Learning how to meditate is something that many people want to do in order to help them cope with the feeling of stress and overwork. Stress in our lives makes us tired, unhappy, frustrated, impatient, and just downright miserable. It can cause us to be sick and experience other medical complications that we simply do not need to add to our already hectic daily schedule. Often people use the excuse that they have no time to meditate when in fact they do. Once you learn how to meditate, you can simply stop for ten or fifteen minutes to partake in a breathing meditation that will help you re-center yourself during your hectic day and allow you to focus on your tasks with a clearer mind.
Learning how to meditate also provides us with a more positive mind, teaching us how to take thoughts that are negative and sad to thoughts that are positive and happy. If you can learn how to meditate you can retrain your mind so that your thoughts even in stressful times are continually constructive and positive. Buddhist meditation is the perfect form of meditation to learn as there is little dogma taught in the practice to concern yourself with, making it the perfect meditation form to learn regardless of your own spiritual beliefs. Learning how to meditate turns your focus inside so you can heal your body, mind, and soul and enjoy a more profound existence.
When you learn how to meditate you are taking yourself to a higher level of awareness that you may not have realized existed. You can learn how to experience happiness in a way you have never known and all of the worries of daily life become easier to cope with. Decisions are made from a calm mind instead of one in turmoil, and you will find yourself enjoying the life you have been given instead of dreading waking up every morning to face the chaos that is in it.
Think about it. If you are a peaceful person through learning how to meditate, this peace will be transferred to everyone around you. How can people not be happy around someone who is? Makes sense, huh?
Learning how to meditate starts with learning the proper posture needed to achieve a deeper level of consciousness. You should always sit on a cushioned seat with a back that is slightly higher with your back straight and your pelvis inclined. You do not have to sit in the traditional cross legged position that we see Buddha sitting in when you first start out, especially if you are suffering from medical problems that prohibit it. However you should try to sit in a comfortable position close to the Buddha pose so that you feel closer to the meditation techniques used around the world. There are instruction manuals that go into this position further for you to reference.
Once you have found your comfortable position while learning how to meditate you can then start to work on your breathing. This will help you clear your mind as you imagine all of your cares and worries drifting away from you as if it were black smoke on the wind. Allow you breathing to remain normal while doing this and start to imagine all the goodness in the world and all of your blessings enter your body as you breathe in as a white smoke all the while exhaling the black smoke of negative thought. Bring that white smoke into your body and heart and feel yourself start to relax. You want to keep this visualization firmly in your head for at least twenty-one breathes or until your mind has become fully relaxed and in peace.
Once you have mastered the simple breathing meditation while learning how to meditate you can then take the clean canvas that is your mind, body and soul and start to work on other meditation techniques that will teach you how to become a more loving and kind person who is truly one with themselves and the world around them. Remember that patience is a virtue when you are first learning how to meditate and in time it will become easier to attain that state.