Favourite Meditation/Relaxation Technique?

[Dreamer.]

Hey Ive been meditating for some time now and I was wondering do people have favourite techniques or exercises they use?

I'm pretty fond of the classic 'focus on your breathing techique'. Im trying also to achieve the lotus sitting position but I'm not flexible enough yet lol so i ususally just sit up straight on a chair. Sometimes I close my eyes and sometimes I keep them open, depends on my mood really.

Ive heard of a pretty cool analogy for meditation: The mind is like a bucket of dirty water and the longer you leave it still (meditate) the clearer the mind will become.

[Odin]

I have a couple of techniques that I use through out the week ( ritual work ) but when it comes down to it it's the focus on the breath and just let go

don't get me wrong the others arr good real good for that matter but sometimes simplicity is the best !

[SWM]

life story time:

When I was about 12-13 I experimented with Buddhism. I practiced several meditation techniques, none of which worked because I was a hyperactive impatient 13 year old. I thought that 20 minutes of sitting quietly meant enlightenment. This is not true.

I stumbled (remembered) a technique that was in a book called "Simple Buddhism" by a collection of people. It was a simple enough meditation.

Let your mind flow like a river. Each thought is a branch, or some muck in the river. Recognize this muck and let it flow past. I have meditated on this for years, and finaly I have achived a trance like state that I can slip into and out of without really trying. I just focus on nothing and let everything flow by. Every thought is recognized simply as a thought and it is extinguished by that fact. Thoughts flow into levies and different tributarys. A solid river of thought tuns to a delta and an ocean of calm blank seas awaits the end. Things fall into the river from time to time and that polutes the ocean, but seeing as the ocean is vast, the muck is soon lost to the deapths.

Rambleing, but still its a mighty fine thing to do. I just have to put it to use some how. Focus on how to use it for something other than falling asleep without distractions, or calming the hell down after something stressful. My plan to further the technique is that of emotional clarity. Where I feel emotions in surges and swells in the ocean, but eventualy become whole, as the ocean is vast one wave ceses to hold much sway over the whole. Emotions should become one and the same, thus achiveing enlightenment. 5 years to take me to a point in which I'm able to empty my mind to a point, and even more to do so further.


Then I will eventualy fill it with everything. Still learning how to do that...

[Harlock]

I started practicing meditation around 12-14 and it was rather simple for me, and man did it come in handy and I just use one technique,

[pheonixfire]

I used to fill my lungs to capacity with air, count to 7 and completely empty my lungs and count to 7. I envisioned breathing in plus signs and exhailing negative signs. I couldn't stick with that, though I tried it for years. Over the past couple of days I've found that if I focus on listening to the sounds around me, it's much more effective (for me, I mean). I have poured over different websites and tried different techniques, but as usual I had to devise my own method. As a wise person on this site told me, the key to meditation is to not "try". This was the only method for me that feels natural and I don't have to force it. Only when I'm listening am I not actively thinking.

Incidently if anyone's interested, I found this site on meditation:

Arcane Mystique: Esoteric & Metaphysical - Personal Development - Getting Started (http://www.arcanemystique.com/Eng/Metaphsyical/PersonalDevelopment/Getting_Started.html)

There's all kinds of helpful stuff on this site.

[Ivory]

Driving the back country roads at night while listening to opera, techno, synth-pop and goa trance. :)

[monsterbetty]

I have to be more aggressive when I meditate . . . well used to have to be. It was a matter of training my mind. So, I'd wrap rubber bands around my wrist and flick them just enough to sting a little whenever my mind would wander. That was more then 8 years ago. Now it's just matter of sitting down and getting to it. It took about a year. Maybe not the best approch for everyone.

[CV91]

My technique is I cuff my hands together and sit against a wall, then I pretty much just sit and breathe until my mind and body are relaxed and/or free of thoughts.

[Lokia_Zos]

Sky Gazing
Unsanctioned Chod
Dzogchen
Death Posture.

[aksel]

I like to start with a body mapping meditation (imagining musles relaxing etc.) Next I move into Mindfullness of Breathing meditation mentioned earlier. Finally I'll meditate on feeling really heavy and being pulled down and then the opposite.
I also do a metta bhavana meditaion about once a week.
I always start with the body mapping before I do any other meditation.

I'm more familiar with buddhist meditions. If anybody knows a good site for other meditations please post.

[daecon]

I use a technique I call "full sensory meditation." I find a quiet, natural spot and concentrate on each of my senses in turn, sight, hearing, scent and touch.

[Enlilki]

My fave is a "void" like state done when lying down with eyes closed.
Eventually with some practice you can block out thoughts without really trying, eventually your body can feel empty or floating.. From this point I draw my attention to one sense only or do some form of cleansing work.....

Basically from that empty/floating state I branch off to anything I feel like doing at the time.

Sometimes if you are too tired you will just fall asleep.

[ninfan]

I use the meditation technique given in the book 'modern magic'. This is the best meditation technique for me personally & I highly recommend it for people who have problems concentrating. You need tarot cards for this. While contemplating & negating u scan the card from right to left 4 times. Here is the procedure-

A TECHNIQUE OF TRUE MEDITATION
STEPONE. Perform the Relaxation Ritual.
STEPTWO. Perform the LBRP.Always be sure to do a protection
ritual before meditating.
STEPTHREE. Shuffle the Major Arcana cards (practice this for
several weeks with cards 6, 7,10,13,15 and 18 left out) and randomly
selectoneto use. This willbethe objectwhich you willuse for the contemplation
part of this technique.
STEPFOUR. If you,you feel the need, do the Relaxation Ritual again.
STEP FIVE. Scanning: This step works in a way similar in nature to
the method by which a television produces a picture. In a picture tube
is a device called an "electron gun" which shoots electrons in a small
single beam toward the screen, forming a "scan line" across the front
of the tube. The beam from the electron gun then jumps back to just
below the first line and repeats the process. If you look closely at the
fromtof your set when it is on, you can see the lines. But you cannot see
the lines being made because the process is done so fast that your eye
cannot follow it, so it appears that you have a solid picture.
In this meditation technique, scanning is done this way:
1. Start by looking at the upper right hand comer of your
chosen card.
2. Look at a horizontal strip of the card about a half-inch from
top to bottom. Move your vision from right to left across the
width of the card. Thus you should have a strip of the card in
your mind composed of the uppermost half-inch of the card.
3. Now return to the right-hand side of the card and scan
again across the card, from right to left, covering another halfinch
immediately below your previous scan.
4. Repeat this process until you have totally covered the
card.
What you are doing is observing the card, from top to bottom, a
half-inch at a time. Try to remember as much of each strip or "scan"as
you can, but don't worry about perfection. You will get better with
practice.
STEP SIX. Contemplation: In this step you will become fully involved
with the object. Put simply, the technique is to reproduce the
previous step of scanning, but within your mind's eye.
1. Put down the card so that you can no longer see its face.
2. By memory, go through and visualize the entire scanning
process.
Go one strip at a time until you have reproduced, to the best of
your ability, the entire card in your imagination. The first time you do
this you may miss many things and colors, and perhaps you will only
be able to recall and mentally create the outline of shapes that were on
the card. It is not importantthatyou are completelyaccurate with your
visualization, but your visualization abilities will improve with practice.
This does not mean that it is permissible to be lazy or overly brief
in this process. You must do the very best that you can. This step This step
100 / Modern Magick
should take between three and four minutes, but if you wish it may
take longer.
STEP SEVEN. Negation:
1. Starting again in the upper right-hand comer of the card
which you have now visualized through the scanning procedure,
take the topmost scan and, moving from right to left,
erase the image. That is, "de-scan" it; make it disappear. In your
mind's eye you should still see a card, but with its top halfinch
removed.
2. Return to the top right-hand comer of what is left of your
visualized card and take off another strip.
3. Continue this de-scanning, erasing process until the entire
card is gone from your mind. Duration for this step: about I1fz-3
minutes, maximum.
STEP EIGHT The State of True Meditation: At this point, a very
interesting phenomenon will occur. Your consciousness which has
been caught up in the act of de-scanning the visualized card, will also
be "gone" (actually it will only be silent) by the time the card is gone.
Your consciousness will be silent and the monologue in your head
will be stopped. This will give your subconscious a chance to speak to
you and give you possibly important messages and informatio

[Innocent]

I mostly use Ground, Center and Shield. If you look it up, you'll find it.

[Slavagrisha]

Maybe this sounds stupid and the complete oppersite to meditating, but i like to blast out psycadelic trance or dubstep and see where it takes me. I would say i use music that has any autistic rythmic drumming as a tool rather than ambient music. When their is silence i can never quiet my mind down no matter how much i try. I read somewhere that the tempo of 145 (psy) almost match's the alpha waves in the brain which is the phase between dreaming and reality? I think.

Sometimes i go into the woods and find somewhere to sit and watch stuff, but i wouldent say thats meditating.

[arkham]

I too use the method She Devil described most of the time.

others is more of a wait and see, clear mind work.

[Grimoracle]

Imagine you're floating out above the middle of an ocean...think of the waves as the thoughts running through your mind...with each breath focus these thoughts down into a calmer and calmer state until you can see the waves in the ocean begin to flatten out...after a few minutes the waves get smaller and appear more like the water in a calm lake, but still no land anywhere on the horizon, just you floating above a wide open ocean, now rippling instead of waves...as the water becomes as smooth as glass imagine immersing yourself slowly down into it...or you can just hover there...sometimes I imagine the ocean freezing over, it depends...at this point my mind is usually thought free for a while...if a thought appears it should become very easy to redirect it after some practice...

Another technique- Picture yourself on the edge of a canyon with a bridge connecting to the other side...it can be whatever kind of bridge you feel like having, a rainbow bridge, a bridge made of human skulls, one made of empty beer cans...whatever you feel like...this is the bridge your energy body will take to cross into whatever realm you feel like entering...as you cross the bridge start concentrating on your breathing...now when you get to the other side picture getting into a glass elevator and go up or down, whichever way you choose, and take this elevator anywhere you want to go...try adding tints of color to the glass elevator if you feel it will help influence your mood...

[ZeldaFitz]

I do a breathing and pretend I am floating in a river and just follow myself as I breathe.

[Fr_CV]

I do a breathing and pretend I am floating in a river and just follow myself as I breathe.

I might like that better then the 4 fold breath.

[ZeldaFitz]

I might like that better then the 4 fold breath.

Yes, I find it is much better in many ways than the FFB. I have another one but it is too long to post here.

[ZeldaFitz]

That does sound very relaxing, Zelda. :) Floating in a river. Ahh. I am relaxed now.

It works, just follow yourself down, as the trees are gently blowing, and the water is cool, and you are floating and can feel the gentle ripples. Now i am relaxed.

[Breath is Sacred]

The most effective relaxation technique for me is one i have created after trying many others and finding that either they do not work for me (for some reason) or do not work as well as i'd like, that is, something doesn't feel quite right. This is of course after a considerable number of experiment with the techniques.

Thus the method I use for relaxation for deep sleeping, lucid dreaming etc (corpse position) or prior to meditation, astral projection etc (lotus position) is this:

Focus on each part of your body and will, that is, tell it to relax.
Start anywhere you want, i start with the digits on my left hand and work my way up my arm to my shoulder blade then go down to my right hand digits and up, then left foot digits and up etc etc.

and repeat until ready to sleep, meditate or whatever.

This technique nevers fails me, and since the very first time i can physically feel the sensations in the part i'm focussed on, which may seem trivial but to me it was a massive surprise as i'd never experienced that before with any other technique.

This really cemented into my mind the fact the thoughts create and effect you physical body, sometimes instantly.

This naturally led to furter experiments with what i could make my body do and how i could effect my body with my thoughts.

so yeah, that's my favourite techinque, i do it alot.

[Azaziel]

Hey Ive been meditating for some time now and I was wondering do people have favourite techniques or exercises they use?


in the morning as I come out of deep sleep I like to do the 'little-pranayama' which holds me in the border region between awake and asleep (theta brain-wave pattern).

In the evenings I tend to use alcohol, tobacco and cannabis with pranayama.

The two techniques open different doorways into the subconscious mind for me.