Visualization & Meditation on Overcoming Stress

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First, we need to relax our body and mind. Sit on a cushion or a straight-backed chair. Keep your chin parallel with the floor and your spine erect and away from the back of the chair. Now we'll practice a technique to relax subconscious tensions. Inhale and tense your whole body until it vibrates. Throw the breath out and relax completely. The inhalation should be through the nostrils and the exhalation through both the nose and the mouth. Let's do that twice more: Inhale and tense, … exhale and relax. Now, once again; inhale and tense. Throw the breath out and relax.

Now we'll do a technique of yoga called, "regular breathing," which helps calm the mind. Inhale slowly through the nose to a count of eight. Hold your breath and concentrate your attention at the point between the eyebrows for a count of eight. Now exhale slowly through the nostrils for a count of eight. Let's do that again. Inhale … concentrate and hold … exhale. Now, one last time, but this time use a count of twelve. Inhale for a count of twelve. Hold the same length of time. Exhale for a count of twelve. When you practice this on your own, you can use any length of count that is comfortable for you, but be sure the inhalation, holding, and exhalation are equal.

Now let's relax the whole body as completely as possible. Become aware of your feet and let go of all tension there. You can think of space or light in that area. Now relax your calves … your upper legs, and behind your knees. Relax your hips and abdomen. Many people hold tension in the abdomen, so concentrate on relaxing completely in that area. Now relax your hands and forearms … your upper arms … and now your chest and shoulders. When you relax your shoulders, feel that you're letting go of all burdens that you might be carrying. Now relax your neck … your jaw … tongue … and lips. Relax completely, feeling all tension in your face melt away. Relax your eyes, … eyelids … and forehead. Now gently focus your mind at the point between the eyebrows, the seat of higher consciousness.

The following visualization will help accept life with calmness and enjoyment. Visualize yourself floating near the shore in a beautiful blue sea. The sea is calm, the sun is shining, and the wind is blowing gently over the water. Gradually, the waves begin to increase in strength. … Now, they are tossing you about. At first you find this annoying and wish they would stop. But now you realize that you can't control the sea. As you relax, you begin to accept the waves and enjoy the ride they are giving you. You see that they are playing with you. Stay in this state of enjoyment for a while. … Now feel that your vision is floating up above the level of the sea and looking down on your little body. As you look down from this height, you see that the waves aren't really big at all. From this higher viewpoint, the sea actually looks quite calm. And it is beautiful, blues and greens, and little whitecaps. All is incredibly beautiful. You see that the ocean of life is your friend and your supporter. You gaze out toward the horizon endless miles away. The line where the sea meets the sky never changes. Concentrate on this line and try to feel that underneath the waves of events you never change. You are always peaceful, always calm, always joyful. Release all attachments, all desires, all regrets. Float now in this vast ocean of bliss. When you are ready, let your mind come back to a point of concentration at the spiritual eye, between the eyebrows.

Continue concentrating here as we prepare for deep meditation. Check to see that you are still completely relaxed. Now become aware of the breath as it flows in and out of the nostrils. Feel the movement of air and mentally observe it flowing in and out. Don't try to control the breath, just watch it. If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to watching the breath. If you would like, you can mentally say "hong" as the breath flow in and "sau" as it flow out again. These words are an ancient mantra that helps calm and concentrate the mind. Gradually feel the breath higher and higher in the nostrils, until you are observing it at the point between the eyebrows. We'll continue to silently watch the breath in this manner for some time. … Concentrating at this point will help lift the mind toward superconsciousness.

Now exhale completely and concentrate your energy and attention at the point between the eyebrows. If you see light there, just observe it. Let go of all thoughts, all anxiety, all plans and feel completely at peace. Hold this state of silent meditation and try to deepen it. Go as deeply as you can into the silence. The deeper and longer you can hold this state, the faster will be your progress.

Now, once again return to body consciousness. We will end our meditation with an affirmation. Concentrate deeply on the words and the meaning behind the words. Send this message to your subconscious mind. We'll repeat it several times:

I am grateful for my life exactly as it is.
I am thankful for this day,
I welcome every hour.
Thank you God.
Thank you God.

You can repeat this affirmation as often as you would like. It is especially effective just after waking up in the morning, or just before sleep at night.

Mountain Meditation Technique

I Am the Mountain

The purpose of yoga is to withdraw the consciousness from the body and center it in the spine. The following exercise, I Am the Mountain, will help you become more aware of your spine. It is an excellent practice for internalizing your awareness and learning to relate to life intuitively.

The I Am the Mountain meditation can be practiced alone or with another person. To begin, look for a place outdoors where it is beautiful; if this isn't possible revisit such a place in your mind and use your imagination. Then meditate a few minutes to become calm and interiorized.





How the exercise works when done alone:

Quietly repeat the words I Am. After each time you say I Am, look for something in nature that captivates you—perhaps a cloud sailing across the sky or the wind playing music in the forest. Whatever it is, feel its living reality inside of you, in your spine. Enjoy it there for a few moments, and then quietly whisper a simple word or phrase that describes your experience of what you were observing. For example, it may go like this:

I Am……..the drifting cloud……..I Am……..the waving branches……I Am……..the exhilaration of the wind racing across the lake






Feel a sense of communion with everything you see. Be also aware of the energy in your spine. Sensitively feel, for example, how sensing a tall tree in your spine, stimulates your energy.

Repeat I Am, I Love and/or I Receive for five minutes, then relax and enjoy the serenity of nature within and all around you.





How to share I Am the Mountain with a friend:

Choose one of you to be the prompter, who says "I Am," and the other one to be the responder. The prompter sits behind to allow the responder an unobstructed view. Having one partner repeat I Am (or I Love, I Receive) keeps the other one focused and in the present moment. Doing I Am the Mountain with a friend creates a shared sense of communion with nature and with each other.

Switch roles when desired.

Meditation Keys for Beginners

How long should you meditate? The first rule is, Don't be ruled by what others do. What works well for them may not work for you. Accept that in certain ways you are unique. Here are a few general guidelines:

Intensity of effort is far more important than the time spent in meditation.

Never meditate to the point of mental fatigue, strain, or boredom... If you feel joy in meditation, stop meditating when the joy begins to diminish. One rule for right eating is to leave the table a little hungry. Apply this rule to meditation. In that way, you'll always look forward to your next time for meditation.

On the other hand, make an effort to meditate a little longer at least once a week… Gradually you'll break the habit of thinking you can meditate only for short periods.

In longer meditations, imitate the ocean tides in their ebb and flow. Let periods of intense concentration alternate with periods of relaxed effort and peaceful receptivity. Like waves coming in to shore, high intensity will alternate with low intensity in long meditations, and there may be pauses when no waves come at all. Until you can transcend body-consciousness in superconsciousness, it is unlikely you'll be able to meditate deeply for very long. Think of your thoughts as dirt that has been stirred up in a glass. Stop stirring it, and it will gradually settle. The greatest difficulty, in long meditations especially, is physical tension. Make an extra effort to keep your whole body relaxed...

As a general guideline, I suggest you try to meditate at least half an hour twice a day-in the morning after you get up, and in the evening before going to bed. An hour and a half twice a day is better. But if you are a beginning meditator, more than one hour a day may be extreme. It is better to meditate a few minutes with deep concentration than a whole hour absentmindedly. Moreover, I don't mind bargaining with you! For although five minutes, let's say, isn't much for anyone who has developed a taste for meditation, it may be all you feel you can spend in the beginning. So be it! Think of meditation, if you like, as daily spiritual hygiene. You brush your teeth, bathe, and brush your hair every day: Why not add to that routine five minutes of meditation?

You'll come to enjoy meditating, in time. Then you'll find yourself meditating longer because you want to, and not because someone is nagging you to do so. But if you think you're too busy, here's something to think about: You can always find the time for something you enjoy doing, can't you? In time, you'll wonder how you ever lived without meditating daily. And the answer, of course, will be: You didn't. What you did, that is, wasn't really living.

Be natural in your efforts. Make haste slowly, as the saying goes. Don't force yourself to meditate when you'd very much rather be doing something else.

At the same time, don't stop meditating altogether with the excuse that you have other things to do. Remember, there's only one direction to go that makes any lasting sense: toward your own Self, in superconsciousness. No substitute will ever work for you; it's never worked for anyone. No appointment is more important than your appointment with-not death: life.

Be a little stern with yourself. Success won't come to people who never try. Only bear in mind that tension is counterproductive. In meditation, concentrate first of all on relaxation.

Remember this also: The more you meditate, the more you'll want to meditate; but the less you meditate, the less you'll enjoy doing it.

Another rule: As soon as you sit for meditation, get "down to business." Don't dawdle, as if telling yourself, "Oh, I have a whole hour, so what's the rush?"

Be regular in your hours and practices of meditation... It is a good practice to meditate at the same hours every day. Routine conditions the mind. You'll find yourself wanting to meditate whenever those hours return. It will be much easier, then, to set all distractions aside.

As soon as you sit to meditate, pray for depth and for guidance in your meditation. Pray also for peace for all humanity. Don't isolate your sympathies from others; embrace all in your divine love.

We develop intuition, Paramhansa Yogananda said, by prolonging the peaceful aftereffects of the meditation techniques... After meditation, don't strip your mental gears by plunging hastily into outer activity. Try to carry the meditative peace into everything you do. To develop this habit, it may help to begin with outward activities that don't involve your mind too much. While doing them, chant inwardly to God.

As a focus for your devotion, you may find it helpful to set up an altar in your place of meditation. Include pictures on the altar, if you like, of saints, or of images of God, or of infinite light and space.

A helpful practice also, if it pleases you, is the burning of incense as a devotional offering. The sense of smell is closely related to the memory faculty. You may recall, for example, catching in some fleeting scent a reminder of some childhood episode that awakened a host of associated memories. Incense, when used regularly in meditation, will help to create meditative associations in your mind, and bring you more quickly, therefore, to inner calmness.

Above all in meditation, be happy! If you want to experience peace, meditate peacefully. If you want to know love, offer love first, yourself.

Swami Kriyananda . www.anand.org