A friend of mine has been attending a regular meditation class for a few years and occasionally I ask him how it’s going. He usually says that he finds it beneficial and helps his concentration and general well-being. I had sort of been meaning to actually ask him to take me along to a session for some time, especially a the guy who runs it is a very old musical acquaintance of mine and has just been ordained (if that’s the right word) as a Buddhist monk.

So this week I made the decision to go and find out what it was all about. Now the fact that he’s a buddhist is neither here nor there as far as the mechanics of any type of  meditation process is concerned, it’s just that this class happens to be run along those lines. There are many different types of meditation that you can do, so don’t think there has to be a certain religion/philoshophy/belief system attached to it in order to practice it.

We all sat on black mats and small cushions or actual kneeling stools to start with and got comfortable. Once in position everyone closed their eyes and the monk rang a pair of small chimes three times. I wasn’t sure what this was about  but assumed it was to signal you to “begin”. Then the monk gave us a few directions as to how to get ourselves into the correct meditative state. He told us to concentrate on our breathing. gentle rise and fall of the stomach and the entry and exit of our breath. He said that our thoughts may drift away from this concentration but to accept this and gently bring the thought back to our breathing.

Then silence for what seemed like a long time. My right foot started to go to sleep and I had to do a bit of shifting about. There were various distractions outside and inside the room but you had to divorce them from what was going on internally. The chimes were rung again and we slowly “came out” of our meditation. The monk read a short piece from a zen psychotherapy book, which was interesting, and we then resumed for another meditation session. This time I knelt on the cushion and was a bit more comfortable. When the session finished and we packed the bits and pieces away and my first real meditation experience was over.

So what did I make of it? Overall I found it a very good experience. Initially it was a little uncomfortable and you did find you thoughts wandering all over the place. Apparently this diminishes with practice and is the hardest thing to overcome for beginners. After the first session I did seem more relaxed in mind, less so in body, and after the second session felt the other way round as if my mind had “overdone it” a bit. I guess if you are new to this the periods of silence can seem very long as they are 20-30 minutes each.

But the next day I definitely felt a positive difference in mood and general calmness. I am fairly convinced it must have been to do with the meditation but it’s hard to say after only doing it once. I will be going again as I suspect that meditation is something that you need to learn to get maximum benefit from, and is a life long pursuit. I certainly felt more positive the following day so really cannot see any downside to practicing it-it can only do you good if done regularly. Give it a try!

Over the last few daysI’ve been telling you about a great product thats out there for beating panic and anxietysymptoms at  adriangunter.com/Panicaway

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www.positivethoughtsecrets.com

There are many ways to lose your sense of self-esteem but whatever happens, we should really try not to lose our own sense of self, that knowledge of who we really are underneath.

So what can we do to raise our self knowledge and put ourselves on the path to a fulfilled life?

1. Know your purpose

Maybe you are wandering through life with no real direction – hoping that happiness, health and prosperity will someday  come your way? Identify your life purpose or mission statement and you will have your own unique inner compass that will lead you in the right direction every time.
This may seem difficult at first when you see yourself as being in a tight or even dead end. Just make a commitment to a change of some sort, and see where it takes you. Even if you make a few wrong turns, it will eventually get you on the right path.

2. Know your values

What do you value most? List of your top 5 values. Some examples are security, freedom, family, spiritual development, learning. Check this against a list of personal goals. If any goal doesn’t align with any of your top five values – you may want to reconsider it or revise it.
The number shouldn’t discourage you, instead it should motivate you to do more than you ever dream of.

3. Know your needs

We all have personal needs. This is not selfish but an essential part of our character that can leave us unfulfilled if they are not met. Do you have a need to be acknowledged, to be right, to be in control, to be loved? There are so many people who lived their lives without realizing their dreams and most of them end up being stressed or even depressed for that matter. List your top four needs and take steps to get them satisfied.

4. Know your passions

We all have interests and passions in life and knowing what these are is a step toward self-knowledge. Our passions are like stepping stones to self-fulfillment as they map our characters and help to show us who we really are. By pursuing our passions we express ourselves and help us develop into the people we want to be.

5. Live from the inside out.

Increase your awareness of your inner wisdom by regularly reflecting in silence. If you live in a noisy city environment,get out and commune with nature. Breathe deeply to quiet your distracted mind by using meditation techniques. Or simply play some soothing music or read, both solitary activities that will clear the mind.

6. Honor your strengths

What are your positive traits? What special talents do you have? List three – if you get stuck, ask those closest to you to help identify these. Are you imaginative, witty, good with your hands? Find ways to express your authentic self through your strengths. You can increase your self-confidence when you can share what you know to others.

7. Serve others

When you live authentically, you may find that you develop an interconnected sense of being. When you are true to who you are, living your purpose and giving of your talents to the world around you, you give back in service what you came to share with others -your spirit – your essence. The rewards for sharing your gifts with those close to you is indeed rewarding, much more if it were to be the eyes of a stranger who appreciates what you have done to them.

Is it truly possible to be the master of every thought that you chose to enter your mind or not, as the case may be? To be able to filter out all  unwanted and unproductive thoughts automatically without too much conscious thought so they pop in and pop right out again in the blink of an eye? Sounds like a tall order doesn’t it.

The mind seems to act like some restless creature that won’t lie still and be tamed sometimes, constantly on the go, flitting from one notion to the next at random. In fact most of our bodies functions are done without any real conscious thought from breathing and walking to heartbeat and blood flow around the body. So it is with the involutary nature of our thoughts. They are sometimes like unwanted guests, just coming in sitting down for a bit, making a mess, then waltzing off again.

Our minds cannot help but think about what ever it sees, analyzes,questions and reasons it, before it “rates” its importance. Your mind processes this information almost instantaneously and decides on this importance rating by using a “filtering” system. Everyone’s filters are different and account for why some people will attach such significance to one subject, while for someone else, that same subject will hold none whatsoever.

Our filter settings began to be set in, you’ve probably guessed it, our childhood years-and have been undergoing a process of fine-tuning ever since. Every thought, word, occurence or experience has an effect on our minds and conditions our thoughts. These thoughts are thus produced non-stop and we seemingly bath in a sea of them. This incessant flow of thought requires a lot of energy and can occupy a lot a time.

Unfortunately the thoughts produced are mostly fairly unuseful or negative thoughts, and in this scenario too many of them can feel like we are being overwhelmed by too much of this kind of thinking, and a sense that we are “drowning” in this sea of negative thoughts. This can lead to a sense of helplessness, that feeling of having little or no control over what thoughts enter our minds.

Being constantly dogged by unwanted and negative thoughts is a form of enslavement. These obsessional notions and mental mind games can begin to affect our health and lead to forms of mental illness such as anxiety and depression.

But this should not be. Why let our thoughts rule us when our minds should be their master? Why not be at liberty to enjoy only beneficial and desirable thoughts that will bestow inner peace rather than your mind bossing you with relentless and mostly futile work?  The state whereby you can chose which thoughts enter your mind and which don’t is true freedom.

Using the untamed animal analagy, you can train your mind using concentration exercises and meditation techniques to attain the self discipline and obedience required to “bring your mind to heel”,  and make it stop the flow of unecessary and negative thoughts from entering it. If you put in the effort to achieve this you can realise true mental mastery.