Learn to meditate with an audio guide

Mmmhhh... meditation. Even the word sounds decelerating. You would like to meditate, but whenever you sit cross-legged on your meditation cushion, does your mind merry-go-round happily continue to do its rounds? Holiday fantasies, cravings for food or musings - all these thoughts are there to keep you company. There is no peace to think about. If this sounds familiar, this guided meditation with audio guide is for you.

Creating the basis – tips for the start

A stable sitting posture: Don't worry, you don't have to knot yourself like a fakir to be able to meditate. A typical sitting posture for meditation is Sukhasana (simple seat) - sitting on the floor with your lower legs crossed. So that your hips are higher than your knees, you can put a folded blanket or a low meditation cushion underneath (this makes it easier to straighten your pelvis and spine in a relaxed manner). You can also meditate sitting on a chair.

• Find a quiet place where you feel comfortable. When sounds come, just notice them without judging them. If that doesn't work, imagine that your silence is disturbing the sounds and not the other way around. That always puts a smile on my face.
• Start with small meditation sessions. It is counterproductive full of motivation as a beginner to book a two-day seminar to learn to meditate. The key is repetition. For example, start with just seven minutes a day, slowly increase to 10 minutes and more.
• The best time for meditation is early morning or dusk. If you meditate regularly at a specific time, you will make your practice routine and your mind will calm down more quickly.

Train your concentration in everyday life and consciously engage in the moment. For example right now.

Audio file: Instructions for classic yoga meditations for beginners

The meditation techniques of yoga are the most original known today. In this classic yoga meditation, you bring your senses inward and focus your thoughts and emotions on a point in the center of your forehead.

Creating the basis: the stable seat

• Create the base by choosing a comfortable, upright sitting position. Be honest with yourself: Am I really comfortable?
• Feel the contact with the surface and feel the body in its upright position. The spine strives upwards, let the shoulders sink back and down. Your chin is parallel to the floor and your features are soft and relaxed.
• Close your eyes, which are now gently resting in the eye sockets. Bring your attention inward. As you do this, drop any idea of ​​the meditation and bring your attention to the moment that is presented to you.

Breath observation and regulation

• Feel how your breath comes and goes and how your abdominal wall rises gently with the inhalation... and how it lowers again with the exhalation.
• Maybe you can also perceive how the transitions are shaped - from one breath to the next. Is the transition smooth or accompanied by completely natural pauses? At this moment there is no right or wrong.
• Perceive your breath as nothing personal, just something that can be felt in the room.
• In the next step, try to influence your breathing by consciously lengthening your exhalation (this should be at least as long as the inhalation).
• Consciously perceive the emptiness before the natural impulse to inhale follows. Hold your breath for a moment and exhale fully. At the end of the exhalation, gently pull the belly button towards the spine so that the remaining exhaled air also flows out of the lungs. And then hold your breath again for a moment before you breathe in again...
• Try to calm the breath by breathing in these 4 phases: Inhale - feel the fullness of breath - exhale - feel the lack of breath
• And then finally let go of the mental observation of your breath.
• Bring your senses in and sit back inside.
• What are you feeling right now? You may feel tired, but the opposite may be the case and the urge to think mentally is very strong. Just notice without judging. Everything can be as it is now. Immerse yourself in this immediate experience.

Concentration on the third eye

• In the next phase, consciously relax your forehead in its entire width, height and depth. Your facial features are perfectly soft and your eyes are gently set in their sockets.
• You become a kind of observer. Like an outsider, you observe things with ease and composure.
• Direct all mental attention inward to a point in the center of your forehead. When your mind wanders, keep coming back to that point.
• After a while, you can let this point sink back and down a bit. Trust that the dot will find its exact position on its own and that you are only passively observing it.
• All senses, attention and thought rest in the center of this point.

meditation

• After a while, without losing passive attention to this area, resolve this point. Dwell in mindfulness: resting within you and yet resolved.

exit meditation

• To exit this meditation, let the awareness sink from the center of the head down to the navel area.
• Observe your breathing more and more and perceive the body in its entirety.
• When you're ready, lower your chin toward your chest and gently open your eyes. Remain fully present, relaxed and permeable.
• If you want, put your hands in the prayer position (Anjali Mudra) and consciously bow.

Namaste.