Meditation

While many of us know the benefits of meditation, most are tentative about starting. First of all we don't know what to do (how does one sit and do nothing and think nothing?) and second, we aren't sure if we want to commit to a class for meditation. So provided below are the distilled basics of meditation. Follow this on a daily bases. Consistence is more important than the length of time meditated.

Sit in a chair so that your knees are below your hips. Pull shoulders back and down so they are centered below your ears and your ribs are forward. Tuck your chin in slightly as you tilt up the back of your neck and head as if you were being lifted by your ear or imitating an elf. Close your eyes and pay attention to the back of your eyelids. Raise your tongue so that it presses lightly against the roof of your mouth, the touching point above your upper two front teeth. This seal of the mouth is critical and one of the secrets passed in oral tradition. Let your hands drop together in your lap in whatever manner they fall comfortably.

2. Breathing: Silent, slow, and seamless.

Seamless means there is no catch; the transition from inhale to exhale is so smooth that an observer cannot tell if you are breathing in or out when watching your shoulders or upper chest.

As you breath in through your nose, you allow your sinuses to fill as you press outward and downward with your stomach and groin muscles in a relaxed manner, allowing your lungs to completely fill with air. This is going two steps below diaphragmatic breathing as practiced by musicians and singers. With a little gentle persuasion the ribs at the front and back can also be expanded to bring in even more air.

Once you have made the relaxed, seamless, and giant inhale a normal an easy part of your practice, add the following. As you exhale, slowly collapse your ribs and bring in your stomach muscles until it seems your very intestines are wrapping around your lower spine.

3. Emptying the mind: the thought of no thought.

Do 20 minutes every day, morning or night, until the condition of no mind chatter is normal and preferred.

Start brain scrub by simply counting to ten, one number as you inhale and one as you exhale. you are only allowed to think the numbers.  Any extraneous thoughts such as, "...my feet hurt..." or, "...this is a stupid exercise..." sends you back to the beginning because all you are allowed to do is count your breath.

Reference: Path Notes of an American Ninja, Glen Morris