Meditation The 1-500 way

My version of a meditation technique adapted from multiple techniques I have learnt over the years. Works for me, has worked for a few more people that I have taught.

Plenty of practise and plenty of patience is the need of the hour!

Steps

1.       Loosen the body: Gentle warm ups. Start from neck, go down to the toes. 5-6 minutes. Nothing too intense. Loosen the body to make it ready for deep relaxation

2.       Double exhalation breathing for relaxing the mind, opening up the breathing channels:

a.       Sit in a relaxed position. Back straight, shoulders relaxed, eyes closed and gazing at the third eye. Hands in any comfortable position.

b.       Tense up your body, including your hands and take a deep inhale. Forced exhalation out through the mouth twice, one after the other and at the same time relax the body. Internally watch the body relax, untense. Watch every part of the body getting relaxed. This is a very conscious effort. The second exhalation to be extended to the extent you feel comfortable. No stress to be induced. Can be done 7-8 times.

3.       Relaxed conscious breathing: Objective to relax further. Reduce the heart rate further

a.       Continue to sit in the same position.

b.       Deep inhale and Deep exhale. Stretch the inhale and exhale to the extent it keeps you uncomfortable.

c.       To be done 6-7 times.

4.       State of subconscious breathing

a.       Continue to sit in the same position. Relax the body, with the exception of the back being erect and neck straight, relax the rest of the body

b.       Start focusing inwards and let the body breathe by itself. Do not make any effort to breathe.

c.       Concentrate on watching your breath going in and out

d.       End objective is not to think at all. When this is not possible, try and focus on either a object in front of you (eyes remain closed) or repeat (in your mind) a mantra or a verse which you believe in. I count! I count (in my mind) a very slow “ooneeee” the first breath in and the first breath out, a very slow  “ttwwoooo” for the second ..…and so on. Keep watching your breath flow in and out. I count till 500. Hence the name 1-500 😊

e.       Over a period of time the breath will slow down automatically. There could be times when the breath becomes faster, sometimes it will be become slow. Don’t force any change.

f.        Thoughts will keep coming in your mind. Let them in and let them flow out. Focus back on your breath. The number of thoughts will reduce over a period of time

Continue in this position as long as you want. Start with a 5 – 10 minutes session. Extend it as you go ahead. This can be done at any time of the day, preferably early morning or before sleeping. Preferably 3 hours after a meal. Ideally done in a darker quiet room.

Most important consideration is that you should not put any pressure on yourself. Try to have a routine which you can sustain. Doing twice a week is better than doing it every day for a week, taking a break for a week and starting again.