I love meditation and learned to do it first with a form of Relaxation and Guided Imagery. For those of you who are having a hard time getting to that quiet place you might try using relaxation tapes first the ones that help you relax every part of your body. That will help you to learn how to quiet yourself down from the outside world and then full on meditation won't be so hard to achieve. At least it worked that way for me.
The latest for of meditation I've been using is only 10 minutes of Toning Meditation and I love this, it's fast yet it's very deep and I always feel incredible afterward.
Here’s a very brief explanation:
If you think of the 3 rd dimension as a “vibration,” it’s rather slow and heavy in comparison to the dimension or vibration of desires and ideas. What is between these two dimensions (or vibrations) is the vibration of sound. Sound can be consciously used to bring our desires into manifestation. The universal sound of attraction is Ah (as in God, Allah, Jehovah). The universal sound of gratitude is Om. These sounds are sung on one note (this is also called “toning”). Technically speaking, Ah is sung for 20 minutes in the morning and Om for 20 minutes in the evening (the most powerful times being sunrise and sunset) and right before bed sing “shalom” which is the combination of the two. However, any amount of time toning is great, and you can even do this in the car while commuting. A clear intention is all that is required. My favorite way to meditate is lying down, and if I fall asleep, it’s all that much better!
In my case, I discovered that I’d sing Ah in the morning and forget to sing Om at night. Then I’d feel a bit guilty for forgetting to be grateful! So I devised my own system where I’d sing Ah and Om on the same breath so I’d be guaranteed to accomplish attraction and gratitude all at once! (That may not be technically correct, but the Universe ALWAYS understands our intentions.) I had something I wanted to manifest, but five minutes into this “singing meditation” I thought, “What if this isn’t in my best interest?” And then I suddenly remembered something Wayne Dyer said earlier on the tape: “The difference between the average person and the enlightened master, is the average person is at peace some of the time; the enlightened master is at peace all the time.”
Then it hit me: No matter what I desired; a job, a relationship, a home, all of it’s meaningless, and potentially painful, if there isn’t a foundation of peace. And if I was deeply at peace, then everything else would have a way of working out effortlessly and easily. So I took the easy way out. I didn’t try to figure anything out, I simply decided I would do nothing more than hold an intention for peace. No matter what I thought I wanted or needed, no matter what bills needed paying, I kept holding the feeling of peace.
Then I came across an audio series called Sound Body Sound Mind by Andrew Weil. Subliminally woven into the music is the sound the brain makes when in the delta state, the deepest state of meditation. In the delta state, one can experience spontaneous healing. And with this sound subliminally in the music, the listener’s brain will automatically entrain to it and move naturally into a state of meditation without so much as a conscious thought. Andrew Weil suggests that the listener simply hold an intention while listening to the music, and says there’s no need to “try” to meditate since your brain waves will automatically entrain with the subliminal delta sounds. (There is an entire tape dedicated to this explanation, so this is intended to just give you a brief idea of what’s behind the music.)
I was particularly drawn to a part of the tape called “The Deep,” which is all musical tones with no melody (it’s also the “deepest” part of the subliminal meditation music). Then one evening while listening to “The Deep,” it occurred to me to start singing the Ah’s and Om’s with the tones. In five minutes I moved into one of the deepest states of meditation I had ever experienced! As I shared this with friends I discovered that it didn’t matter whether a person was advanced or brand new to meditation, everyone had an amazing experience.
I didn’t fully understand why this toning mediation to music worked so well until I read the book, The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell, which says:
"All forms of vocalization…can be therapeutic, but I have found that nothing rivals toning. Toning oxygenates the body, deepens breathing, relaxes the muscles, and stimulates the energy flow. When performed by a voice rich in timbre, toning will massage and tune up the entire body…. One of the simplest ways to calm your mind, stabilize the rhythms in your body, and improve your voice is through toning or humming….
Ah The ah sound immediately evokes a relaxation response.
Oh The oh and om sounds are considered the richest of all by many people who tone or chant.
Five minutes of oh can change the skin temperature, muscle tension, brain waves, and breath and heart rates. It is a great tool for an instant tune-up."
The following is an excerpt from a portion of ‘Sound Body Sound Mind.’ In a moment you’ll hear me singing with “The Deep” to give you an idea of how to tone with the music. It’s not necessary to follow my voice exactly, in fact, you can choose any note that’s comfortable for you, and the duration of your singing and breathing is individual as well. I love to wake up a bit early and do this meditation before I get out of bed. I fall asleep singing as well, holding the intention of peace and gratitude.
Author, Heather Macauley
Anyone interested in having a copy of this PM me and I'll burn you a CD and send it out.
