What follows in this blog post is the text of the abdominal breathing meditation which I have recorded as the June 25th, 2009 Podcast. Feel free to either listen to my recording or make your own. As well, read through the text below to get a feel for what you can do to calm yourself down during the day.

Close your eyes now and get nice and comfortable... First thing I would like you to do is to just become aware of your physical body. Notice your feet, how and where they touch the floor. Notice, as well, how you are sitting in your chair, where your body touches the chair and the placement of your arms...

And now become aware, as well, of your whole body. Do a body-scan from the top of your head down to the bottoms of your feet. Just notice if there are any areas that are tight or tense or sore. Or maybe there are areas that feel relaxed. Just have an awareness, not a judgment. Just an awareness of how your body feels.....

Become aware, as well, of your mood, just an awareness of it, don't try to change it.... And your energy level, just an awareness, an objective awareness of how you are right now.

And now I would like you to place your attention on your abdomen and your breathing. I would like you to notice as you breathe in that your abdomen expands slightly. And as you exhale, your abdomen contracts slightly. Now don't force a change in your breathing pattern in order to expand your abdomen; I'm not asking you to change anything, just notice it. Breathing in, the abdomen expands slightly. Breathing out, exhaling, the abdomen contracts, slightly.

So just continue to be aware of your breath, your breathing, your abdomen expanding and your abdomen contracting. Just have an awareness of your breath, your breathing. If there are any distractions or noises that you might hear in the background or foreground, just ignore them. Any thoughts that may come to your mind now; just ignore them, they are not important. Or even any emotions that might bubble up; just ignore them, let them go, let yourself be still and let yourself be quiet.

What I would like you to do now is to begin to see if you can do ten full breaths, a full breath is one inhalation and one exhalation, without getting lost in your thoughts. Find your own rhythm and just see if you can do ten full breaths without losing track. Breathing in, breathing out, without getting lost in your thoughts, emotions or any distractions. Just be present within the stillness of yourself, for it is in that stillness that you will find the real you, that is, a human "being" and not a human "doing."

Continue counting your inhalations and your exhalations. If you lose count and don't make it to ten, that's fine. Start again and start counting all over again. Some thoughts or emotions may make it into your awareness as you do this, but just ignore them and keep counting your breath. Just do you best to keep your primary awareness on your breath. Allow everything else to fade away to recede.

If you get to ten, then just continue counting beyond the ten, just counting the breath, keeping your focus on your abdomen. When you focus on your abdomen and count your breath, it helps to calm you down. It draws the energies down that are bouncing around in your head and grounds them in your belly so to speak. This is a great breath to do whenever you feel anxious, worried or just plain hyper. Just breathe in and breathe out and note the rise and fall of your abdomen as you do.

As you continue, you might even notice or feel that your breathing has become deeper and slower. Your blood pressure is going down and your pulse is slowing. You are releasing relaxation hormones into your blood stream. Physiologically you have made a significant change in your blood chemistry in just these few minutes. Whereas before you may have been in a fight or flight state and your body was tense and poised to run or attack and filled with stress hormones, now you are in a relaxed state, a peaceful state, a healing state. Continue the counting of the breath, the inhalation and the exhalation for a few more breaths....

And now you can begin to let go of your focus on your breath... Make note of what your mood is now.... What your energy level feels like... As you did at the beginning just do a quick body scan from head to toe and just feel, sense, see how your body is doing now....And now become aware of your feet, your abdomen, your chest, your hands, your head, your breathing and your breath. Take a few conscious breaths and begin to come up and out. When you are ready you can begin to open your eyes, with a soft focus, so much more relaxed, so much more at peace, than when we began.

This is Part XXII of a twenty-two part blog.

Hope that you have enjoyed this mini-course on meditation. Wishing you all the best!

Peace be with you!

Yanni

Please go to the following link if you have interest in my award winning book on Meditation and Intuition: http://www.MagicalKeystoSelfMastery.com/

As well, if you have interest in my Meditation CDs, please go to the following link:
http://www.LearnMastery.com/AudioTapesByYanni.htm

What follows are some suggestions on how to prepare to sit in a formal meditation:

Now, in terms of how you sit or what you do when you meditate, the most important thing is to make sure you are comfortable. If you have the flexibility to go into the yoga lotus or the half-lotus position, then certainly do so. If you don't have the flexibility, then I would not suggest you do that. You can meditate very effectively sitting comfortably in straight backed chair. This is the way I do it all the time.

Just sit up straight with you spine erect, but not rigid. It is best that your legs are on the ground and are not crossed. Your hands are in your lap, palms up or down, whatever is most comfortable for you. If at any point during the meditation you are uncomfortable, then shift. Move around a bit. If you need to cough, do so. Don't spend ten minutes suppressing a cough or being physically uncomfortable and then conclude that you can't meditate. As well, breathe in and out of your nostrils and not your mouth.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure you are comfortable while you are doing meditation. I might add, though, not so comfortable that you fall asleep. By the way, I do not recommend that you lie on the floor or a bed when you meditate because you are very likely to fall asleep. Lie down only if you have a significant back problem. So, again, the idea is to be as comfortable as possible, yet still alert; and, most importantly, enjoy the experience of "being" with yourself.

Also, make sure that wherever you do the meditation is quiet and let all your "significant others" know that this is your quiet time to take care of yourself.

On my next podcast of June 25,2009 I will lead you in a guided abdominal breathing meditation.

This is Part XXI of a twenty-two part blog.

Please go to the following link if you have interest in my award winning book on Meditation and Intuition: http://www.MagicalKeystoSelfMastery.com/

As well, if you have interest in my Meditation CDs, please go to the following link:
http://www.LearnMastery.com/AudioTapesByYanni.htm

In conclusion, regarding the many different meditation techniques that are out there, I have been teaching meditation for twenty years and practicing for forty. From my point of view every type or school of meditation is just a technique. Whatever you are most comfortable with and whatever works best for you is the right one for you to do. That is my take on it. So, if a technique works for you, it is the right one! And if at times you need to change the type of meditation you are doing, then certainly do so.

But I have found that working with the breath is the place most meditative traditions begin and that is why I am focusing on it in this mini-course. If you can master this one simple technique, you are well on your way to a much more health full and peace full life.

And finally, I have come to see that meditation is the greatest tool or gift that I have been given in my life because it has taught me to find the deep well of peace that dwells within me and to discover the ground to my Being. It has taught me to be the Master of my mind and thus the Master of my life. It has taught me how to come to know my Self, that is, my Higher Self--my "most significant other."

There is so much more I can say, but I hope this brief introduction to meditation has been helpful.

Blessings and Peace!

Remember: Peace of Mind is a Breath or a Thought or an Image Away

In the next blog post, number XXI, I share with you directions on how best to meditate. In the concluding blog post, number XXII, I post the text of a 5-6 minute abdominal breathing meditation that I have recorded for the June 25, 2009 podcast. EnJoy!

This is Part XX of a twenty-two part blog.

Please go to the following link if you have interest in my award winning book on Meditation and Intuition: http://www.MagicalKeystoSelfMastery.com/

As well, if you have interest in my Meditation CDs, please go to the following link:
http://www.LearnMastery.com/AudioTapesByYanni.htm

So, again, as I mentioned earlier, meditation is very much like the numerous personal hygiene habits that you already practice such as taking a shower, brushing and flossing your teeth, washing your clothes and keeping your house clean. Meditation is like taking your daily shower or keeping the house of your mind clean. I would not go without doing this.

When you hands are dirty, do you wash them? When your thoughts are junky, do you clean them up? Why not?

Lastly, I would like to address an issue that comes up a lot for people who are beginning to meditate or starting up again. One of the things they often say to me is how can I find any more time in my already jam packed day to do this - it is going to stress me out even more?

Again, as I mentioned earlier there is enough time in the day. There really is! You don't have to sit in meditation for an hour--though if you want to, you certainly can--but you can find time to meditate in the car or when you waiting in line or in those in between times in your day. You just have to remember.

Give yourself a break from all your incessant thinking to calm down and refresh your mind and body. As you build this habit into your life, you will come back to it more and more because it gives you life and energy.

In time, more and more you will learn to respond from a place of a deep conscious full breath, rather than from a place of hyperventilation. You cannot have a negative emotion or thought when you are breathing deeply and fully. Your mind is as clear as it can be when you are breathing fully and deeply.

So, why not live your life clear? Why not live your life with your brain having as much oxygen as possible so that you can make decisions with all of its capacity engaged? As well, you can be physiologically a lot less tense and so much relaxed and balanced.

This is Part XIX of a twenty-two part blog.

Please go to the following link if you have interest in my award winning book on Meditation and Intuition: http://www.MagicalKeystoSelfMastery.com/

As well, if you have interest in my Meditation CDs, please go to the following link:
http://www.LearnMastery.com/AudioTapesByYanni.htm

Let me be clear, though. I am not saying don't get angry. Situations arise where anger is appropriate. But what should you do with your anger? Anger is really a trigger for you to take action, which is either to get out of the situation or to express yourself appropriately. But when anger arises it is not good to hold the anger in and do nothing with it because then it burns you up inside and implodes within you or you eventually explode it out there in an inappropriate manner. So you either implode it within you or explode out. Or you deal with it appropriately.

When you feel anger, take ten deep breaths and then decide the appropriate action to take. Don't be angry and act angry. First be aware you are angry, take it as a cue to take action, take ten deep breaths and then act appropriately. Find an appropriate way to express what is important to you or wait for an appropriate time to express it.

Stephen Covey the author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" explains that between every stimulus and every response, there is always at least a brief lapse of time. The gift of what you learn with meditation is to increase that amount of time between the stimulus and your response so that you can make a conscious, volitional, intentional, effective, intelligent response rather than a habitual, spur of the moment one that can get you in trouble.

This applies not only to your interactions with another person, but also relative to yourself. Sometimes we get caught up in negative mental patterns either about another person or about ourselves. But if you just notice you are doing this and stop and say to yourself, "Whoa, wait a minute, what good is this doing me?" Then you can literally change your whole physiology, your blood chemistry and, as well, take the most appropriate action. You can stop and take ten deep breaths and then decide what action to take. In this way, you neither internalize nor externalize what you are feeling or thinking in an inappropriate way.

This is Part XVIII of a twenty-two part blog.

Please go to the following link if you have interest in my award winning book on Meditation and Intuition: http://www.MagicalKeystoSelfMastery.com/

As well, if you have interest in my Meditation CDs, please go to the following link:
http://www.LearnMastery.com/AudioTapesByYanni.htm