Will You Join Us on SpiritWeb For The Meditation Challenge? Meditate for at least 15 minutes every day for one week and write about your experience.

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Will You Join Us For The Meditation Challenge?

Thinking thinking, doing doing, desire and holding on... What is meditation, this thing that so many speak about, and why should you care? A thought, each and every thought, occupies a space in our mind.. and as the thoughts pile up we spend our time lost in thought and holding on to them. The more we think, the more space we give up, and the more we attach meaning and importance to them.. until finally we identify with them as ourselves. What would you be, what would you feel like if you had no thoughts? We spend our days lost in a perpetual dialogue with ourselves, but are our thoughts so important? What if we realised that being present just meant letting go of that chat, whatever it may be about. Animals cannot think like we do, because they don’t have words, they don’t have language.. and yet they are able to function perfectly, with great intelligence and knowing.. they are in touch with their essence and true nature in each and every moment. Have you ever watched a cat sitting so nicely, for hours on end, looking, watching, in a state of bliss? That cat has no thoughts to distract it from its true nature, it simply IS, and watches, looks, its mind is not full, but it is totally mindful.

Anyone who already meditates on a regular basis can testify to the powerful and wide range of effects and benefits that they get from it. These days meditation is starting to gain traction in mainstream media, and we are seeing meditation being taught in schools, even in Europe and USA. Many of us make important decisions every day whilst leading stressful lives. It is often when we are feeling fearful or under stress that we make bad decisions, and are unproductive and inefficient.

What better challenge could we have here on Hive than a meditation challenge!? This challenge is for everyone, whether you have never meditated before, or you used to meditate but haven't in a while, or even if you do meditate regularly. I hope you will join us in this opporunity to make your day and the world even better!

The Meditation / Chant Challenge. Meditate for at least 15 minutes every day for one week and write about your experience...

The challenge is very simple. Set aside 15 minutes each day to meditate as described below or using any method you like, and then carry on with your day! At the end of the day or whenever you feel, write a little bit about your experiences. Then 7 days after you start please post your experiences along with anything else you would like to say or add around the subject of meditation. You can start whenever you like, so we can have a continuous feed of people who do try it, and we can all be inspired by each other!

Challenge Guidelines

  • You may choose any style of kind of meditation
  • You should meditate for at least 15 minutes each day
  • Post once at the end of your challenge, or every day, and tell us all how it went!
  • In your post, let us know if you will continue the challenge for another week ;-)
  • Copy These Guidelines and the Recommended Meditation in your post.
  • Nominate one person to do the challenge
  • Please Re-Blog this post to encourage others!
  • You may start this at anytime. This challenge continue indefinitely!
  • Post to the Spiritweb Community:
    https://peakd.com/c/hive-183196/created

Recommended Meditation For Beginners

If you have another way to meditate then please do go with it. You can also share how you meditate with us in the SpiritWeb Community.

How To Start Meditating

It is best to meditate in the morning, when there are least distractions. You can meditate anywhere you like, so just choose a place that you have some privacy, quiet and you are comfotrable.. Wherever you choose, try to mediate in the same place each day. This builds up familiarity, and also builds up the energy so that you can more easily slip into it as you practice. It's usually a good idea to use a timer to count the minutes for you, and that way you have a clear goal and will likely meditate for more than 2 minutes.

Now simply close your eyes slowly, and breath in and out as you normally do. You don't need to try to change your breath or do anything differently, but instead just observe it and notice that you are indeed breathing. Notice the weight of your body, and if you are sitting straight or not. Try to sit as straight as you can and cross your legs if possible. You can also sit on a chair if you are not comfortable on the floor, that works just fine too! Whilst you are noticing your body and posture you will no doubt have thoughts coming to your mind. Let them come. Then let them go and remind yourself that for the next 15 minutes you are going to let these thoughts go. This is your time, so tell yourself that these thoughts can wait a few minutes. Come straight back to your awareness of your breathing, and continue. New thoughts may come VERY quickly, and that is normal and totally OK. Just do the same thing each time. There is NO need to get frustrated or angry when they come, because you are not trying to stop them. You are NOT doing it wrong! What you may notice is that the time between thoughts gets longer quite naturally, or the effect of them on your feelings reduces. You MAY find quite the opposite too, and feel even more tense because you are not distracting yourself from them.

After 15 minutes are up, you can open your eyes and get on with your day. I OFTEN have some brilliant ideas pop into my head either during or just after meditating, and I don't even have to try! Even if I don't have a brainwave, I feel SO much more relaxed and able to take on the challenges of the day in a positive and productive manner.

If you want to feel good whatever is going on, meditate!
Have an Amazing Day!



Going Deeper: What is Meditation?

"Love lives by Giving & Forgiving... Self lives by Getting & Forgetting..."

Many people think that meditation means having no thoughts, but that is not how you start. Meditation is the final step in a long process! Anyone who attempts to sit down and quieten their thoughts and mind will surely fail. That is the great hurdle and misunderstand of meditation... A cat does not make any effort to not think, it is its natural quality because it is so focused, so concentrated and aware of the moment, of every sound, scent, and movement around it. It is alert and watching everything! And so the way to begin with meditation is simply to be alert, to watch everything within and around us, without judgement, just observing it all, without having to make any story up about it. Let the mind wander wherever it wants, but do not follow it. It takes practice to just observe, to be mindful, to just listen without talking about it, without responding to it.

And so, if you are interested in meditation and would like to deepen your practice I would like to share with you with a special quote on meditation from a divine being, his words always touch my heart and soul.

 

Concentration, contemplation and meditation

Concentration is below senses; meditation is beyond senses. We must travel from below senses to beyond senses. So, when we set out from what is below senses through concentration, we reach the stage of contemplation. And when we cross the boundaries of contemplation, we reach the area of meditation. So there are three stages, concentration, contemplation and meditation. Concentration can be compared to the state of "One you think you are". "One others think you are" is contemplation. Meditation enables us to recognize the state of "One you really are"

Forgetting the feeling of body identification

Supposing you sit for meditation, closing your eyes. However, the mind goes on wandering everywhere. You try to bring it back to the starting point. It is all a practice. It is only when the wavering mind is stilled that meditation is possible. This process of making the mind steady is called concentration. Meditation is possible only after concentration. The proper order is concentration, contemplation and meditation. If someone claims that he is meditating the moment he sits, it should not be believed. That is an artificial exercise, not meditation. Real meditation is forgetting oneself totally. It is forgetting dehātma bhāva (the feeling of identification with the body) completely. One has to totally give up attachment to the senses. Then only the mind will be steady.

Practicing concentration, contemplation

Do not follow the vagaries of the mind

Let the mind run wherever it likes; just be careful not to follow it, seeking to discover where it is going! It will then wander about for some time as the fancy takes it; soon, getting tired and exhausted, it will come back to you in the end! It is like a little child that knows nothing. Since the mother is following it and calling it back, it gets courage and confidence to run forward in any direction, but if the mother does not run behind the child and instead retraces her steps quietly, the child too, of its own accord, will run back to the mother!

Meditation means offering the flower of love to the Divine. In the rose plant of our body, there is the rose of pure and sacred Love emitting the fragrance of good qualities. Below the rose, however, there are thorns in the form of sensual desires. The purpose of meditation is to separate the rose of selfless love from the senses and offer it to the Lord.

 

Have a beautiful Day my friends!

 


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10 comments
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I'm in, starting tomorrow morning! :)

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Awesome! Happy to hear! I look forward to your post , please free to comment or share or ask questions as u go. Xx enjoy! Ommm

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I have heard about meditation a lot, but not able to get started on it anytime. If I close my eyes and sit , my mind just brings many thoughts, and I feel I am not meditating but rather thinking about different issues. How best to tackle it ?

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namaste sanjeevm. What you experience is totally GOOD! VEry correct and normal and to be expected. THis post discusses it very well and how to handle it.. please do have a read where it says GOING DEEPER>.. i hope you try it!

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I'll take your 15 and raise you to 30!

This will help me get back in the habit!

Cheers!

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ill take your 30 and raise it to 45! thats my actual target but ive been missing it since i left india! yeah 30 good idea actually.. a compromise! see u thereee

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Saludos a todos, intentaré hacerlo. Seguro se tornará dificil para í, me distraigo mucho. Me pasa al leer, por ejemplo, termino sumergida en pensamientos que muchas veces no tiene nada que ver con la lectura.

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Sitting is a problem to me. I reblogged.

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do u mean its you have physical problem sitting or its just hard to sit and do nothing? xx

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