Here’s a quick guide to developing a good meditation practice.

1. Stretch before you Sit
Stretch your body out to release tension before sitting down to meditate. If you know a yoga posture or two, like the triangle, or the warrior pose, you could try those to relax and stretch your major muscle groups. Otherwise just stretch how you feel comfortable, trying to give all your major muscles a few moments attention and relief.

You could give your arms and legs a bit of a shake too, just to make sure everything is loose and relaxed before you begin.

It's up to you how long you invest in preparing your body, if you're short on time, even a minute spent stretching can free you of a lot of tension.

2. Daily Dose
For maximum benefit from meditation, make it a habit. Set aside a time (or times) each day for your quiet time. Recommended times for meditation are the peaceful morning hours before the world gets up and starts rushing about, and twilight.

By making meditation a daily event in your life you will gain numerous benefits, not just from the practice itself, but from the simple act of commitment and awareness to meditation being a part of your life and your attunement to beneficial times of regular practice.

Regularity is one of yoga and ayurveda's recommendations for a strong and peaceful mind.

3. Setting the Scene
It's not always easy to enter into a meditative state, especially when meditating later in the day when your mind has picked up the pace. Or when you know you have other things that need your attention too.

To slide into a meditative state more easily you could use guided techniques where someone already in that state talks you through, or you could simply prepare yourself with a prayer, or statement of intention, that the next few minutes can be spent in peaceful contemplation and that everything else can wait.

You could breathe deeply for a minute or two, emptying your lungs with some push from your diaphragm and dropping your shoulders as you settle down to begin.

4. Don't Feel Pressured by Time
Meditation should be a pleasant and welcome experience, once you get into a routine, you may find your mind hankering for those moments of peace. But if you feel uncomfortable committing to 15-20 minute sessions, allow yourself the freedom to practice regularly and briefly. It's better to invest 5-10 minutes every day in meditation, that to sporadically enter into 30 minute meditation marathons. Remember the benefits of regularity, and focus on developing a self-healing habit that's easy for you to maintain.

5. Floating Thoughts
Meditators often refer to restless mind as the "monkey mind", In India's timeless classic, the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna states that: "controlling the mind is more difficult than controlling the wind".

It's practically impossible to think of nothing, the secret of meditation is to let thoughts float by without giving them your attention. Your mind will wander, that's OK, just keep bringing it back to awareness of your breath, try focusing on the sounds of your breath as it enters and leaves your body. Practice keeping still and quiet and, though you can't silence your thoughts, you can hush them for a while and slow the swirling winds of your mind into a contemplative breeze for just a few minutes...


Available now… Beautiful Calm FREE meditation eBook and companion audio set. 9 simple ways to enjoy the benefits of meditation. This eBook includes: the relaxing breath, healing energy meditation, counting breaths, mindfulness meditation, 5 finger qigong meditation, the grounding technique and more...

 Click this link: to get your FREE meditation eBook here

Meditation is a noble and gentle practice, it cultivates your quieter side, the place where you have time for contemplation and correction.

Regular meditation facilitates a glance towards your stars and your direction and allows you to set your course and keep your eye on it.

But as wonderful as that sounds, many of us are still tussling with our inner achiever who’s telling us we don’t have time…

Streaming Shoulds
When you’re going about your busy day, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the rushing stream of what you feel you “should” be doing. The pressure may be on, and it can be hard to find the time to slow down and take time out, what to speak of finding the time to learn how to relax and meditate within that hard to find time slot.

Meditation for Busy People
That’s where our Moments of Tranquility program can really help you out. I developed this quick start meditation set for busy people who want a break, but don’t want to have to learn how to get one.

Meditation is a simple art, but it’s becoming a lost one, I can remember years ago scanning bookshelves trying to find information on “how to meditate”. On the whole, my search was futile, what I really wanted was someone to take me by the hand and say “this is what you need to do”, eventually I got lucky.

20 years later I’m still meditating and happy to share with you the basics of a collection of simple exercises for inviting peace and calm into your life in minutes.

Peaceful Pauses
Moments of Tranquility Volume 1 is a collection of guided relaxation and meditation experiences. It’s a 2 disc set carefully created to invite peace and quiet into the busiest of lives

Disc 1 is a walkthrough of eight simple and relaxing sessions; such as the relaxing breath, mindfulness meditation, or the popular anxiety reducing 5 finger Qigong exercise, that you can download and play on your laptop, or iPod, or burn to CD. All you need to do to get started with the benefits of meditation, is sit back, click play, and follow along with the exercises. Each one is a short 3 - 7 minute session, so that anyone can find the time to slow down and enjoy the benefits of meditation for a few precious moments.

Disc 2 is a collection of meditation music compositions performed with Tibetan bowls, shakuhachi meditation flutes, and other traditional meditative instruments for you to do your own thing with, once you have the knack of some of the sessions on disc one.

Even if you were to listen to just one track once a day and just close your eyes, breathe deeply and listen to the music, you would find that your stress levels would drop significantly.

You don’t need to worry about posture and practice, this program works on the principle of good, better, best.

Trying an exercise here and there and taking a break to do some deep breathing is good. Even listening on the train is good, or in bed before you drift off to sleep, or for five minutes in your lunch break. It’s all good. It will give you a break and some genuine relaxation time.

Even better is to listen daily and try and really enter into the spirit of each exercise. Have a place which is your meditation place. Maybe buy some incense, or a candle and set a time (perhaps by getting up 10 minutes earlier and practising before work, or perhaps at the end of the day, to unwind and clear your mind) where you absorb yourself in an exercise and derive great benefit from it. You will soon find this a pleasure and your mind will feel the benefits and let you know if you miss a day.

Best is committing to daily practice, and extending the time you spend in meditation to sessions of 20 minutes to an hour. That can come later, if you so desire. But if I told you that you had to do that now to get any benefits, would I loose your interest? I thought so.

So start with good then. It’s phenomenally better than nothing, and it’s a wonderful place to build from.

If you make regular listening a health creating habit, you can:

Improve
- your digestion
- your immunity
- your productivity and creative problem solving abilities
- your relationships (by reducing tension and irritability born of stress)

You can also protect your health and by reducing tension and anxiety.

Sales hype? No. This is not an advert for some super expensive brain training, “meditate like a zen monk in seconds”, program. This is just a short list of the known benefits of regular spells of meditation or relaxation.

It’s simple. Your nervous system benefits enormously from being consciously invited to stand down. When you are rushing around, your brain is in a reactive, and often defensive state; when you take a few minutes to relax, you give your brain a genuine break and it sends signals all over your body to stand at ease, and the benefits of this are priceless.





Add a meditation download to your PC, iPod or MP3 player, and start enjoying the benefits of some moments of tranquility now…

Moments of Tranquility Volume 1
Beautiful Calm

16 Tracks of pure relaxation avaiblable as instant MP3 downloads or as a double CD set

find out more here

Everyone gets stressed now and then. But when stress becomes a constant presence in your life it can wreak havoc with your health, your immune system, your work performance and your relationships.

Reducing the load of stress in your life is vital if you want to feel happy and get things done. Stress can easily build and feed anxiety and addictive cravings, it can also trigger irritable outburts aimed at your loved ones.

here are 5 quick and easy ways to reduce stress and rediscover your lighter side:

1. Guided Relaxation
Let someone else lift your load, settle back and listen to a guided relaxation. Try my 5 finger qigong exercise for becoming calm and reducing anxiety here...

2. Breathe!
Discover some simple breathing exercises to relax your body and give your brain a break. Try my free relaxing breath meditation or get serious results with my Beautiful Calm meditation and relaxation audio set here

3. Discover Meditation
Get some feel-good brain chemicals floating through your veins by investing a few minutes each day in meditation. Download my FREE meditation ebook for 9 simple exercises in meditation and relaxation.

4. Walk off Your Worries
Walking is still one of the easiest and most beneficial ways to give yourself a break from stress. Burn of adrenaline, stretch and relax your muscles, and allow your mind to mull things over and get clear and calm as you wander through woods, a park, or even round the block.

5. Try Hypnosis
Try my free relaxation hypnosis download - over 10,000 people have listened to this 10 minute guided exercise in deep breathing and relaxation - join them and give yourself a rest from stress today.




Have you got your free copy of my Beautiful Calm meditation ebook yet?


Related artilces you might enjoy:

Stress Relief Techniques: 5 Things I Learned from Spying on Calm People

Simple Acts of Calm: Take Your Mind on a Mini Break