Do Awareness Meditation

Awareness meditation is a relaxing and peaceful way to meditate and become more aware of the world around you and your place in it. Breathe deeply and prepare for your quiet and peaceful journey into relaxation and awareness.

Steps

  1. Sit down either in a comfortable chair or cross-legged on the floor with a pillow or rolled towel under your sit-bone. Sitting in a lotus position is usually quite stressing on your legs unless you know how to do it very well.
    • For comfort, you may also try the Burmese position: Sit with the legs crossed but not on top of each other (you can alternate legs to find which position is most comfortable).
    • You can also try walking meditation: one can retain awareness by focusing on taking each step. This is useful if you feel sleepy or your body feels uncomfortable to sit.
  2. It is also a good idea to set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes.. The alarm could be a quiet sound sequence, chant, classical music of your choice, just nothing jolting)
  3. Rest your hands, palms up on your lap or knees.
  4. Breathe slightly deeper than normal
  5. Be aware of your breath, how it feels coming in through your nose, filling your lungs and belly, and then moving out through your mouth.
  6. If you notice that you are thinking, acknowledge your thought. Then let it fade away by returning your awareness to your breath.
  7. As your breath becomes relaxed and regular, you may want to start repeating a mantra. You can just think it, whisper it or say it out loud. For your mantra you can use a meaningful word or phrase such as "peace", "feel the calm" or a meaningless 'word' such as "share of".
  8. Allow yourself to continue in step 6 for as long as you want..maybe starting with 10 minutes and working your way to 20 minutes which is considered an optimal amount of time.
  9. When the timer goes off, slowly open your eyes and bring yourself back into the room. Sit quietly and take in your surroundings. Then,as you move on with your day, try to bring your peaceful thoughts and feelings with you...Do these steps once or twice a day (TM meditation (transcendental) suggests twice a day)

Tips

  • Charisma comes from the being comfortable with yourself, it comes from practicing meditation. From knowing and accepting the core human fallible and childlike part of you that connects you to all humanity. It comes from letting go of all the 'chatter' that we learn in our lives, of how we should be and what we should be. It is about being in the moment and letting go of all the external stuff.
  • If you have trouble relaxing your body or wish to better identify stress points on your body while meditating, close your eyes and visualize sitting in front of yourself. Then, while looking at the reflection of you through your inner eye, imagine glows around areas of your reflection where you feel even the slightest tension, discomfort, or even pain. Let the glow cover the entire area affected, then with each outward breath, let the glow dim.
  • The Benefits: You will become calmer; you may have insight; you can get along with people easily.
  • If you count your breaths for the first few tries it will become easier to think of nothing. Beginners should try in for the count of 5 hold for 5 and out in 5. Get slower as you go but only up to 7.
  • Charisma has an attribute of the unseen leading of the Holy Spirit in personal relationship with the Father (discerning the Spirit).
  • It is recommended that you obtain direct instruction from a meditation teacher.
  • When you meditate the goal is zoning out. To practically fall asleep while still staying aware or focusing on certain points. This allows your mind to revert to that relaxed, stress free mental state during stressful situations (IE taxes or work). So when you do a session, always pick really warm thoughts that help you zone out. You will go deeper when your more comfortable!
  • With meditation you can learn to let all the stuff that is other peoples frustrations and problems wash over you and stop affecting you because you are aware of the core central person you are, with all the strange feelings that this involves. These feelings are all about you being a human rather than because of external factors, it is about knowing yourself. Try to remember that others behave according to their internal stories and therefore it is not necessarily to do with you, even when it seems to be directed at you. Rise above it. do not engage in this tit for tat type stuff.you can be above it. Letting go of this is liberating and this is what meditation offers. Go for it no matter what you religious standpoint is at the moment, its no other than learning about the central human self.
  • That word derives from the Greek Charis (“grace”) and charizesthai (“to show favour”), connoting a spiritual grace for salvation granted by grace through faith for enabling good works.
  • Meditation may be prayer, and you may believe in meditating, or praying, "through," perhaps for hours to find, "peace" (a quiet place).
  • Some believe in an unknown meditational language, "glossolalia" - lingua - tongue (or tone) with which the "Holy Spirit" may groan to the heavenly Father in "charismatic" meditations.

Warnings

  • Don't collapse (if standing), especially in a large crowd.
  • Make sure you have plenty of time. True meditation makes time seem to accelerate, and you might not notice the hours passing.
  • Don't fall asleep, especially in a large crowd.

Things You'll Need

  • An open and calm mind
  • A quiet or if you prefer noisy place

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Sources and Citations