Meditation

Since this is an important tool to use lets explore how to use it.

First since this is a tool to help us balance, mind, body and spirit - we should then consider where we will meditate.

Pick a space, if it can not be a room then make whatever space you can as your sacred spot, this spot as you decorate or clear away will have your being with the intent of sacred space.

Using a candle, incense, water, crystal or earth and some sort of music would be good additives to this space. (earth, water, fire and air) later I'll teach you the order you should start and then end in.

There are no rules to your special space, just suggestions of some things that help bring about the balance you will want to achieve.

You must have a comfortable sitting or lying down place, here the key is - spine straight.

Now sit in your space feel warm, comfy and relaxed?
Your ready for the first meditation,

Start by deep breathing, allow your stomach to rise not your chest, you want a full breath, lightly squeeze your stomach muscles to fully empty your lungs. Keep your deep breathing to comfortable, you will find with time slow deep breaths will become easy.
Breathing is the main key for meditation, so with practice try to slow your deep breathing as well. Again this is a comfortable progression. Patience is the virtue needed here, many people give up because of not getting to somewhere fast....somewhere is no where...this is not meant to be a race to somewhere it is a gentle daily practice for self to balance, like all tools practice, practice practice.

Next you will notice that you have a hard time focusing and getting your brain to stop thinking, patience we have several focusing tools for you to use.
First your deep breathing focus on breathing correctly.
Second you may either use a candle to stare at or my fav is to stare at my third eye center ( just between the eyes and up almost level with eyebrow area) with my eyes closed.
Third you may wish to hold a crystal or a rosery I prefer to put my index finger and my middle finger touching my thumb.
Fourth listen to a music or sound that has a constant rythm, a water fall sound, drums, flutes...there are lots of these kinds of music out there, again find one that is calming to you and you feel good listening to.

Now as your meditation starts to get under some control by using all four of the above focusing practices you will notice your brain begins to think about something, thats ok just acknowledge it and it will fade again it happens you are stuck on a thought acknowledge it and it fades. In time you will begin to see how you the spirit being can let the computer take a rest.

To reach that complete silence and what I call oneness with spirit takes time, how much is up to your practicing methods and how gentle you are with yourself to get there.

Getting to here is a goal not a neccessity practicng stillness through the above focusing techniques is in itself the first and most basic need we have to center and balance ourselves.

Practice daily, start with 5 minutes work up to 15 mins twice a day if possible, if not, once a day is great.

A few tid bits why we should meditate:
What is balancing our mind, body and spirit?
It is the act, with the intention of bringing our full beingness into agreement, that we are more than we appear to be and we recognize we are a spirit housed in a body and that body has a brain like a computer. We are wanting now to put everything in proper perspective and place, spirit makes the desicions, body carries it through (the desicion) and the brain carries all the data of the past for references we may need to be aware of.

Simply put - we are taking control of our lives. Become better listeners to our inner voice and recognize messages from the universe to help us and guide us.
To bring understanding in place of fear and anger. To live fuller and more enriched lives.

When we pray, we talk to God, when we meditate, we listen to God.

Note: We do not always recieve an answer during our meditation, most of the time we will get the answers from over hearing a stranger say something, or a news article, a friend calling. You will get that gut feeling about the message and be able to identify it more readily through meditation. My father always taught me God uses us to get His messages out. So stay aware to your surroundings the messages are there, sometimes it may take a couple of days, thats ok.

Blessings.