Just by using one or two of the simple relaxation or guided meditations mentioned previously, you can soon realize how beneficial meditation is to your overall health and well-being. Clearing the mind, if only for 5-15 minutes at a time, can be totally refreshing allowing us to better navigate the rest of our busy days. Eliminating that incessant mind-chatter can be very calming and comforting.

So even if you only have 15-30 minutes to meditate, once or twice a day, meditation can soon transform your outlook on life and help you better handle the normal daily affairs.

It can be the solace after a difficult, patience-testing situation at work or at home; or it can be the healthy reward that we give ourselves for making it through any type of struggle. You might be amazed how much sharper your mind will become after meditating regularly for a couple weeks, and how much more tolerant or patient you can be with others—or even with yourself.

Positions for Meditation:

There are many effective poses for meditating depending on your flexibility and your location. For the relaxation meditations, lying flat on the floor or on a bed may be your most enticing pose, but the intention is to train your mind to focus and relax while still conscious—not asleep.

One can just as easily meditate sitting in a straight-backed chair with the feet flat on the floor, hands resting on your thighs, eyes closed and body straight—but relaxed. It’s better to do this in an “armless” chair so your shoulders can completely relax as well.

However, if you are flexible enough, you can sit cross-legged on the floor, back straight, eyes closed, hands resting across the knees—either upward or downward facing, with thumb and first finger touching.

If you are a yoga-adept, you can easily adopt the traditional “lotus position” or the Zen pose shown in the picture.

Which Meditation Best Suites You?

Depending on the meditation technique used, and the intention for using the technique, one can reach a simple, calm inner state where the mind stills and the body relaxes. This basic intention for your meditation practice will provide a soothing, refreshing respite from the daily grind (brain waves move from Beta wakefulness, to Alpha resting state, and can even slip deeper into the Theta state of deep rest and inner peacefulness).

If you are focused on a more spiritual path, one can pursue true-self exploration with a disciplined practice of vipasanna (mindfulness meditation) or contemplative or gazing meditations, and reach deeper beyond Theta state to the Delta-communion state.

The choice is yours. Meditation can be that simple and that profound.

You may want to ask yourself some questions to help define your needs:

• What is your desire or goal for your meditation practice? (stress reduction, relaxation, better health and mental clarity, techniques for mental and emotional reprogramming, feeling at peace or greater peace of mind, greater self-knowledge, greater spiritual connection, developing intuition, enhancing knowledge and achieving a wisdom state)
• How much time are you willing to devote to your meditation practice? (5 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, 15-30 minutes twice a day, etc.,—the longer you do it the more you gain because you can go deeper in consciousness exploration with increased time periods and more frequent sessions)
• Do you have a quiet, secluded location for meditation—undisturbed by family or phones? (Pull the plug on noise-making devices, shut off the cell phone, or meditate when everyone else is asleep and the world is fairly still.)
• Find a small area in the house, or be in a natural environment with nature sounds, but find a way to make your meditation location special and reverent for meditating, so that after practicing for a few days, your body naturally relaxes when you close your eyes and assume your meditative position.
• If spiritual exploration is your desire, are you disciplined enough for daily practice to achieve that goal of transcending the ego-self to connect into the True and Universal Self? (It could take a few days or a few months or even a few years to reach the state of consciousness you desire.) But if that IS your desire, then DO IT.

Most importantly, enjoy your meditation practice. View it as a mini-vacation from the day’s stress. View it as a “reward” to yourself, not a necessary task that you dread. Exercising and meditating can be very similar in that respect: we know that we need to do it, but ….. and then we provide all those reasons not to—good or not.

So just give yourself some REALLY GOOD reasons to meditate, and then FIND THE TIME to improve your health and mental clarity. It’s worth it because YOU ARE worth it!