Marcin Gil

Marcin is a spiritual being just like anyone challenging to uncover what we already have – spiritual freedom.

 
The right tips for meditation are crucial for the success of your meditation practice. More and more people start to meditate every day, searching for peace, solace, and personal improvement.
Many beginners of meditation are wrongly guided and, as a result, there are thousands of courses available for meditation, teaching meditation in various ways—some in a week, other in 10-days course. There are weekend seminars on meditation, most of them making the initiation of your meditation practice even more confusing.
You don’t need to read books or any courses on meditation that go for days or weeks. Use these three tips for meditation, and you’ll experience a quick and proper initiation in the practice of meditation.
Regardless of your knowledge about meditation, if you apply these tips as shown, you’ll experience a meditative state of mind and understand what meditation really is and how to meditate properly.
As a Raja Yoga Teacher, I study and practice meditation for 19 years and my in-depth research into the philosophy and psychology of yoga has given me the knowledge embedded in these tips I’ll show you here.

Meditation Is an Intrinsic Activity

The concept of meditation has developed in the ancient wisdom of the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishad, dating back to the earlier part of the 1st Millennium BCE.
Chandogya Upanishad opens up with the sutra:^[1]
“Let a man meditate on OM.”
Later on, the concept of meditation evolved in traditions as Jainism and Buddhism having various kinds of definitions and techniques. However, all of the definitions aim towards the same purpose and that is to attend and inquire into the human mind.
To give you an easy reference when sharing information about meditation, I’ll refer to the definition of meditation from the original texts of Yoga—the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:
“Tatra Pratyayaikatanaataa Dhyaanam”
This means that meditation is the constant focus on an object, subject, image, or thought.
One of the most important things to mention before giving you tips for a successful meditation process is that meditation is not something you can learn outside of yourself—it is a process of internal communication between your ego and your intelligence, happening inside of you.

1. Knowing

For the very beginner of meditation, the first and most important tip on meditation is to know that you attend your mind.
This tip goes before the tips on how to sit right or meditate at the same time (early or late) at the same corner of your home. Know that meditation can be done at any time (morning, noon, evening), at any place (bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, park, etc.), and in any position (lying, sitting, or standing).
The mental activity of meditation, which has a psychological and spiritual purpose, can’t be conditioned by time, place. or form. This means that before you get busy with the physiological aspects of your meditation practice, you know that you attend:

• your knowledge,
• your memories,
• your imaginations,
• your misconceptions, and
• your sleep.

These five mental fluctuations create your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. As a result, you end up in a certain mood—a state of being, that either advances or detriments your progress of meditation.
 
One of the most common mistakes that beginners do in mediation is getting engaged in the aspects of their body and mind. They have their concentration on those distractions practically throughout the whole meditation exercise where they generate:

• constant feelings of discomfort;
• thoughts of inability to perform the practice; and
• emotions they don’t understand and try to get rid of.

To omit this mistake, pay close attention to this first tip and make it the fundament of your meditation exercise. Make sure you know that you attend your mind so you’ll start meditating.

2. Adjusting

Being a beginner, you can only last a few minutes in the proper meditation process, so it’s inefficient and ineffective to get occupied with your body position, location, place, and time before the realization of the first tip for mediation—the knowledge that you are attending your mind and knowing that this work is intrinsic and instantaneous.
If needed, adjusting can take care of your:

• Asana (body posture which can enable you to sit firmly and comfortably for an extended period of time);
• Pranayama (control of breathing);
• Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses); and
• Dharana (concentration).

By the above four, I explicitly mean:

• Asana: Your body feels firm and comfortable—able to remain in that preferred position for the assigned period of time (5, 10, 15, or even 30 minutes). Don’t think this is a big deal here; this step can take only a few seconds until you have adjusted your body position. For preparing your body to sit firmly and comfortably you can use certain yoga postures (especially the squat pose).
• Pranayama: Your breathing is flowing smoothly and you follow the streaming of your inhalation and exhalation. Also, this takes only a second. Use breathing exercises to help you feel what pranayama means.
• Pratyahara: Your senses are withdrawn during the exercise. This doesn’t mean you attempt not to feel your body (hands, legs, skin), like ignoring your sense of touch or some sounds coming from the outside. These attempts are simply distractions for your practice. What you do is just let all the coming signals from the external stimuli flow and pass through your mind without identifying them. This way, the signals will gradually vanish and you won’t notice them anymore. That is a withdrawal of the senses.
• Dharana: Your mind gets fixed on a certain object. This involves activation of the sense of sight (this makes Pratyahara impossible). Hence, I recommend fixing your mind on your breathing. This ensures the execution of the last three criteria at once (Pranayama, Pratyahara, and Dharana).

Sometimes in your meditation exercises, you’ll need to adjust these four elements more and sometimes less. Once you’re advanced in the practice of meditation, you’ll execute the first and the second tip so perfectly to the point where they are simply a part of you.

3. Observing

After the knowledge you’ve gained from the first tip and the adjustments that you’ve made from the second tip, now you have only one thing left to do: observe. By this, I mean internal observation as introspection.^[2]   Read More

Life not going as you want it? That’s the perfect time to be thankful. How many times have you wished for a relationship or job, only to have circumstances not work the way you had hoped? Or maybe you’ve faced serious financial or health issues. Be thankful! It might sound crazy, but it’s not, because gratitude can create blessings in the face of challenges. It is impossible to know what your future would have looked like; those relationships or jobs could have been a train wreck, or may have closed the door toeven better relationships or opportunities. Let’s see why being thankful in all things helps you.

1. Better Relationships

Are you in a tough relationship that seems to be going nowhere? Be thankful! This is an opportunity to learn how to be more patient and kind, and give more unconditional love! By doing this, not only will you get a clearer picture of what is truly lying at the root of the problems, but you will grow immensely as an individual. You find positive solutions that lead to a better life, one which may or may not include your existing partner, but either way you will find greater joy because you are a better person. Or maybe you are hoping for a special relationship with someone but it’s not happening. Be grateful in this too. The individual could be facing personal challenges that would create a very unhealthy and negative environment for you, and could be keeping you from an amazing relationship with a different person. Therefore, be grateful for closed doors that help you learn and grow so you can be ready when the right door opens.
 

2. Better Health

Are you experiencing physical or psychological health problems, such as neck pain, low energy levels, ordepression? Be thankful! This is a great opportunity for you to learn to take better care of yourself! Most first visits to primary care physicians are due to stress related conditions, so change your life and watch the positive psychological and physical changes that take place. Furthermore, being thankful is proven to be good for your health. Studies show gratitude gives you a healthier heart, better sleep, boosts your immune system, puts you in a better mood, and increases your desire for physical activity. Amazing what something as simple as gratitude can do for your health!
 

3. Better Career and Business

Is your business or career suffering due to insufficient contacts, customers, or an unhappy office environment? Be thankful! Have an agenda that includes gratitude and kindness for every person you have contact with each day. People love to be around those who are kind and make them feel appreciated. Before finishing a conversation, share reasons you are thankful for meeting that individual. If it’s a first contact, thank them for a new insight, a refreshing conversation, assistance they are offering, or possibly even a big sale. If you are dealing with a difficult work environment, go into your office each day grateful for the common mission you and your coworkers are partaking in that will make the world a better place. Look for signs of goodness and kindness, even if they are small, and be grateful for them. Gratitude is always appreciated and helps you approach each day with happiness and an expectation for good, creating an environment of abundance and joy.
 

4. Better Finances

Do you dread looking at your bank account, or the pile of bills accumulating on your counter? Be thankful! You can always find something to be grateful for: children, health, friends, a loving partner, water, air, the fact that you’re alive, or the few pennies you do have. Whatever it takes to be thankful, be thankful for something. Gratitude attracts situations you need in your lifeto help you progress in many ways, including finances. It will open your thought to life lessons you need to learn. For example, it’s possible you need to learn to live within your means, make wiser financial decisions, get more education, or maybe eliminate bad habits, like drugs, alcohol, or gambling. You are not in your situation because there is a lack of money in the world. You are there because you think there is a lack of money in the world for you. Gratitude opens your experience to the possibilities!
 

5. More Love

Want to feel more love in all facets of life? Be thankful! Gratitude is an attribute of love, meaning when you approach life with gratitude, you will feel love in everything you do, no matter who it’s with or what the situation is. Being grateful for your psychological or physical health, career or business, finances or relationships brings more love and all its power to restore and heal any obstacle you are facing. Love is the most powerful force in the universe and you can activate it by one simple act of gratitude. Thankfulness costs you nothing, has an inexhaustible supply, and is always available because it is found within you.
Be thankful in all things! In doing so you are calling on God, or Love, to help you see beyond your limited vision and repair all that is broken. It is what guides you to your individual greatness. So be thankful and watch your relationships, health, career, and finances flourish! Try it – you’ll see!