm. This is story of my friend who was going through a lot in life and whenever he meditated, often cried or laughed loudly.

Are you experiencing something similar? Does your mind suddenly becomes an emotional chaos and you just want to leave the world?

If this happens during meditations, it’s good. Meditation is providing a safe outlet to all that emotional energy. Let it flow out… in time you will learn to direct your emotions, in the direction you want!

Can’t Focus / Can’t Concentrate

Once in a month I make a group of people who are interesting in exploring meditation and invite them to a park or garden. We sit there and talk about meditation and then, obviously, meditate. Having learners by your side helps a lot when you yourself are learning; schools also function on same principle (don’t they?)

This time a friend’s friend got excited and joined us. He was so excited that when all of them were meditating (and I was guiding if you are wondering) he kept on popping up with questions.

It happens to the best of us. Sit in meditation and mind starts making grocery list, or the important phone call we always forgot to make and we almost forgot about the assignment which is due tomorrow.
The biggest mistake people make here is to get frustrated, blame themselves for not having being able to concentrate or simply give up.

Think of your mind as a little kid whom you take out with you (walking on road) that child is excited and wants to get in middle of road. The child doesn’t know where to go and what to do, but you know. So you lovingly and patiently hold his hands and tell him, “Not that way dear; come this way (we have cookies!).”

Do same with mind. Remember to be patient and loving, “Not that way dear; come this way (we have abundance… of cookies!)”. Dare you shout on a child, and he will tell you what hell (frustration) is same is true for your mind.

Are there any obstacles you have? A new all time favourite that you would like to share (I will try my best to answer it), then just let me know (use comment section below or Contact Page). Well at least you could tell us how you liked (or unlike) this post.

Beyond the wall by Giuseppe Bognanni, on Flickr

Bored by HotDirt21, on Flickr

Samael by SAMAEL TRIP, on Flickr