7 Hints to help you get the most from your Meditation.

We all know that doing a meditation in a controlled situation, within a group, can be very different to doing one alone, at home. I have found that both methods can get amazing results, but I have learnt from experience that there are loads of distractions at home. When you go to a meditation session, you know that you will be left alone until you are done, at home there seems to be a different set of rules. In my house, there certainly are no restrictions on the possible distractions.

So here are some helpful hints on how to decrease the amount of distractions, short of going to live on top of an isolated hill in India:

1. Make sure that you have downloaded the entire file. The internet is not completely foolproof yet, sometimes your download might cut off before it is complete. A download manager will monitor that, but if you don’t use one for downloads, it’s a good idea to check that the end of the meditation is there. There is nothing more irritating than getting ¾’s of the way through the meditation and it cuts out! Play the mp3 file on your computer’s media player, use the navigation bar (down the bottom of windows media player) to go to the end of the file and check that the end is there.
2. Listen to the meditation on earphones. When you use earphones it has a twofold effect. Firstly it makes what you are listening to a whole lot more immediate. You will feel as though you are in the group that was present at the time the meditation was created. This will help you to synchronize with the energy of the particular visualization that you are listening to. Secondly, the earphones help to cut out outside sounds. They filter any ambient noise that might be around. Living in a city, you become used to the noise levels. It’s only when you actively seek quiet that you will become aware of the average amount of noise in a city. Big earphones that encase your whole ear are best because they really cut out exterior noise.
3. It is best to sit upright, in a comfortable chair. The information in these meditations is incredibly huge and powerful. Your conscious mind will want to ‘pass out’ because we are programmed to pass out when confronted with anything to big to comprehend. Anytime that I have done a meditation lying down, I pass out, but if I sit in a comfortable, high back chair, I sometimes manage to remain conscious to the end. Don’t worry, these meditations will work even if you pass out, but they are more fun and powerful if you can stay with the program. One other little note, these meditations seem to put a lot of strain on your neck, so a neck pillow is a very good idea.
4. Tell everyone at your house to leave you alone until further notice. It is very important that your meditation time is yours alone. We spend a large portion of our lives doing for others. Whether it’s working for a boss, caring for a child or listening to your best friend’s problems. It is important to find some time for yourself amongst the maelstrom and meditation is time that you can dedicate to yourself without any sense of guilt. You deserve the time-out, so demand it from anyone that might happen to share your home environment. Make sure that everyone knows how important it is to you and why, and you will find that they respect your wish to be left alone. (oh, for those with children, be really grateful for any successful time-out that you manage to get!)
5. Defuse the potential minefield of distractions in an average household. Let’s face it; the average household is wired with so many potential distractions that it is unbelievable that we even find time to concentrate on each other. Hang on a second; do we really ever concentrate on each other? Before you settle down to do your meditation, just walk through your house and try to minimize the potential distractions. Take the phone off the hook, unplug your doorbell if you can, be sure to switch you cellphone off, and that means off, not silent! Make sure that there are no alarms that are going to go off, we live surrounded by alarms in this day and age. If you can, use a laptop with a good battery to play the meditation. That way, if there is a power cut, you will not be left hanging. We all know that electricity is not a given, even in Johannesburg, in the 21st century.
6. Relax and allow. ‘Relax’ is clear enough; we all know how to do that. It is always good to start with a few deep breathes, while you consciously make your muscles relax. The more relaxed you are, the easier the process will be and the more you will gain from the experience. ‘Allow’ is a bit more difficult. These meditations will be most powerful if you completely allow the experience; that means don’t mentally restrict the experience in any way. Allow all possibilities and keep an open mind. Sounds easy enough, but you might be surprised at your own resistance to this kind of opening up.
7. Keep doing these meditations regularly to get the most benefit. Meditation is like any other discipline, the more you do it, the better you get and the more benefit you glean from it. You cannot expect to do one meditation and completely transform your life, but it is uncanny how many of the people who regularly attend these meditations have transformed their own lives. I have seen big changes happening over a relatively short time, for example I used to have a bad case of road rage, but that is completely gone. I am far more relaxed in all aspects of life. But this was not an immediate result, it was the result of a process over time. The more you can meditate, the bigger and faster the change.

I hope this helps you to get the most from your meditation. Meditation is potentially the biggest and fastest life changer that exists. I can assure you that if you keep at it, you can do anything and be anything; the possibilities are endless!