Meditation, however, has helped me survive all these.
In the past, I shared with you some tips on meditating from the book Easy Steps to Healing by Greer Alicia.
Here are more easy ways to meditate:
This is one exercise you can do: Take a deep breath in and then exhale. Follow your breathing with your mind. Focus only on breathing and nothing else.
Start with the physical. Explore your five senseshearing, seeing, taste, touch and smell. Reach the inner sense through remembering and imagination. For example, look at a flower, then shut your eyes and hold the picture in your mind. If you lose the picture, look again.
Sit or lie with your eyes closed and listen to your body. Let your mind focus on each part of the body from head to toe. Concentrate and feel the tension. Exaggerate the tension. Then release the tension. Feel the difference.
Write down 10 things you like about yourself and 10 things you dislike. Which list was easier to write? With what thoughts are you feeding your life? Where did they come from? How do they limit you?
Take time when you feel depressed to acknowledge the depression rather than suppress it. Find where the depression is centered in your body and focus on it. Listen to what your feeling is telling you. Dont rationalize it away.
Imagine your body filled with light. "Breathe" it into every cell. See, feel and direct the light. Imagine that every cell is being renewed, revitalized, made healthy and whole. When the entire body is filled with light, visualize it radiating from the body as far as your inner eye can see.
Once you can meditate, youll find the still, calm pool in the midst of turmoil. You wont have to remove yourself from a situation. The turmoil will be like ripples in your pool.
Imagine a pool of still, clean water. See the light shining through the sandy bottom. Surround your pool with beautiful trees and plants. Visualize it often until it is imprinted in your mind. Come back to the still mind-pool whenever you need.
The above are just some easy ways to meditate. I have tried them and they have become food for my mind and soul. Through them Ive realized I could choose to dance through life or to struggle. You too have that choice.
Happy meditating and Merry Christmas!