Meditation

Meditation is a practice to which you bring your awareness from your conscious mind deep into your subconscious mind. This mental exercise will decrease anxiety, depression, and will make the body produce its own natural caffeine in the morning.

How To Meditate 

This is done with the eyes closed, sitting on the floor, in a quiet environment, and by paying close attention to the breath. Slowly inhale while counting to 7, hold for 3 seconds, and exhale slowly counting down from 7 repeating as needed. Perform this exercise consecutively for 10-60 minutes daily.

  • What did your heart rate drop to after meditating?🧘‍♂️🧘‍♀️
  • How long did you have to meditate for the drop in heart rate? ⏱
  • What thoughts would cause your heart rate to remain elevated? Date, Time, & Journal your experience. 📓

 

Meditation Tips from Paramhansa Yogananda:

  1. To meditate a short time with depth is better than to meditate for long hours with the mind running wild.
  2. Don’t feel badly if you find yourself too restless to meditate deeply. Calmness will come in time, if you practice regularly.
  3. Yogananda’s reply to a devotee who was having trouble meditating: “You are trying too hard. You are using too much willpower. It becomes nervous. Just be relaxed and natural. As long as you try to meditate, you won’t be able to; just as you can’t sleep if you will yourself to sleep… That’s why it is better, in the beginning, to emphasize relaxation.”
  4. Yogananda’s suggestion on how to stay awake during meditation: “Squeeze your eyes shut several times then open them wide and stare straight ahead. Repeat a couple of times.”
  5. In meditation, try to go beyond thinking. As long as thoughts enter the mind, you are functioning on the conscious level. When dreaming, you are in subconsciousness, you are more aware in the astral body. When your consciousness withdraws still more deeply, in superconsciousness, then you are centered in the spine. In that blissful state, you are aware in the causal body, the soul.
  6. The soul loves to meditate, for in contact with spirit lies its greatest joy. If you experience resistance to meditation, it comes from the ego; not the soul.
  7. One who wants to be a concert pianist will practice at the piano 12 hours a day. If he just pecks half-heartedly at the keys for a few minutes each day, he’ll never become a good pianist. That’s how it is with the search for God. How can you know Him if you only half try? The search for God is very difficult.
  8. When walking outdoors, try to feel that everything around you is part of your expanded awareness. Be aware of the sun’s rays on your skin. Think of the heat you feel from the sun as God’s energy. Let it fill your body with vitality and power. Imagine Divine energy, through the sunlight, strengthening creatures everywhere on earth.
  9. Meditate more and more deeply until calmness and joy become second nature to you. To be ecstatic is not difficult. It is thinking that it is difficult that holds you apart from it. Never think of Divine joy as distant from you, and it will be with you always.

If you have any questions related to transitioning to meditation, consult with Daniel Jagarnauth ARNP through a 1:1 session recorded HD via SKYPE. 

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References
Experiments in India on Voluntary Control of the Heart and Pulse – 1961
The Yogic Claim of Voluntary Heart Control – 1973